Marlin 795 and Tech Sights

[DanT]

Got to looking at my Marlin today, wondering why the rear sight had to be all the way over to the left and all the way down to come close to hitting POA.  About then I noticed the front sight seemed to be canted left - appeared to be about 5-10 degrees (eyeball protractor).  Took the front sight off, examined everything & discovered no slop, no "room for adjustment", and when the sight was replaced it went right back where it had been before... no adjustment to the rear sight was necessary.  The rear sight seems to be installed correctly - square with the receiver and tight.

Seems odd to me, has anyone else run across this situation?  Should I get a low-power scope & forget the Tech Sights?

[marrandy]

If its local, take it back for an exchange ans test whilst you are there.

If it was bought long distance, call Marlin.

[Pvt.Joker]

I have three of these little rifles, and just shot a 241 with one of them. my sights are similarly aligned, with the rear being somewhat biased toward the left side. Doesn't seem to hurt anything. keep in mind it's a training rifle, not a battle rifle.  Having an ideal BSZ is really not important. If I were going to correct this, I suspect I'd be inclined to try either rotating the barrel or repositioning the front sight to compensate and center the rear.

HTH!

[fprintf]

You can find out a lot about these rifles on the Marlin semi-automatic forum on rimfirecentral.com

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=217

The problem is actually more likely that your rear sights are canted combined with the front sights being off. I know on my rifle the front sights were off just a little bit but when compared to the rear sight it seemed they were off a whole lot worse. It was a point-of-view thing, the canted rear sight made it look worse.

A canted and oversized dovetail is a known problem with the 795 and definitely affects the Tech-Sights because it doesn't allow the sights to sit flush - tightening the screw makes one side lift up. My first solution was file the dovetail down using a standard triangular file from Home Depot that I had ground the ridges off one side. The second thing was to add a very small metal shim under one side of the rear sight. It was fine before I fixed it, now it just suits me a bit better that the rear sight isn't so far to the left (though still not centered).

Note: be careful with the screw that goes into the clamp on the rear Tech-Sight. I used Loctite blue and the screw completely broke with very little pressure. This screw is definitely the weak part of the link, unfortunately it uses an odd thread pitch that you cannot buy locally. I am definitely going to order some so I have them in my toolbox!

[dond]

I've had the same trouble on my loaner rifle. Since the rear sight was so far to the left, it proved to be too difficult to make adjustments on it for different shooters. I just took it off and put a scope on it.

[DanT]

Looking again I see the rear sight is canted slightly up on the left side, which would account for the apparent tilt of the front sight as well as needing to set the adjustments to extreme left and down to enable shooting to POA.  Close examination shows that the movable portion of the rear sight is not seating completely in the dovetail, as if the interior angle was rounded off instead of being sharply defined, leading me to think the problem might be solved by either increasing the depth of the dovetail (by filing away at it) or by filing off the tip of the movable portion until the sight sits square on the receiver.  Of the two options the second seems to be more readily accomplished as well as cheaper to recover from should it not work out just right.  What say ye, O founts of wisdom and experience?

Many thanks to all for advice and direction!

[TN_Dadx5]

I have a Marlin 795 and my rail is botched up also.  I tried everything that I learned at rimfirecentral, but the width of the rail isn't the problem.  The height of the two sides aren't equal so I used a file to even out the rail but the tech sight still canted.  the problem with mine is that the top of the right side rail (ejection port side) is not level and coplanar with the left side.  I had to shim the right side to get the tech sight to be level to the receiver.  Some people have used a soda can, I had to use some roof flashing.  It's not pretty, but it works.

Charlie

[jknitts]

I had (have) the same problem with my 795.  I returned the rifle to Dicks and I looked at every 795 they had in stock.  The receivers were the same on all of them, but the front sights varied in alignment.  I picked the best of the bunch and exchanged the rifle.  I shimed the rear sight and broke one of the mounting screws trying to get it as tight as I could.  Tech-sights sent me a new screw @ no charge.  I Installed the rear with less torque and the rear sight fell off @ my first AS on day 2.  Fortunately, my wife was done shooting for the day, so I finished up with my 10/22.  I wound up installing a scope on this gun.  My daughter shot it at last weekends AS.  It is unfortunate they have this problem.  I have found the 795 to shoot tighter groups than the 10/22.  If they could get the receiver / front sights straightened out and if the mags weren't so hard to drop, I would probably prefer it to the 10/22.

[DanT]

Got a bit antsy this afternoon & went ahead and took a file to the dovetail area... figured making the rifle right for whatever mounted to it was higher priority (to me, anyway) than putting a bandaid on it (so to speak).

Took fprintf's approach - found a small file cut in a triangular shape that approximated a 30-60 triangle, used it to reduce the size of the left side to where it was pretty doggoned close to the same as the right then used the tip of the file to remove the curve from the inside angle. 

When installed the sight base is still (barely) elevated above the dovetail, but the gap appears uniform and the front sight appears to be centered (once the peep was returned to center).  Gonna find out tomorrow or Saturday what difference it made from a practical standpoint... wish me luck.

[DanT]

Got to try things out earlier today... some improvement but still not where it should be.

Here's the situation:

Distance: approximately 25 meters (+ or - 2 feet)
Target: Fred's 2nd Stage targets
POA: center of V
Firing from support - rifle forearm braced against open door frame (cab side) of an F350
Wind: 10-14 mph coming from left quarter

The rear sight is still very much on the left side, although not quite all the way over, and I am now able to adjust the elevation.  My best group of three shots was a vertical string 2" x 1/2" centered about 1" above the V, a friend (much better shot in general) had a 1/2" group centered approximately 1/2" above the V.

At this point I should probably leave well enough alone, and that's likely what will happen... at least for a while.  This "tinkering bug" sometimes gets the best of me.

[Hack Ptui]

DanT, I bought one of these guns recently, and it's got the exact same problem.  The front sight is canted so far to the left, I don't see how anyone could shoot it straight.  I put the Tech Sights on, and it helped--I could at least shoot a zero at 15 yards, but my rear sight is all the way left and down.

I unfortunately made the mistake of buying it from Academy, with their no-exchange/return policy, so I sent it back for warranty work.  We'll see if Marlin will make it good.

What a piece of crap, though.  And to think that after rifle+mags ($30 mags??), I could have spent the same on a 10/22 and been better off.

[fprintf]

What a piece of crap, though.  And to think that after rifle+mags ($30 mags??), I could have spent the same on a 10/22 and been better off.

Well if you spent $30 apiece on mags then you got ripped off. $15 apiece is normal online. Using $15 apiece for mags, with a little work I think most will agree that the 795 easily exceeds the value received by purchasing a 10/22. $250 or so to build up a full LTR including magazines vs. $200 for just a 10/22.

[Heimdhal]

Mags are the big draw back, but I scoped my marlin 795, got 4 or 5 mags and Im still well under the cost of a ruger 10/22.

Mines works just fine.  The stock sights sucked, which is why I went with a scope, but I'd feel just as confident with tech sights as I have shot other marlines with tech sights well.

Its an LTR.  Use it to get your patch then pass it down and get your patch a few times with a centerfire.  Once you can consistently score riflemen, go back to the LTR to work on the fundamentals with the cheap .22 ammo.

Ive got thousands of rounds down my marlin 795 and its never missed a beat.  Many can say the same about a 10/22 as well.

[Hack Ptui]

fprintf, all the places I saw online were out of stock at that price.  The only place I found in stock was Brownell's, for $30.99.  After I saw your post, I got encouraged, and did a little more digging.  I think I've found a source at a good price.  Thanks!

With all the out-of-stocks, I would imagine this Appleseed project is generating a lot of demand for this rifle...

[vernic82]

Marlin's in the process of moving out of CT to NYS.

795's and mags are getting harder to find in the short term as is almost everything Marlin.

I have 3 new ones I found from the last wholesaler I have who has any in stock - $14.50 each

I can stuff 3 (possibly 4 or 5) when taken out of the plastic vend case into a flat rate USPS box for an additional $4.95

PS - Warranty service/replacment in the firearms industry is and always has been direct to the manufacturer, not through the dealer.  That's why it's REAL important to fill out & send in that little card that comes in the box with your new toy.

[TN_Dadx5]

CDNN Sports has 7 round mags
http://www.cdnninvestments.com/mapo96227rds.html
These are for rifles made after 1996, they also have them for before 96.
I hope that this helps.

[Hack Ptui]

Since I was badmouthing this rifle earlier in this thread, it's only right that I post a follow-up with a more informed opinion.  I got my 795 back from Marlin, where they straightened out the sights, bought a pile of cheap mags, and procured a sling from the Appleseed store.  After putting the tech-sites back on and taking it to the range, I shot a (self-scored) AQT using some bulk Remington ammo.  My first shoot, I scored a 188.  Re-zeroed the sights, made a few other adjustments to my stance, and stuff, and next time I shot it, I got a 213.

I'm very encouraged, and impressed with this rifle.  I'd sure like to see what it could do with some higher quality ammo.  I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a cheap way to get out to an Appleseed shoot.  Just make sure you check the sights before you buy. :-)

Looks like I'm ready now for the Davilla TX Appleseed June 11, and I'll be taking my 14 year old son with me. 
We're really looking forward to it!