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docone31
07-27-2009, 06:47 PM
I have this .54 caliber CVA Hawken Wannabe.
It looks pretty good, good rifleing, good wood, however, the front sight is loose. By being loose, I mean the German Silver blade is loose in the blade mount.
My thoughts on this is to peen the blades that hold the German silver blade. I suspect, the original owner has the rifle dialed in, and the person took good care of it. The muzzle especially shows no wear whatsoever. It is a wood ramrod, and there is evidence of pitting on the breech where the nipple is. Obvious evidence it has been fired.
Mainly, the front sight rocks in the setting. My thoughts are to just peen both ends on both sides to grip the blade.
Anyone had this happen, and how did you make fix?

Marvin S
07-27-2009, 07:33 PM
Probably ought to remove the sight and separate the blade and base, clean it good and soft silver solder it.

docone31
07-27-2009, 07:43 PM
Marvin, that is a lot of work!
I have a Plasma Welder in my shop. I could do it that way also. Probably faster than silver soldering/brazeing it in.
I was hoping to just bang it in place.

FL-Flinter
07-27-2009, 09:06 PM
Center punch the base along side the blade, should tighten the mortise up on the tenon. Doesn't hurt to try, if that doesn't do it, then pull it & weld/solder it.

StrawHat
07-28-2009, 06:39 AM
Sounds as if you have a two piece front sight. Many ( most?) are made by cutting a rectangular hole in the brass dovetail plate and fitting the silver blade with a tit that fits in the hole. The whole shebang is then crimped or soldered (depends on who made it) together.

A few are made with a the brass base having a pair of ears projecting up from the center of the base in which the silver blade is positioned and fixed, either solder or friction.

You should be able to tighten it with a center punch or drift punch but make a witness mark in case the whole thing shifts while fixing. If the punch doesn't work, you can always go to the soldering method. Not sure if a plasma thing would work. Don't even know what that is. Good luck,

docone31
07-28-2009, 03:27 PM
Well, issue solved!
I was peening both sides and hit one side. The sight flew out of the dovetail intact. A simple matter to straighten out the blade, it was bent previously, crimp down the ears onto the blade and put back into the dovetail.
The dovetail was loose so I also peened down the dovetail a bit. I measured across the flats and manually centered the sight. I can adjust at the range, but, now the blade is stable.
It is a well made front sight. a good steel base, with the blade centered with a nib into a slot in the sight assembly. A simple matter of peening both ends on each side to tighten.
No more wobble!
Probably would have lost the sight at the range anyway.

405
07-28-2009, 05:54 PM
Well, problem solved until the front blade gets whacked again and it may loosen up again. :roll: been there done that
I've tried three different things for factory pressed-in blades that have loosened.
1- peen
2- JB weld
3- silver solder
If-un I were to choose, the best by far would be silver solder. Then no worries ever again about the blade loosening. Also, if dovetail loose... a spritz of solder on base while doing the blade. Simply file down a little to adjust for tight fit.

docone31
07-28-2009, 06:24 PM
Well,.....
I got it for now, if it does indeed loosen up again, it will be
SOLDER TIME!!!
It really is a nice rifle I got for a song.