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I have an older super Blackhawk with a soldered front sight, and I have a problem with the front sight height.... with the rear adjusted all the way down, it hits high, several inches worth. My response has been to just mark the front sight with white out to mark how low to set the blade in the rear notch, but I have contemplated various more permanent solutions over the years. Any suggestions?
You need to raise the front sight or lower the rear.
error x sight radius / distance in inches will tell you how much or very close to it.
The soldered front sight makes it a little harder but it still can be done.
materials you will need
small parallel clamp
small pieces of gauge stock. flat stock will work but isnt as flat. by small 3/32 thick 1/2"-3/4" wide and 1/2" - 3/4" tall.
Tape. masking or painters will work.
epoxy
dye.
small fine files
sand paper in assorted grit
padded vise
Cut the 2 plates as long as the front sight blade is. clean up edges square and smooth. give these a heavy coat of release agent. set aside to cure.
clean front sight blade and rough up the top surface.
give the plates a second heavy coat of release agent.
clean blade again to remove dirt grit front roughing up.
Clamp plates to sides of blade. tape of front and back. this needs to be a sealed joint so epoxy cant leak out.
Mix epoxy with dye to best match. I mix the resien and dye first to get color then add hardener. this gives longer to work with the epoxy. I have used JB Weld in the past.
Fill the gap between the 2 plates with epoxy keep an eye on it as it will settle and need touched up a time or two.
When cured remove plates and tape.
You can file in the new surface then zero by filling to correct height.
When zeroing give the rear sight a few clicks up with the known load so you have some down adjustment left after zeroing.
The padded vise makes it much easier to maintain square and flat. when you get close use fine sand paper backed by a file to finish.
With a good color match and proper finishing the added wont show.
2" X 7.5" / 900" ( 25 yds) = 15/900 = .0166 needs added
with your calipers measure from under side of barrel to top of front sight make note of this. when roughing in file to .030 of the original dimension and test then finish in as needed
Of course, you can send the gun to a gunsmith and have a taller front sight installed.
There are factory replacement rear sight blades that are smaller. I do not remember the heights right off hand. There are also factory sight blades with different width notches. I believe the standard for a Blackhawk (other than the new flat tops) is .125 wide. The flat tops come with a narrower notched blade (mine was .115), and they also make a wider one which I believe has a .140 wide notch. I opened my narrow one up to .140 and it helps me keep a sight picture better in all light conditions. I covered the raw portion with black spray paint applied with a Q-tip.
I have modified rear sight blades to get me a little more drop. Remove the blade and you can file/grind some off the bottom, which will in turn give lower it in the base. You can also remove some from the top of the blade, but you'll have to deal with having a raw sight blade, either bluing or other wise darkening it.
What a great explanation Country Gent!
I have an SBH that was similar with anything over 200gr. I took the low road and filed the rear sight notch deeper.
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I have done several for friends. it holds up good as the thin layer weighs almost nothing. It wont take being banged around though. One was reshaped from a rounded top to a partridge style even.
With the epoxy you can re shape or just raise the front. I dont recommend the fast cures as they really dont give enough time to work them and to flow in to place. I believe accra glass would work well also another would be plasti steel. Instead of tape you can dam the front and back with clay also.
I have a .30 Carbine Blackhawk that shot very high.I silver soldered a piece of 1/8 inch keystock to the front sight and dressed it down for appearance.End of problem.
I had the same problem with my 30 Carbine BH. I ended up sending it back to Ruger and have them put the PROPER front sight on it. They got even though, by charging me to have it reblued.
You didn't mention the caliber, nor whether you're shooting factory or reloaded ammo, but it doesn't really matter.
An alternative to changing the gun, is to change your ammo. Speed up your bullet, either by reducing bullet weight with the same powder charge, or put more powder behind the bullet you're using.
Recoil starts at the moment of ignition. If the bullet is in the barrel long enough, it will be pointing above your sight plane when it finally leaves the barrel. I had the reverse issue with my Blackhawk. I was hitting low, with the rear sight all the way up. My solution was to drop two grains of powder from the rounds. The sights are still all the way up, but now it shoots to the sights with that bullet/powder combination.
This situation is common when shooting reduced loads. For the Ruger Blackhawk there is another possible avenue. First is to look if there is any clearance under the very rear of the back sight. Often there is. First is the spring being completely compressed. Under the sight there is a raised area for the spring cup and screw hole. This raised area can be cut down with careful file work. Cutting down this un machined raised area will give about four clicks of relief. Now the rear of the sight can be filed to give even more movement. With these adjustments, the sight screw and the spring must both be cut down appropriately. These works can be done with little effort and chance of buggering the finish. I have done these jobs many times on Ruger Blackhawks.
Roy
I have a 4&5/8" barreled blackhawk convertible that shot high because the rear sight screw holewasnt fully threaded into the frame. The adjustment screw would stop way short of where it needed to be. I finished tapping the hole all the way throught the frame and the problem was solved. Check to see if you can push the sight down further with you thumb after you have screwed the adjustment screw all the way in.
I had the same problem with my SBH Bisley. I had the Barrel cut off to 5" and a Weigand Front Sight Base with interchangeable blade inserts installed.
Since the barrel was cut off 2 1/2" the front sight base was silver soldered back on the barrel. The taller front sight fixed the problem, but since the barrel had to be heated the bluing was trashed so the Pistol Smith (Terry Tussy) bead blasted the whole gun and re-blued it.
It is a joy to shoot and POI = POA perfectly.
Randy
I put fluorescent gel nail polish on all my handguns with sights too dark to see. Clean with alcohol, apply gel, cure under a black light and very little short of a fire will get it off.
My GF tried pure acetone (the recommended solvent) and it stayed on and it had to grow out.