Dave Markowitz
Member
Several years ago I bought a Pietta 1851 Navy Sheriff's Model .44 caliber percussion revolver. It's strictly a fantasy gun in that Colt never made an 1851 Navy with this short a barrel, nor did they make them in .44. All real Colt Navy revolvers are .36s, with the exception of a very few experimental .40 caliber guns. Regardless, it's a fun little gun but severely handicapped by the factory front sight, which is a minuscule brass cone that's both hard to see and too short, resulting in the gun shooting very high at pistol ranges.
So today, I fixed that by cutting a dovetail in the barrel and installing a taller blade front sight that I'll be able to actually see and also can file to zero the piece.
Here's what the factory front sight looked like, along with the rifle front sight I modified to use:
I have a Grizzly G8689 mini mill. I first used it with a 1/8" end mill to cut the old sight flush with the barrel. Then I cut a slot a bit less than the width of the top of the front sight base. I cut the slot 0.07" deep to match the thickness of the front sight. (The mill has digital readouts fitted to allow me to make precise cuts.)
Then I used a 3/8" dovetail end mill to turn it into a dovetail. You can see the factory hole for the original front sight in the dovetail.
Using a couple files and trial and error, I fitted the new sight to the barrel.
I left it extra tall so that I can use a file to raise the point of impact to the point of aim. I'll probably zero it with a load of a .454 ball on top of 30 grains of 3Fg black powder. After it's zeroed I will shape the front of the blade and cold blue it.
Aside from the front sight I plan to slightly enlarge the rear sight notch in the hammer nose, and replace the factory nipples with Tresos that have small flash holes for less blow back and cap fragmenting. An accessory I plan to make is an extension to slip over the loading rod for better leverage. That's not needed on the full length guns but this will benefit from that. Those without machine tools can purchase one from Slix Shot.
So today, I fixed that by cutting a dovetail in the barrel and installing a taller blade front sight that I'll be able to actually see and also can file to zero the piece.
Here's what the factory front sight looked like, along with the rifle front sight I modified to use:
I have a Grizzly G8689 mini mill. I first used it with a 1/8" end mill to cut the old sight flush with the barrel. Then I cut a slot a bit less than the width of the top of the front sight base. I cut the slot 0.07" deep to match the thickness of the front sight. (The mill has digital readouts fitted to allow me to make precise cuts.)
Then I used a 3/8" dovetail end mill to turn it into a dovetail. You can see the factory hole for the original front sight in the dovetail.
Using a couple files and trial and error, I fitted the new sight to the barrel.
I left it extra tall so that I can use a file to raise the point of impact to the point of aim. I'll probably zero it with a load of a .454 ball on top of 30 grains of 3Fg black powder. After it's zeroed I will shape the front of the blade and cold blue it.
Aside from the front sight I plan to slightly enlarge the rear sight notch in the hammer nose, and replace the factory nipples with Tresos that have small flash holes for less blow back and cap fragmenting. An accessory I plan to make is an extension to slip over the loading rod for better leverage. That's not needed on the full length guns but this will benefit from that. Those without machine tools can purchase one from Slix Shot.
