Questions about the early Winchester Model 94 SRC ladder sight

I have an early Model 94 SRC with a serial number below 1 million. In my research, I have found that the first million 94 saddle ring carbines (SRC) were manufactured with the ladder sight. I am trying to understand this sight.

The front sight is pinned to a rigid fixed U post base. The rear sight is a dovetail base with a tension screw through the dovetail. A combination fixed buckhorn blade is built into the ladder leaf, and mounted to the base with a pivot pin. The ladder has graduations to reference a sliding blade (that has no tension provisions), and is kept on the ladder leaf by a retention screw.

My questions:
1) Should the face of the ladder leaf that faces the shooter be bright or blued?
2) Since the dovetail has a screw through it perpendicular to the bore, and there is no way to adjust the front blade for windage, is the rear sight assembly designed to be windage adjustable?
3) Since it appears that no provision was made at the time the sight was manufactured to increase tension on the sliding leaf to hold elevation, could it be presumed that tension should be increased by squeezing the side of the sliding leaf to provide the retention tension?

Thank you for your advice.

If the front sight is dovetailed into the barrel that is where your windage adjustments are made. Elevation would be done by raising the slider on the rear sight. But be careful if you decide to squeeze the slider to get the needed tension as you could apply too much and bend the ladder. You could experiment with using shims to take up the slack on the slider. I'd try that first and see if it works for you. Frank

I am answering from memory and am away from my guns and reference books so take what I say with some skepticism. The front sight "base" is gas welded to the barrel and the front blade is pinned. The strange thing about this front sight blade is, they were usually too low thus shooting too high with the rear sight as low as possible. There was a robust business in providing higher front sights, All of my early carbines had to have the higher front blade. The rear carbine latter sight is a marvel. The screw in the center of the dovetail is a strain screw. Loosened the rear sight can be drifted for windage then when the sight is in proper position the strain screw is tightened to prevent accidental changes. The slide on the latter of all that I have owned were smooth operating but had little tension. I did some marvelous very long range shooting using this type sight. Some early Winchester and Remingtons used a strain screw on the front sight as well.

A few of the carbine rear sights I've seen and had a tiny, thin flat spring bent in a shallow V shape in between the vernier & ladder to give it some tension when slid up and down.
Easily lost or damaged, the fragile spring simply slips in between the two parts when assembled w/the V pointing towards the vernier edge. The free ends of the V are slightly bent to catch inside the blade and keep it there as it moves with the part as it goes up and down.

It works nicely when clean, but if dirty or rusted, the small spring quickly kinks or buckles and looses tension. Most are lost from the sight over the years.
Many just plainly don't seem to ever have had that feature and rely simply on friction to hold the blade in the correct elevated position which can at best be an iffy proposition sometimes.

Crimping the blade from the opposing sides usually results in a looser fit yet and a warped sighting surface,,a bend at the sighting notch or V.

With a very delicate touch you can bend the rear ( muzzle side) of each tab of the blade to better gain some friction of the blade to the vernier. It's easy to over do it, tough to un-do w/o showing some marks on it. Plus the ladder/vernier can be a bit uneven in it's length and the blade may be loose in one area and a fine fit in another.
Another reason the small but fragile little spring worked very nicely early on as it took up any variance in the parts and kept the parts an even fit.

The screw on the dovetail is just for attachment of the sight assembly to that dovetail and give it downward tension.
It shouldn't extend below the bottom surface of the dovetail block. It is easier to loosen the screw and relieve some/all of the tension to remove or install the carbine sights but not really necessary.
A card stock shim under the sight pivot point protects the bluing while the sight is driven into it's dovetail. Then the sight is lifted enough to relieve the tension from the card and it's pulled out.
Any windage adj can be done with the sight in place as it is then tapped left/right in it's dovetail.

The pre-war Winchester carbine front sight base was forged in place on the bbl blank,,all one piece.
A slot was milled lengthwise in it and the front sight blade pinned in place.
Elevation only adj by changing the blade to different height if needed.

(Marlin used a separate dovetailed frontsight base that was closely fitted and soft soldered into place and then the dove tail filed and polished off with the bbl to a near invisable joint. Same slotted base with pinned sight blade. )

Thank you 30-30Remchester! Nice to hear from someone that is familiar with this sight. When I spoke with the Winchester historian at Browning this past week, he had no knowledge of this type sight.

When you shot your rifles with the ladder sight, how did you get the slide blade to stay in place when elevated?

Thanks!

Thank you both 2152hq and 30-30Remchester, you have the sights on my 94 pegged!

My 94 dates to 1919, and has been a mystery to all of the 'smiths and shops in my area. The fact that it is a 25-35 throws people, the sights tend to push them over the edge. It seems a previous owner damaged the magazine tube, had it shortened to 3/4 length, removed the forward barrel band, and had it reblued. Any collector value is probably gone, but it should prove to be an easy shooter for my daughter.

My 94 apparently lost the little spring in the ladder sight sometime before I acquired it. Seeing the price of replacement ladder sights mandates that I fabricate a few, one to bring it back to snuff, and a few for whichever child gets it so that they can keep it shooting.

It is always good to hear from others that appreciate old guns. Your gun sounds like it has a rich history. Please continue the tradition. I collect stories as well as material objects. The only animal I ever took with my 25-35 was an antelope at 210 yards. Probably further than the caliber was intended for. An interesting story about a Winchester 94 in 25-35 caliber is about a sheep rancher who faced down a huge grizzly, at night, using his 25-35 and fmj ammo. I can not recall off the top of my head the entire story but if you google, "25-35 grizzly bear Utah" the story will appear. A good read.

Sadly, I have no clue to this rifle's history. I had the opportunity to buy it used from a fellow teacher on my first teaching job, for about $150 or so, I honestly don't remember the price, between the passage of time and a horrific concussion.

I have yet to fire it, having had it for upward of 34 years. I think when I hit my club range later in the spring for my next match, it will join me to see how it shoots. My goal is for a 100 yard deer and general ranch rifle, nothing extravagant. I have a bit over a hundred factory rounds, and plan on picking up a few boxes of the 117gr RNSP bullets for reloading so my children, and hopefully their children, will be able to put meat on the table for their families.