Marbles or MVA tang sight?

[PEteacher]

Marbles or MVA?

On two of my Shiloh’s I have MVA vernier style sights, a simple 133 and a 101 mid-range Soule. Very happy with both.

On my third Shiloh I would like a tang sight that is completely out of the way when folded down so I can opt to use the barrel rear sight. I believe this can be done with the Marbles tang sights and the MVA Combination Rear Sight. From photos, the MVA looks much more solid. The Marbles is adjustable for windage and the MVA does not appear to be so. I don’t need windage adjustment because it will be used for hunting and plinking, not long range targets. The MVA costs more, but since I have invested in Shilohs I am obviously glad to pay more for better quality, if this is the case with these sights.

I have used the current version of the Lyman in this style on a 94 Winchester, and it was not very durable.

Does anyone have experience / opinions on the Marbles vs. the MVA Combination Rear Sight whet used on Sharps?

As always, thanks for your thoughts,
Jeff

[Bulseyetom]

Modern Marble Sights have lots of slop in them in my opinion. I have an old Marble sight that I really like and the MVA looks like it is built to the old standards and would be my choice. Tom

[George Babits]

I have a Marbles sight on one of my Shilohs because it was on it when I got it. It is OK and a decent hunting sight. But, I will eventually replace it with one from MVA. I have another of the newer Marbles sights on one of my #2 Remington rolling blocks and it is really sloppy. All my Winchesters have original Marbles or Lyman tang sights and they are 2 orders of magnitude better than the new Lyman and Marbles versions. Having never used one of the MVA "flip up" sights I can't really comment on them, but I have 3 MVA vernier sights on other Sharps rifles and they pretty hard to beat.

George

[Luke]

Won't the 133 fold forward out of the way for barrel sights? And the sight base could be used for more sophisticated Verniers if wanted.

[77 sharps]

I used the Marbles standard tang sight on my hunting rifle for a couple of seasons and it worked very well. The only down side was that I could not tell at a glance if it had been accidentally adjusted. I now use the MVA 130 on several hunting rifles. Very quick to adjust and can check setting in a glance.

[PEteacher]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Just as it seemed with the Lyman that wasn’t durable, it sounds like quality has degraded over the years with the Marbles. That’s what I was afraid of. Looks like I’ll be making a call to MVA. I am fine with that.

Luke, your reply caused me to check on something. I have both the regular MVA Sharps sight base and their under spring base. I checked and the MVA 133 does fold forward on both, but not enough to use the barrel sights, UNLESS you position it “just so” and the aperature is at just the right height, so you can then view the barrel sights between the two sides of the tang sight, which is not likely to be practical in the field. If I am missing something, help me out please.

Thanks,
Jeff

[77 sharps]

I tried folding the staff forward but it just doesn’t work very well. If I think I might need the vernier sight I carry it in my pocket. Looking through the staff just blocks too much view.

The marbles sight is not as tight as the MVA sight, but it is plenty accurate for any reasonable hunting range. I would use mine out to 350 yards.