Homemade VZ2008 Peep Sight/Ghost Ring

[TJNewton]

I was researching Mojo peep sights for my VZ2008 and while I found a few who had just installed one, the only field review that came back was negative.  I contacted Mojo and asked about their return policy and they said that if the sight were installed then no return possible, and if returned uninstalled, then a 15% restocking fee.  That didn?t seem like too good a deal, especially without favorable reviews, so I thought I?d try to fab one up myself.

I drilled and tapped the factory leap spring for 10-32 thread just about 3mm in front of the rear sight notch.  The rear sight notch is left intact, and if the peep sight doesn?t work out, it?s easy to fill the hole with epoxy and paint over it.  Minimal butchering done and easy to restore to near factory condition.

The first set of pictures show a thumb screw with a hole drilled in the center and then cold-blued.  A hex nut at the base serves as both a spacer and a lock nut.  The factory slider was removed.  With the leaf sight flat on the sight block, the POA in the center of the thumb screw matches the height and POA of the factory sight set at 100 meters.  Elevation can be adjusted by adding washers under the hex nut as shims.  The shooter?s-view sight picture in the photo isn?t accurate as I had some difficulty positioning the camera and it?s far closer than the shooter?s eye would be.  The sight picture in reality is what it should be.












The second set of photos shows a sling stud repurposed.  I left the slider on and this puts the POA of the peep sight about 2mm higher than the factory leaf sight would be at the 100 meters setting.  Due to the sling stud, the slider will not lock in at any setting less than 200 meters.  I raised the front sight by four full-turns, but haven?t yet had a chance to fire the rifle and see if there?s enough elevation adjustment remaining to make practical use of the slider.  I think it will work, but it may be too high.












In case the sling stud is too high, or if I like the thumb screw better and still want elevation adjustment in the field, I?m going to try a third version with another drilled and tapped hole in the center of the leaf sight.  I?ll include a set screw, either with a slotted head or another thumb screw with the top half cut off so that it doesn?t interfere with the sight picture.  Turning the screw will easily adjust the elevation.  I don?t know if that screw will require a lock nut as the spring tension on the leaf sight may be enough to keep it from walking.  We?ll see.

The third version will have to wait.  I used a friend's drill press to make the first hole, but when I tried to make the second hole at home with an electric hand drill, I could not get through.  You can see the attempt in some of the pictures.  I don?t know why it didn?t work and I broke four drill bits.  I don?t think my friend had a special drill bit and I?d be surprised if that part of the sight were any harder than the part with the present hole.  I?ll try using the drill press at a later date. 

I?m not sure which of the two I like better.  I?ll have to shoot to decide that.  I believe that the sling stud will be a bit hardier and less likely to catch or bend.  No windage adjustment with these set ups, but there?s always the front sight for that. 

Not counting having to buy new drill bits, total cost was about $10, and that includes the sling stud and a bunch of extra hardware that will be used for future products.  The thumb screws were four for a dollar, and the sling stud can be bought online for $6-10.  In bulk, the sling studs are even cheaper per piece. 

I have been considering fabbing up some kind of peep sight that goes between the receiver and folding stock, and have seen some success online, but that?s for a later time.

I greatly appreciate any suggestions or insights.  It?s raining here for a while, but I?ll post a range report as soon as possible.

[Porterhaus]

That's a really clever solution you got there. I'd imagine the sling stud would make for a pretty good peep sight, but the big old wingnut looks like it'd be really easy to pick up. I'd love to hear how it shoots.

[osu84]

Very ingenious work!!

[TJNewton]

Thanks but I can't take credit as I've seen both done before on AK and SKS's.  The VZ58, unlike those two, unfortunately has a slider that spans the width of the sight and is blocked by the addition of the peep sight.  That puts the lowest locked setting at 200 meters, but with the additional height above the leaf sight notch, the POA is at approximately the same level as the leaf sight would be at the 500 meter setting. 

I hope that there's enough adjustment left in the front sight and hood to compensate, otherwise I'm going to have to either set the peep sight at 100 meters and use hold over, or finish the drilling and tapping of the center hole for an elevation adjustment screw.  The leaf sight notch could also be ground away and the stud or thumb screw lowered, but I'd rather not do that unless completely necessary.

[MeatAxe]

That's interesting, and a good solution to one of my few peeves about the Vz58: the stock iron sights are too low if you're using a straight (buffer tube-type) stock without straining your neck.

Looking at it, I'm thinking I might substitute the stock rear sight blade for the longer one from a RPK to extend back and lift the aperture up a few millimeters so I can actually use the irons (co-witnessed with a rear mounted red dot sight, if possible).

The RPK / AK rear sight blade seems like it should fit, more or less, and the calibration detents look to be about the same size as those on the Vz. However, it may require using a longer front sight post and cutting off the top of the front sight hood to make the front sight line up properly with the rear sight.

[TJNewton]

However, it may require using a longer front sight post and cutting off the top of the front sight hood to make the front sight line up properly with the rear sight.

If there isn't enough adjustment on the present rifle that has a closed hood, I may just switch the peep sight over to my VZ2008 that has an open hood.  I raised the front sight the same amount, as much as I could accurately measure, as the peep raised the POA.  I would think it would correlate, but there may be imperceptible angles to the receiver/barrel/sight blocks interaction that could work very much for or against the modification.

[TJNewton]

That's a really clever solution you got there. I'd imagine the sling stud would make for a pretty good peep sight, but the big old wingnut looks like it'd be really easy to pick up. I'd love to hear how it shoots.

I'm afraid that the thumb screw sight picture isn't accurate as I took the photos of that one first and didn't quite get the hang of representing the sight picture until I got to the sling stud variation.  The thumb screw sight picture is the same as that of the sling stud.

Opening up the peep to show a sight picture as portrayed in the thumb screw photo is an interesting concept.  Forgive me if you already know this, and I wasn't aware of it until I read the theory behind it, but a peep/ghost ring sight is not meant to be used by purposefully centering the front sight within the circle.  It's not like lining up the front sight in the rear leaf sight.  The beauty and speed behind a peep/ghost ring sight is that the shooter completely ignores the rear ring, looking through it and focusing only on the front sight -- the eyes center the front sight automatically without the shooter having to do it consciously.  It doesn't quite make sense at first and takes a leap of faith but works amazingly well.  The shooter could still line things up "manually" and be accurate, but it's unnecessary.  Having two rings as shown in the thumb screw photo, with the the front sight within the hood and the hood within the rear peep would definitely widen the sight picture, but would the eye line everything up just as naturally as it does with one ring?

The sight pictures on these two mods are as good as those of my AR and actually better than that of my Beretta CX4 (the protecting wings obscure a good deal of the periphery).  These peep sights should give an adequate picture as at 100 yards a 12" target is about as wide as the front sight, which is only a sliver of the sight picture and allows for a good amount of peripheral recognition. 

[jwc007]

I like this!!!    I may have to look into something like this!  For now, I use optics.

[TJNewton]

I went to the range today to test the peep sight.  I used only the sling stud and didn't have time to try the thumb screw, but as their sight pictures and POA's are the same, I don't think the thumb screw would have had a different result.

With the slider installed, the POI was way too high.  I'd already raised the front sight by four full-turns and had to raise it an additional two turns just to get hits on paper.  Two disadvantages:  Not much room left for adjustment and it negates the usefulness of the slider.  And with the front sight so high, the top third of the front hood was now apparent in the peep's sight picture.  It was visually confusing.  The mechanism of focusing on the front sight and the eye automatically centering it in the ring wasn't working as there was now ambiguity with the two contradicting rings of the front sight hood and the rear peep.  If I concentrated, I could focus on the peep, center the front sight in it, and get some hits.  But that completely destroyed all advantages of a peep sight.  In lining up the front and rear sights, it's actually much faster to use the factory notch.

I removed the slider and set the leaf sight flat on the sight block with the sling stud's POA shimmed to the same height of the factory 100 meter setting.  I zeroed the sights to center of mass at 50 meters.  Shooting slowly, the shots were as accurate as the notch sight.  I then loaded a stripper clip of ten and fired as fast as I could, pulling the trigger as soon as I was able to lock onto target.  My rifle has a flash hider, not a brake, so double taps weren't in the cards, but firing ten rounds at less than a second per shot I was able to get all ten into the six-inch center of a 10" target, repeatedly.  It was very fast, much faster than with the factory notch.  I'd like to use a timer to test the peep and compare it to a red dot as it felt just as quick. 

When I got home, I switched the sling stud peep complete with the slider to my one rifle with an open-hooded front sight post.  I had to spread the wings just a bit more, but the peep sight picture is nice and clear, with no hood interference, even with the front sight up so high.  That will be the next range test.

For my fully-hooded rifle, I'm going to do another peep with the slider removed.  I haven't yet decided if I'm going to continue with the installation of an elevation screw.  With the sights set at center-of-mass at 50 meters, hits at 25 meters should be just a little low, and dipping the barrel down to a 6-o'clock hold for targets past 100 meters should compensate for the bullet's rise at that point of the trajectory -- at 100 meters or more, a 6-o'clock hold is a necessity for me just to be able to view the target.  Set up the way it is now, hits on a 10" target should be doable up to 200 meters.  Anything further, with that sized target, is beyond the capability of my eyes with iron sights, regardless of set up.