Thank you for all the information and knowledge on the site!!
My first post/question is regarding sights. My Hepburn has an original mid-range vernier sight and a beat up (and quite ugly) fixed rear barrel sight. In the search for a replacement barrel sight that would be somewhat correct, I stumbled across a Model 12-C at a local gun shop with a King (patent 1907) folding leaf sight on it. It was perfect for the Hepburn, and I proceeded to scour the internet for the same sight, even calling a few "secret" vintage sight guys I know. No luck. Nada.
So I bought the Model 12
. It also has the Lyman tang sight and Lyman front sight. The price was little more than the value of the sights, I think. So...now to my question:How rare is this sight and does anyone know where I can find another one?
The reason: I really like the Model 12 and after visiting this sight I learned that the King sight is original to the rifle (I originally thought it was a replacement). In fact, David Fagan's beautiful M12 has the exact same sight set up (except the leaf is missing).
So now I still want one for the Hepburn, but I would like to leave the M12 alone.
I'm going to post a similar topic in the pre-1898 section, so forgive the redundancy. I don't how much cross-over there is.
Wow...long first post. Anyway, thanks in advance for your help.