Front sight option for percussion Colt's

[CraigC]

Been thinking about a cartridge conversion on a .44cal 1851. It would also have to include a taller front sight. Problem is, the barrel is awfully thin and there is probably not enough material for a dovetail front sight. This new flintlock pistol got me to thinking about a similar front sight on a percussion revolver. It's steel and would have to be soldered in place. Obviously the barrel would have to be refinished as well. Thoughts???

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/874/1/FS-FUSIL-2-I?PageSize=100

 

[Crawdad1]

I don't like them Craig...at all. Is there any way you could pull the original post or bead front sight and replace it with a taller one keeping it as original as possible?

 

[tembotusk]

Here is what I did. Plenty of barrel thickness for a dovetail. The base of the sight is about .064 and the barrel is at least double the thickness. Point of aim and point of impact is between 7 & 15 yards.

Click the link: Track of the Wolf FS-PA-38-B Rounded Blade Front Sight, .075" thick blade, 1/16" thick base, wax cast brass . . . $8.99

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[StrawHat]

CraigC, If you find a dovetailed sight you like, you can always thin down the base. It does not take much to hold the foresight.

 

[Armored farmer]

tembotusk......
That is a great conversion. Nicely done. Im generally not a big fan of conversions....but I really like yours. You got great color on the re-blue.
Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Craig

When I bought this EuroArms Remmie back in 1975 they came standard with a much lower front sight than Remmies typically come with now. A few years ago I was considering buying a conversion cylinder for it, but it had always shot pretty high with the original short sight at the distances I usually shot it. So before I spent the bucks on the cylinder, I had a gunsmith install a taller sight for me, to see if I could bring down the point of impact.

I called up VTI gunparts and ordered a standard front sight for an Uberti Remmie. It only cost a few bucks. The original dovetail was too narrow for the new sight, so I took it to a smith and had him cut a new dovetail and install the sight.

The new taller sight brought down the point of impact right where I wanted it, so I went ahead and ordered the conversion cylinder.








Now here is something a little bit different, that was sometimes done in the old days. When I bought it this S&W Double Action 44 had a crappy replacement sight that somebody had stuck on. It really looked crappy. So I went to a coin store and bought an antique dime for a few bucks and had my favorite smith install it in the old DA 44. Works great. You could probably do the same thing by cutting a narrow slit in the barrel and either pinning it or soldering it in place.

 

[jaxenro]

I ought an 1838 dime to use as a front site on my 1865 Pocket Navy and had a friend dovetail a little site base from Track. Just got it all back and haven't fit the dime yet. Was thinking of fitting a temporary something to establish the height before cutting the dime

 

[Lightning12]

I found that my colt 1851 didn't need much of a height increase to shoot at 60 feet.

I used a brass rod inside of a larger brass tube and just glued the new post into the existing hole with weld-on.

 

[AbitNutz]

I'm going the dovetail front site route on my ROA. I'm scheduled to send it to David Clement in January for a Brass patridge (kinda/sorta) dovetail front and a fixed high profile rear site.

Justin Linebaugh did exactly the fixed sites I was after but it seems he is no longer in business. The webpage is up but no one is home....

 

[BCRider]

I haven't done it yet but my plan is to make up a sort of Remington like new front blade that is a little bigger and taller and put it into place with some stud and bearing mount Loctite. If it comes loose too easily from handling and cleaning I'll look at the idea of cleaning the surfaces and soldering it into place with regular soft solder. With the little stub that extends down into the barrel even soft solder will be more than strong enough.

This is what I'm considering. If I can't get the lathe working soon I can still hack it out of some 1/4 inch brass rod with a file and hand drill to form the little stub.

I'd rough shape the upper blade using a small half round file but leave it quite thick at first then reduce it down a little at a time taking more or less of each side to get the right windage.

I'd also combine this with deepening the hammer sighting notch into a parallel sided "U" notch by using the edge of a jeweler's flat needle file. The width of the rear notch modification would dictate how narrow I make the front blade.