Question about Piette 58 New Army....

Hammer and brass punch/rod.

A brass punch is the usual tool but even a piece of hardwood dowel and a light hammer will do the job. Just remember to use light taps to move the sight. A number of light taps is better than one or two heavier ones. Don't ask how I know. (I did find the sight on the floor quickly.)

Jeff

A handy brass punch can be made under a minute from an old brass cleaning rod. Tap the base, not the sight itself, or you risk bending it if it's stuck in place.

Lots of such tools available, from very basic to very fancy. This is the cheapest one I've seen. Just Google "front sight pusher tool" and you'll see the rest. I personally use a brass punch and hammer.

Draw a fine pencil line across the dovetail to see how much it moved.

I bought a 3 foot section of Delrin rod thats about 3/8" maybe 1/2" diameter and have used cut sections of it to move and install sights. Brass as mentioned works well too.

@BullRunBear and @Armored farmer both mentioned something worth considering, easy taps vs heavy blows and mark it so you know how much you have moved it.

If your Pietta was assembled by the same hamfisted Italian bodybuilder that did some of mine, you may need a sledghammer to budge anything on it.

Is your Pietta the "Shooters Model" Remington NMA .44 caliber?

Does it have a silver-plated trigger-guard?

The above Model Pietta is the only one I know that has a dovetailed front sight.

A handy tool for any shooters range kit is a Lyman Hammer. Solid brass with three different hammer head and a brass punch that stores in the handle.
I’ve had this one for decades. It sees a lot of duty tapping out the wedge on the 1860 Army.

I suppose that it depends on whether this sight seems designed to be moved or not.
My Pietta Remington appears to have the sight either screwed in or pressed in.
My old Euroarms Remington front sight was dovetailed in, but the base was polished to match the angled flats on the barrel.
So neither was a candidate for windage adjustment.
But if yours is a more conventional type of front sight base, more like a rifle, with vertical surfaces that you can push with a brass rod drift, then go ahead.
You can pick up smaller and more appropriate lengths of brass rod from a well-stocked hobby shop or from a Lowes or Home Depot, and just cut off about 4 inches or so.
Clamp your barrel lightly but firmly between insert wooden vise jaws in your vise, preferably with leather faces glued on.
Then you can tap the sight over easily and accurately with an 8 ounce ball pein, without struggling.

Windage adjustability is probably the sole reason. We use these revolvers differently than the boys back then so minute of soldier is no longer fine enough accuracy, if it ever really was.

45 long said:

The sides of the dovetail don't seem to have much angle to them, close to straight up & down. But I can't imagine why Pietta would switch to a dovetail, other than to provide windage adjustment.
I'll try a hardwood dowel first, then brass rod if I have to.

Click to expand...

Sounds like it is designed for windage adjustment.
You can try a hardwood dowel first like you say, although it is likely to be clumsy on such a small front sight base, and may not be hard enough to move the sight base. Then again, it might work.
A brass rod of maybe 1/4" diameter with the drifting end tapered to flat wedge shape with a 1/8" face (or smaller) might work well.
Such a small sight might be easier to adjust accurately with a 4 to 6 ounce hammer.
The brass drift is softer than the steel so it won't damage the sight base, and any brass residue will wash off with a good bore solvent like Hoppes #9.
Good Luck.