Baldwin/Kelly/MVA..Which sight do you like best and why?

[Gunny]

Guys, this is a real simple thing, but we are always going to have these discussions about which is best. Here is the deal as far as I "KNOW" it.

The Kelley sight that Kenny Wasserburger is talking about falling apart was mine and it was on my Meacham Highwall. this sight had always been a pain in the a^% ever since i bought it, it was just not a good quality piece. Now this was one of the first Kelley sights, does that make a difference? Well i hoped so just didn't work out that way. It took an act of God to get any thing done with this sight, finally after severeal heated phone calls and the "FACT" that someone had thrown away the sight I sent in to have fixed or repaired or whatever and they only wanted to give me $125.00 for the base as a credit. Kelley did in fact send me a new sight, this took severeal months. The new sight is certainly in better shape than the one I returned and it looks good as well. Trouble is there is so much slop in the windage barrel it is useless. There is no sense in even mounting it on a rifle.

The flip side to this coin is "MVA" At Raton when the staff actually fell off of the Kelley sight. JC Gier's Mom was standing about 15 feet away. She graps J.C. and he graps a brand new in the box MVA Long Range sight and not only brings it over to me but loans me a screw driver to install the thing. They then tell me to go ahead and finish that bank of animals and to finish the match with there sight and that I am not under any obligation what so ever to buy there sight. just use it for a couple of days and return it. Needless to say I wrote the check right then.

Steve Baldwin is also a very good man to do business with. His sights are built like a tank and are very good, The Hoke sight from the one I saw is a very well built sight as well, it is however not a "Soule" type of sight. And while it has a ton of windage it is "Not" as friendly for the silhouette shooter to use.

There is one more thing i would like to say. This does not have any thing to do with sights it has to do with people. The story i related about "MVA" is indicative of the folks at that very fine Co. They do a lot to support our sports, certainly more than any other sight Co. That alone is enough for me, and i would only buy MVA, period. There is another Co. out there that has folks that is also very similiar to MVA. Kirk Bryan and all of the folks at Shiloh will go out of there way to help any shooter at any shoot. The give away severeal thousands of dollors of Shiloh's at more than one of the shoots. But I must relate this story about Kirk and Shiloh. At the Montana State Shoot this past weekend i "HAD" to leave after Saturdays match. I say had to leave becuase if I stayed 15 min longer I was going to pick Butch Ulsher up by the scrap of his neck and launch him into a low earth orbit, I was pissed and rightly or wrongly I "Had" to leave or do something i was going to be sorry for. And the sad thing is I am one of the few people on the earth that likes Butch. I was traveling with a fel;low shooter Bob Grider and we where staying in my 5th wheel trailer at the range. I graped some clothes and LEFT FOR Missioula to spend Sunday and was going to come back on Monday to pick Bob and the trailer up and head for home. Bob being the "Old Woman" that he is was afraid I was going to have a wreck and not show up on Monday. Some of these folks just dont sem to realize that "Show Up On Monday" to a Marine means "Show Up On Monday" end of the deal. Well Bob is a Shiloh shooter and has been for years, Kirk tells him "Bob if Gunny isn't here when you are ready to leave you just take my brand new Ford Truck and drive yourself home." Folks that is the kind of people we are dealing with here, Kirk is ready, willing and able to see his Ford truck head over tyhe horizen for a fellow shooter. Shiloh and MVA the two best damn Co.s that we could ever have. Lets support them like they support us, what you say?

Gunny

[deerhuntsheatmeup]

Gunny,

Your point about supporting these companies is right on and I take this advice like it was intended. Later, David Barfield

[N2]

What makes this thread interesting to me is I'm about to order another tang sight and I've been speaking with a number of people in reard to their sights while contemplating my purchase. I've always like to try new gizmo's hence I've owned several MVA's, a Kelley, a Parts Unknown, and a couple of C. Sharps's Arms tang sights. I've seen and spoken with a number of people that used Baldwin's (I use his front sights) and a Hoke. I've never seen the Heilman sight, but I have dealt with Ron in regard to a couple of bullet mould's and he was a fair an honest gentleman.

David Barnes uses a Hoke. If you don't know David then you've missed out. He and Kent Ferrell run matches at the Mexia/Coolidge/HOTSA range south of Dallas. He's also an excellent shot who finished in the top 10 last year at Raton, won the scoped rifle and finished second in a shootoff for open sights at this years Texas State BPC Silhouette Championship. David is about as honest and forthright as the day is long and I value his opinion. He prefers the Hoke over the Baldwin he used previously because he can read the sight markings easier. He has nothing but good things to say about both sights.

The CSA's I had worked, but they weren't vernier's. Each increment was something greater than 1/1000". My familiarity with the adjustment and an MVA Hadley Cup is what made them usable.

The Parts Unknown I gave up on. The windage was a bit sloppy, but could be adjusted with spring tension. My problems with the sight were that I'm used to MVA movements and the PU's were reversed and while the elevation was marked on both sides of the sight staff, I couldn't see the mark's well enough to read them. The PU has moved on to someone with better eyesight.

I've just read Gunny's account of his problems with the Kelley. I can say I've had zero problems over the past two years with the Kelley on my 50-90. I adjusted to it easily as it's movements are the same as the MVA. IMHO it's about the best looking sight on the market. My shooting partner David Brady has had one on his 45-100 Borchardt for almost two years. The only problem he's had was when he broke the elevation thumbscrew head off while cleaning his rifle by ramming the the cleaning rod handle into it. He sent the sight back to Kelley for repairs. They repaired it and had it back in his hands within two weeks. I don't know what or if they charged him, but he received excellent service. Why the disparity with the lack of service Gunny received is beyond me. Maybe they learned something from their piss poor treatment of Gunny.

As I said earlier I will be purchasing a sight for a rifle I've had on order in the very near future. As much as I like my Kelley the new sight will be another MVA. I've had no problem with their sights one of which I've had on my 45-90 for more than five years where it's been subjected to innumerable trips in the back of my truck and many thousands of rounds. When one of MVA Soules was damaged in transport they repaired and returned it in about two weeks for a reasonable price. I recently ordered a Soule base for my Rolling Block and when that order was misprocessed in shipping (I actually received a Montana Magnum Hadley) they had a replacement base to me in three days. Their products and service are excellent and unlike many others they put their money where their mouth is in support of sport. They provided two gift certificates for the Texas State Championships last month that equated to about $1000 retail value. There will be no more dalliances with other products for me. - Nick

[Dave Shaw]

Hi guys

Just to add my bit. Steve Baldwin's front sight is worth it, as is the rear one, the spirit level is INSIDE the sight tube. Does mean that you can see it in all light conditions. I know that match and high power shooters over this side of the pond are looking into having their front sights made with the level inside the tube, for the same reasons.

Regards

Dave

[Minnesota AL]

I don't have an MVA yet, but I like the readability of their windage adjustment. I do have a MVA front wind gage, spirit level on order, so I can zero the base windage setting for a load. Setting windage based on sight correction + right bullet drift based on rifling and range, and then adding wind effect gets a little complicated.

Do you guys do it that way also?

I've used the MVA magnum size Hadley eye cup for a couple years. I like the wide adjustabilty, though I typically use only 4-5 hole sizes. I don't like that it covers the windage scale index marks unless you have the sight raised to about 300 yards. Don't know if I'd go with that eye cup again.

I have a set of Zika sights (Frank Zika, Illinois). I think he no longer makes sights. I don't care for the odd calibration of 120 points per inch (.88 moa per point). But the elevation vernier scale is huge, top to bottom, compared to other sights and allows easy 1/4 pt adjustments. The windage is a different matter with a hard to understand numbering on the barrel and 2.6 moa per revolution with three main reference lines and 24 small lines. I just turn the barrel in 1/3 revolution increments and work with each being about .8 - .9 moa. I guess Zika's intent was to duplicate the original soule sight adjustments.

[DL]

I did what I consider a fair amount of research prior to ordering my 45-110. I did even more before deciding on the sights. Without a doubt hands down decision on the two were Shiloh for the 45-110 and MVA for the sights. I wrote the checks and have not looked back. If you have high expectations on what you shoot and how well you shoot then do the research and don’t be afraid to spend the extra money if needed to get good quality equipment. It’s cheaper in the long run. Now if I can only hurry up the calendar to get Oct here I’ll be a happy camper.

[Frank]

I have seen and used most all of them. MVA are good but I think the Baldwin sights are better. I will stay with the Baldwin sights I have on my Shiloh Sharps, Remington Rolling Block and High Walls. I use Baldwin on both ends of the rifles. Steve Baldwin is also a great person to talk with.

Frank Costa