[Jeff Higgins]

Yeah, a full size 39A is a bit big for a kid. Hell, it's a bit big for a grown man - that's why I was so tickled to find a nice Mountie. It balances really nice with the 20" barrel. .22's are funny that way; the very small hole through the barrel makes one of a "normal" diameter and length exceptionally muzzle heavy. Not wanting to give up diameter (because it looks funny) we give up length to get the balance back.

As far as ammunition costs (for the .45 Colt and .45-70), mine are exceptionally low. As a dedicated hand loader and bullet caster, it just doesn't get any cheaper. I can shoot centerfire calibers with cast bullets for less than folks are paying to shoot their .17 HMR's. Much less.

The sights on the two centerfires are indeed the XO Sight Systems ghost rings. I love 'em. They are very easy to see in low light conditions, like in our dark Pacific Northwest woods, or in a dimly lit hallway in the middle of the night...

The original plan was to equip my 39A with the same sights. That went out the window as soon as I got serious about finding one, and started handling them at the gun shows and the gun shops. I found the standard full size rifle to be too big for my tastes, and I decided I wanted the straight grip. That narrowed it down to the Mountie, whose production precedes these silly notions of scoping lever guns. The receiver is not drilled and tapped for scope mounts, and the ghost rings use the rear scope mounting holes. Oh well, it does have the holes drilled and tapped for the old Lyman or Williams receiver sight, the ones that mount on the left side. Not as clean and compact as the XO sights. They can, however, be made to function as a ghost ring by simply removing the apperature. Us peep sight guys were doing this years before the old Ashly Outdoors coined the term "ghost ring" and began to market them, by the way.

I don't own any handguns with XO's express sights. I have a home-made approximation of such on my Charter Arms Bulldog Pug in .44 Special. I found their ramp front to be almost useless, so I milled it off and cut a dovetail in its place. I put the biggest white bead front sight Lyman makes into that dovetail. It settles into the groove on the top strap quite nicely, and makes for one hell of an easy to acquire close range "combat" (or self-defense) sight picture, even in low light. I have shot a number of buddies' guns with the XO Express sights, and they work in a similar fashion. I really like them for fast, close range work. They are rather imprecise for any long range shooting, though. Pretty frustrating once you get past 25 yards or so. As an aside, I also modified my little Pug in this manner over 20 years ago, long before Ashley (predecessor to XO) came out with their Express handguns sights. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.