Raising the target sights on a FWB 300s Universal

I hate to do this as we are all of different shapes but bring your forehand in tight to the trigger group to raise the barrel a bit maybe?

sure they make front and rear risers

http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=17529152

an eye cups make a difference also

http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=G806

adjustable iris is handy

http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=G806

these might fit

http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=19915901

shop around

no, I forgot about the different front sight on the 300's

Gehmann makes and offset iris

https://gehmann.com/english/products.php?id=194&kategorie=23

I have no idea how it would work with your head position and they are not cheap, they are made for a right or left hand shooter using his weak eye to sight with but it could be used as a riser but the part, would it work is a gamble as best

just short of scoping the rifle, there might not be a fix

the 300's came with 3 different front sight setups and one had a dovetail mounted front sight the other 2 were barrel weight sight combos 

the parts diagram shows no riser and only one rear sight

https://www.feinwerkbau.de/en/Service-Download/Exploded-drawings

I understand the problem but at this time I have not found a solution and I don't have a 300 to work with

but in reality if you can't raise the front, you can't raise the rear and you are stuck where you are

here is just an idea, not a cheap one but an idea

https://rilesmachine.com/products/

several companies make these type of front sight, you would have to rework the front of the rifle, find something that fit and take a gamble it would work and all of that would not be cheap but that just me

all I got good luck

mike

You need to raise both sights. Let me start by saying, I don’t have a good answer on how to do that! But here are a few notes that may help clarify what you’re looking for.

You describe the gun as a “300S Universal,” but it sounds like you have the standard “Match” model to me. The true U had an adjustable-height cheekpiece, and a dovetail-mounted front sight. Most U’s were supplied with two different cheek pieces (low and high), two different front sights (short and tall), and a removable riser for the rear sight.

The front sight on most 300S’s is not fixed, but held on by a stout round pin with a tapered side. If you look closely at each end of the pin, you will see a small gap underneath it on the right side of the gun. Tap on that end, the pin will come out easily, and you can pull the sight off (be sure to turn the pin’s tapered side the same way when re-installing, or the sight will have a serious “lean” to it!). Unfortunately, I don’t know of a taller sight made with this mount.

The 300S actually has a rather skinny 15mm diameter barrel, but most of them have a full-length sleeve weight epoxied into place. The sleeve is fatter at the muzzle end which gives the appearance of a separate weight. It cannot be removed short of heating the whole barrel enough to break the bond of the epoxy (not something THiS old guy is gonna try any time soon, LOL).

As you have discovered, FWB sights do not have the standard 11mm dovetail width, but are about 11.5mm wide (which is VERY frequently mis-stated by people selling sights!). You will have to get an original Feinwerkbau rear sight riser.

So the expensive solution might be to find yourself a real “Universal?” Maybe using the high sights with the low cheekpiece would to the trick. A more practical path, though, may be it find a machinist to convert your front sight to something like those in marflow’s nifty link, and buy the correct riser for the rear sight.

Take a look here to see the different variations of the 300S series:

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/feinwerkbau-rifles/feinwerkbau-modell-300s/

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/feinwerkbau-rifles/feinwerkbau-modell-300su-universal/

Hi. Many if not most Olympic style shooters will be using some degree of cant to bring the sights to the eye while keeping the head erect. The rifle is simply rotated CCW a few degrees until the sights are aligned with the eye. This is considered preferable to keeping the rifle vertical and laying the head over on top of the stock for reasons of position balance and stability. If you look at the current Anschutz sight sets you will see that both front and rear can rotate in their mounts to allow the sights to remain vertical while the rifle is canted.

I have a 300s myself, and although the rear sight can not be rotated, the front sight will accept 18mm adjustable front sights which can be set at any desired angle. I use a Gehmann with the horizontal bar and set it so the bar is truly horizontal at my cant angle. The bar can then be used to maintain a consistent cant angle by making sure it is square to the target. It is easier than it sounds, and to be honest, variation in cant angle is the least of my problems. If you are always shooting at the same distance, once sighted in there is no particular benefit to a cant adjustable rear sight.

Of course you don't need the adjustable front sight to experiment with cant to see if it solves your problem. I think the chances are very good that it will.

If not, you can trim off a little wood from the cheekpiece, seal it with wiping finish and tell yourself you will refinish it properly some day when you have the time.

From your latest post, it seems you do have the front sight that is dovetailed onto the sight base. So elevating the sights comes down to finding some original riser blocks, or modifying something similar to fit the FWB.

Finally, it is your rifle and certainly not the last 300s in existence. They are meant to be used, so don't be afraid to modify it to fit your needs. Heresy!

Let us know how it all works out.

MDriskill, Thanks for the response!! I believe my gun is indeed a Universal as it has an adjustable cheek piece and says "universal" on the receiver. I bought it used without the original box so it may have had the extra cheek piece and sight risers when new but are probably long gone as it is an 1984 model and who knows how many owners it has had in that time. The front sight is attached to the barrel weight which is held on with the tapered pin as you describe. I would think finding the original parts that you said come with the gun would be next to impossible to find at this late date. I had thought about cutting the cheek piece down but the gun is in pretty nice shape and didn't want to devalue it, that being said I have no plans of getting rid of it. Thank's Again for the Info!! J.L.

Click to expand...

Your problem may be as simple as you are using the “high” Universal cheekpiece, with the low sight setup. I doubt seriously that your face is that far out of spec, LOL!

I may not have made clear that on the standard gun, the sight housing is cast as a single piece with the part covering the muzzle. On the “U,” the sight housing is a separate piece from the muzzle cap.

I’m still rather confused about the combination of features on your gun, though. Can you post photos of it? I’ve never seen a “U” without the dovetail from sight, and again they came with two front sights. It sounds like yours might be a standard action in a Universal stock. Which points out two possible solutions:

1. Find an original “low” Universal cheekpiece. Yes, they are out there, though it may take a while to track one down. Or maybe you could have one made.

2. Buy a standard stock! Again, you will have to run a classified and hunt around to find one, but not too big a deal.

Here is my complete Universal v1 setup, note the hight front sight installed and for the low setup I use the one that is on the bottom middle of the picture. The rear sight is already sitting on its spacer to compensate for the hight front sight but easily be removed to use with the low front sight. The high cheek piece is installed and the low one is again picture below. 

OK, one more try at fixing my clumsy explanations.

This is a sight from an early FWB 300, also used later on the 300S Junior. The short muzzle cap and sight tunnel are a single piece. It’s held on by the transverse pin on top of the barrel, under the sight. Note this gun has no barrel sleeve, you can see how narrow the barrel is.





This is a sight from an early (1974) standard 300S. The muzzle cap is longer, but the sight tunnel the same, and again it’s all one piece held on by the pin. This gun has a sleeve with the fat end, like yours.





Finally, this is the sight from a 300S Universal. The muzzle cap and sight are separate pieces. The cap is again held on by a pin - but under the barrel this time - and the sight clamps to a dovetail on the cap. The high sight is mounted on the gun, with the low sight seen in front. I believe on later standard models, the one-piece sight/cap was also pinned at the bottom.

Fixed globe with pin on the bottom. From 1984.

To help identify which cheekpiece you have, on my standard 300s if you extend a line flush with the top of the stock back over the cheekpiece, the top of the cheekpiece on my gun is 0.4" below that line. Contrast that with DualMag's picture where the top of the high cheekpiece rises a little above the top of the stock. What I am terming the top of the stock is the top of the wood surrounding the receiver that is at the same level as the flap of metal extending back off the receiver cap.

OK, it appears we have settled your issue: you have a standard (low) front sight, in a Universal stock with a cheekpiece that is too high for you. You need to either find or make a lower cheekpiece; or find a taller front sight, and rear riser block.

Run a “wanted” ad on the usual airgun classifieds sites. These parts are around, but realistically it may take a while to run them down.

As mentioned in my first post above, the 300S does NOT have a separate “barrel weight.” It has a sleeve which runs the full length of the barrel, which just happens to be fatter at the muzzle end (actual barrel is 15mm in diameter; rear of the sleeve is 18mm, front of the sleeve is 24mm). 

The sleeve might slide off when you remove the front sight, but on most guns it’s epoxied on. The only way to remove it, is to heat the whole barrel enough to destroy the epoxy - a job for an expert.

I would still like to see a photo of your gun...I’m not convinced you have the low Universal cheekpiece! And if you have a true Universal action, then someone has "liberated" the correct front sight.