1898 carbine sight---??

[dave]

I have a c marked 1998 sight which has been modified to 1902 style, rounded off and "sargents" peep added. Did they do this to 98 carbine sights? The base seems to be faked, little less the 3/8" at hi point of arch, which looks to be too high! Is there any way to tell if the Leaf is correct, other then the c, which looks correct? The c on base also looks correct as to size and matches the eye piece c and both appear the same as Brophy pictures! I have never seen such small stamps made for the general public, tho I do not rule that out.

[Dick Hosmer]

They may have reused the leaf and eyepiece, but not the bases. All leaves have same basic line spacing - elevation required (a factor of the physical trajectory) was obtained by varying the base curves. The (1898) bases for the "hot" 2200 fps ammo would not work, at all, with the later 2000 fps stuff.

Don't have sights handy, so cannot tell where 3/8" sits, but the 98C base is just below the leaf, and the 02C base is only slightly above it.

1898C bases are marked on the right side, but at least some 1902C bases are marked on the left. Neither carbine base could ever be confused with the rifle variety, both of which are quite a bit above the leaf.

[madsenshooter]

The C on a 98 eyepiece I have is .081" high. Base marked on the right, and with the eyepiece all the way down, the leaf is .032" above the ramp. A lot of these sight parts were bought surplus and put together anyway they could be. I get .450" for the height of the ramp above the bottom of the base.

[Kragrifle]

I have a rifle sight with the rounded off 1898 leaf and a high arch 1902 rifle sight. Almost anything goes with these sights as they were altered both by Springfield and a number of parts dealers over the years. One such former resident of Gettysburg would bring burlap bags of sights to the gun shows and build sights sitting at the table. Two ways to tell if the C is legit. First look at the underside of the base. A 1902 will have one cut out, the 1898 two. Next, if the C has been added, generally you will see a "halo" around the letter where the metal was raised when the hammer struck. Of course, the sight could have legitimate parts, but to my knowledge this sight was never used by Springfield in any rebuild. The toughest gun to find is a real 1902 dated carbine, if they exist at all. The 1902 sight was for refits only, with 1000 being produced.