Cincinnati Slim
Member
Howdy All,
Got a Pietta "Old Silver" .44 1851 Navy from Impact Guns a couple of weeks ago. After smoothing off the rough edges went shootin' with 'er. .454 ball, 30 Gr. fff Goex, wonder wads, Remmie #11 caps and R&D conversion cylinder, .452 200 Grain RNFP, 30 Gr. Pyrodex. Groups were good but pretty high, maybe 6-8 inches at 15 yards.
That tiny little brass "acorn" sight is barely .10 high, hard to see and d*mn near useless
Took some pliers and pulled 'er out !. Hole was .073 deep, barrel was .10 thick at that point. I'd ordered a 1858 Remington dovetail mounted blade front sight from DGW and a Wheeler Engineering dovetail cutting fixture from Midway. Wrapped tape around the barrel to protect it from mishaps and to space the bottom of the dovetail high enough. Used the old front sight hole as a guide. Got out the jeweler's files and went to work !
Sight blade was .248 wide at bottom of dovetail. Cut a .20 wide .065 deep slot with a mill file and then cut dovetails with jeweler's files and the dovetail file supplied with the Wheeler gizmo. Just followed the instructions and after about a half hour's work I drifted the new sight into place with a brass punch.
Hooray ! A front sight I can actually SEE !
Wasn't hard at all, that Wheeler jig made it EASY.
Range report to follow...
Happy Trails,
Cincinnati Slim
Got a Pietta "Old Silver" .44 1851 Navy from Impact Guns a couple of weeks ago. After smoothing off the rough edges went shootin' with 'er. .454 ball, 30 Gr. fff Goex, wonder wads, Remmie #11 caps and R&D conversion cylinder, .452 200 Grain RNFP, 30 Gr. Pyrodex. Groups were good but pretty high, maybe 6-8 inches at 15 yards.
That tiny little brass "acorn" sight is barely .10 high, hard to see and d*mn near useless
Took some pliers and pulled 'er out !. Hole was .073 deep, barrel was .10 thick at that point. I'd ordered a 1858 Remington dovetail mounted blade front sight from DGW and a Wheeler Engineering dovetail cutting fixture from Midway. Wrapped tape around the barrel to protect it from mishaps and to space the bottom of the dovetail high enough. Used the old front sight hole as a guide. Got out the jeweler's files and went to work !
Sight blade was .248 wide at bottom of dovetail. Cut a .20 wide .065 deep slot with a mill file and then cut dovetails with jeweler's files and the dovetail file supplied with the Wheeler gizmo. Just followed the instructions and after about a half hour's work I drifted the new sight into place with a brass punch.
Hooray ! A front sight I can actually SEE !
Wasn't hard at all, that Wheeler jig made it EASY.
Range report to follow...
Happy Trails,
Cincinnati Slim