making a Colt/Keith style sight base and front sight

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last year I made a few modifications to my Ruger single seven. www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=223644



one of the things I did to it was to file down the stock aluminum front sight to resemble the front sight on Elmer Keith's No.5. since it was aluminum the only way I could re-finish it was to paint it black which with use would flake and look pretty cruddy.


so a few months back I got to thinking it would be really cool if could use a pinned in base on the gun so I could change blades whenever I wanted to. well one thing led to another and before long I wound up starting on a Colt flat top target style Base with a Keith style sight blade. rather than solder it on it would utilize a screw just like a regular single six front sight.

starting out I decided I wanted to do as much as I could with the materials I had on hand. after looking through my steel pile I settled on a railroad spike for the sight base. after cutting off a piece and squaring it up on the belt sander I used a dremal sanding drum to start cutting the channel for the barrel. once I had it roughed out I wrapped various grits of sandpaper around the barrel and continued sanding till the base sat on the barrel pretty well.






next I drilled the screw hole. starting with 9/64" for the screw body and then 3/16" for the screw head.






while that measurement was perfect for the stock Ruger screw, the head of the screw I got to use for this project ended up being slightly bigger. to fix this problem I chucked the screw up in the drill press, turned it on and used a file and fine grit sandpaper to take off some of the screw head diameter.

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after Cutting the screw down I deepened the 3/16" hole to the proper depth for the screw.









next I used a needle file to mark where the sight channel would go. I used a bandsaw to cut the channel and then used several different files to widen it so a sight blade would fit.

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all throughout the making of the base and sight blade I was having to make adjustments in order to get it as close to perfect as possible. one of those adjustments was I ended up deepening the sight blade channel. this caused the screw head to stick up. to fix this I deepened the screwdriver slot and then shortened the screw head till it sat flush.










next I used a 1/16" bit to drill two pin holes in the base.

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once I got that done it was time to make the sight blade. again I decided to use the railroad spike. after cutting it out on the bandsaw I thinned it down using the belt sander.










after tightening the sight blade into the base using a clamp I then drilled the holes though the sight blade.

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I then squared the blade up with the base. and did a mock up. looking pretty good so far.

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for the pins I took a wore out 1/16" drill bit and heated it up with a torch till the steel softened. I then cut the new pins and put a slight bend in them so they'd stay nice and tight during recoil.





the blade was a little too wide so using the belt sander and hand sanding I was able to thin it down.



rough cutting the sight and shaping it with files.

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I used Birchwood casey super blue to blue it.






unfortunately as I aim the gun I can see it's slightly crooked but I think with a little more tinkering I can get it straitened out.

all in all it turned out better than I expected but only time will tell if it was worth the effort. sure looks good though.

[MrWolf]

Always amazed at some of the ingenuity our members show. Good luck and keep us posted on the fine tuning.

[pietro]

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Nice work - the Gold Standard for sight making.

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