Sight Upgrade for 580 & 581 Mini's

[cajungeo]

A big thanks to Walkenbear, and Bill in TX for this tip.

Quote from Walkenbear:
Thought I would pass this info on.

I talked to the folks at XS sights, I thought that they made the rear sight on the new 580 (mini 14) & 581 (mini 30) ranch rifles. Well I was right in part, they make the peep sight part. I asked if the peep sights for the other mini ranch rifles (older style) they sell would fit on the new 580 & 581 series mini's because I found the ruger furnished peep to small at .094". They said no those won't fit because the stem is to short, but they have some that DO FIT THE NEW STYLE REAR SIGHT, they offer it in 3 other sizes .150", .191", & .230". They said when ordering to make sure to ask for the long stem peep in either .150, .191, or .230 inch openings. The longer stem version fits the new ruger rear sight.

The cost they quoted was $12 for each peep & $8 shipping or $20 total for 1 peep $32 for both. Personally I find the .230 a little too large. The .150 size sounds like the hot ticket to me. The .191 size gives a really nice ghost ring sight picture. The picture below is of the NRA ruger sight and the other two size peeps for comparison.


http://www.xssights.com/

Attached Imageshttp://www.perfectunion.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=13329&stc=1&d=1212547075

[cajungeo]

Quote from Bill in TX:

XS may not list it as a sight specifically for the Mini, but they also offer a threaded rear sight aperture that fits the 580 series sights. It has the standard threading for any of the thread-in peep sights (I forget what it is at the moment, but it's small and very fine).

I bought one of the long-stem threaded apertures and screwed a Merit No 4 Hunting Disk sight into it. For me it's the best of all worlds. I get a big, unobtrusive ghost ring for those times when the Mini is behind the bedroom door, yet I can dial it down to a very small peep sight (actually smaller than my old eyes can see through) when I want to take the Mini out at the 100 yd range. No muss, no fuss just turn that rear dial up or down.

I actually use the Merit Hunting Disc 4LS. The LS is for Long Stem as I wanted to be sure that the disc itself would be outside the little protective wings of the rear sight when fully screwed into the threaded aperture post from XS.

I bought the original threaded XS post/aperture at Brownells. They have a whole collection of them in various openings, as well as the threaded one.

On my first range trip I discovered that I couldn't quite get the rear sight elevation that I needed. THis may have been caused by the fact that I'm also using the XS front sight assembly for the 580 series. The top of that sight is (by my measure) a shade less than 0.1" taller than the original sight.

A quick call to XS and they had a long-stem threaded post/aperture on the way. Both threaded posts/apertures are just drop-in replacements for the original Mini aperture post in the 580 series.

Just so the above is not too confusing, I have a long-stem threaded aperture/ post from XS replacing the original aperture and also a long-stem Merit #4 sight disc screwed into that.

At some point I plan to post pics of the set-up, but without a digital camera I've waited until I have enough stuff to do a whole film roll and get a CD made.

It's not only interesting, but very effective for me. You might ask your contact at XS about the threaded aperture/post if you talk with him again.
http://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html