Bending Pietta Front Sight

[sraney]

I'm looking for thoughts & comments on bending the front sight of my Pietta 1858. It shoots 6-7" left at 25 yards off a sand bag (and off hand as well). Yes, I could simply aim to the right, but it irritates me, and I'd like to make it shoot to point of aim at 25 yards.

I think the sight is a press fit (?), and I tried to simply put some vise grips on the end of the sight (while installed) and deform it slightly. It turns out that while the gun as a whole is made mostly of mildly tempered butter (particularly the screws!), the front sight appears to be composed of heat treated rockwellium* which wouldn't budge.

Any thoughts & experience? If I ever do manage to bend the sight, I guess it'll be trial and error to move the impact 7" at 25 yards, since I'm not even going to begin to think about the geometry of the situation!

Thanks,

Steve

P.S. I'm not irritated enough to spend any money on a dovetail sight.

*Rockwellium is a very rare substance that's really, really hard.

 

[tango2echo]

You will never be able to bend the sight enough to compensate for 7" at 25 yards. Bad idea IMO.

If it were me, I would let a qualified smith look at it. The barrel may be able to be turned and have the shoulder recut to move the POI to match the POA.

I've seen a good number of Pietta 1858's shoot high or low by about that much at that range, but I have never seen one need that much windage. Let someone else shoot it too. It could be your grip pressure or form.

t2e

 

[Hoof Hearted]

You'll break the solder joint before you accomplish what you are trying to do......

If it's new and really that far off send it back, It not turn the barrel (yes I can do it for you).

HH

 

[sraney]

Thanks very much for the prompt input. You've talked me out of it. It's an old gun, so I'll just leave it be.

 

[Noz]

You might try cutting the rear sight to compensate.

 

[Mizar]

There is a simple formula for sights correction - (sight radius x deviation) / distance to target. Everything in inches. If we assume that your Remington is with an 8" barrel, the formula is: (9.35" x 7") / 900" = 0.073" correction. This is too much to compensate with rear sight cutting.

Boris

 

[sraney]

Boris--thanks for the shortcut. I'm going to file that away. I was too lazy to figure it out. Contrary to my earlier vow, I decided to go ahead and order a $10 Uberti dovetail front sight from VTI and see if one of the local gunsmiths can graft it on. That's what happens when you get bored hiding in the basement from the infernal heat here in the Midwest this year!

Steve

 

[4v50 Gary]

Check if the barrel is straight with respects to the frame.

You place the knife edge of your hands together, finger straight and thumbs up, such that the palms spread apart and form a "V" shaped cradle. Now, pick up your gun and hold it in the cradle. The grip should be near your wrists with the trigger guard near the base of the thumbs. The barrel is pointed away from you.

Now, raise both hands up and hold the gun up to the eye level. Look down the frame and barrel to see if the barrel is bent to the left. If it is, the frame needs slight tweaking to straighten out the alignment.