Zouave sight recommendations

[RhinoDave]

Well, I finally got a chance to go out and shoot this Armi Jaeger Zouave rifle that I picked up over the Winter. I wanted to see if it would shoot patched RB since it has a fast ROT (1:32). I had .562 and .570 rb and .018 patches that I just used spit with. The .562 were a little too easy to load so I just went with the .570. This thing shot very high. The 25 yd range was full so I started out on the 50 yd and missed high on the first five shots. With fifty gr of fff I was about six inches high at 25 yds and about 14" high at fifty. Any site adjustments or other load recommendations would be appreciated. Just getting started with this gun and I am looking forward to lots of experimenting. I also need to figure out some sort of flash guard to protect the wood under the nipple. I kept coating it with crisco but it still got singed pretty good.
Target Pics.

 

[59sharps]

quickest easiest JB weld to the top of the front sight. then file as needed. or file the rear leafs as needed. S & S sells blank L leafs that skirmishers use to make target sights they are blank so u can notch or drill a peep as needed.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Most commercial made rifle come with front sights that pruposely made taller than needed, so that they can be filed down to raise the POI on your target. In the case of these replica Zuaves, unfortunately, the foreign manufacturers don't do that, and instead provide a sight similar to the EXACT sight used on these guns back when. The Average powder charge was 60 grains of what we now know as FFg powder. The quality of the powder was not what we use today. The guns were made to shoot high, even back them, because they didn't want soldiers trying to adjust a rear sight on the battle fields. They wanted these guns to hit a man-sized target out to 200 and even more yard, with the sight held on the belt buckle of the approaching enemy soldier.

This does NOT make a target shooting sight, however!

Replace the front sight. There are suppliers all over that can sell you the replacement sights. Get one with a taller blade,- say at least 1/8"-1/4" taller, and see what that does to your POI. It should come down considerably. :hatsoff:

 

[RhinoDave]

Thank you both for the suggestions. Lots of ideas left to explore. Since I'm not reinacting or competitive shooting, I may replace both sights.

 

[76monza]

Rhino,

My zouave shot high too, Paul is correct about the front sights purposely being that way. My solution to that problem was to notch out the back of the front sight and I used a soft temp plumbers solder and soldered a piece of brass rod into the notch. I went to the range, set up the bench for target shooting. I fired three shots for placement, broke out the coarse file and started filing the brass rod down. After several strokes of the file I would shoot 3 shots again. When I started getting close to my mark, I switched to a finer file and shot more frequently. At the end of the session I was able to set at the bench and put 6 shots into 2" group at 50 yards.

If you are planning on shooting in any civil war shooting competitions, this rifle may be disqualified, though. But it is a quick, durable fix that really doesn't screw up the appearance of the rifle.

Smokeydays

 

[Semisane]

I filed the front sight flat, bought a small brass nut and some matching thread machine screws from the hardware store, rounded the nut into a cone shape and soldered it to the sight. Now I can use different length screw shanks to change the height of the front sight at will - just unscrew the one that's in there and screw in a longer or shorter one.

 

[morehops]

All good advise above. When I contacted the dealer about my Zouave shooting high and inquiring about sight adjustment, he told me that since I wanted to shoot less than 200 yds, the easiest way to go was load adjustment. Keep dropping the charge by 2-3 gr until it's where you need it. You might need a different size mini as you go down in charge though.

 

[RhinoDave]

Thank you all for the ideas and suggestions. Looks like I'll be modifying the front sight. I am going to try reducing the powder charge a little before I change the sight but I don't think I can reduce the charge enough to compensate for a fourteen inch variance at 50 yds. I like the adjustable front site Semisane.