Help with a modified front sight.....

[msp2640]

Gents, After being here for a while, today I will make my first attempt at posting pics. I am hopeful that someone can help identify, if this is a gunsmith job (and possible who?) or a somewhat skilled job by a previous owner. Background - this is a S&W model 35 front sight, I bought the revolver off of GB a few months ago from a seller in Louisiana. Always wanted one for a shooter, more than a collectors piece and this one was perfect for my needs. Original listing pics showed a front sight covered with red fingernail polish. As the back of the sight looked a bit "rounded" for lack of a better term, with the polish, I went at it with a plastic pick and a chunk of polish came off revealing this small copper tab, which appears to have been silver soldered to the rear flat of the target front sight. I previously posted, asking about the use of acetone to remove polish, so I left it as is, until I could get back to it. Here's an after the removal of "chunk/blob of polish" before pic Attachment 207405. After the response of several members here, I went after the rest of the polish with dampened Q tips. Sorry for the suspense, but the cleaned up pic, will not load for me and I have no idea why it will not, I knew the first one was too easy! I will try to add it in another post here. Any chance anyone can recognize this work? I believe the serial number puts this one as made in 1968, so its been around for a while. My best guess is, that an owner had the copper plate added and maybe a subsequent owner didn't like it and covered it with the polish and eventually I wind up with it! Thanks for the help, still working on the cleaned up photo. - Thanks Bill in MA

[msp2640]

Gents - Apparently size matters! as I had to resize the original pic to load here.....so here's the post cleaned up pic Attachment 207408 Thank you to the responses to my previous post on the Acetone clean up. For now, I think I like the uniqueness of the sight, I definitely wouldn't call it Bubba'd. I will try to get a pic on the complete revolver soon, but its in very good plus condition, with only a few very small finish issues. It's basically a Model 34 Kit Gun in 22LR, but has a square butt grip and 6 in barrel with the target style front sight. I've managed to acquire and 22 Mag cylinder from a model 51, which both fits and "times" correctly in this revolver. So this will be a fun one to play with in the woods or the range! Thanks Bill in MA

[pietro]

.

That sight pattern was called a "brass-faced sourdough partridge sight", made both commercially by the old/defunct Redfield Gun Sight Co in Denver and for S&W by King/McGiven/Call - New England Custom Gun (NECG) is currently making/selling a version for rifles.

Your revolver's front sight doesn't look to be pinned-in, so my WAG is that some unknown (good) gunsmith (not some parts-changer) fashioned it for it's owner at the time - although the gun might have been sent to a professional sight company like King/etc for the work.

AFAIK, there's a slim chance of finding out from whence it came, if you can trace the gun's past ownership.


.

[runfiverun]

I was thinking a King also.
they were located in Los Angeles.
but they were pretty well known for the gold faced target sights.

and airc even done one with a little gold plated dished faced sight.
they used gold because it stayed shiny in shadow and in sunlight it didn't glint.

[msp2640]

Thank you for the info. I have seen posts, either here or on other forums, of custom gold beaded front sights and I believe that I saw a pic or read about a front sight with a very small mirror on the ramp. Other than the sight modification, it's all, as produced, from the factory. Has a very nice SA/DA trigger, but I'm far from an expert, to know enough, to tell if it's been touched up a bit or original. All the screw heads look untouched and as mentioned previously, has just a few very minor finish issues. I like the look of the sight and as part of the "history" of the revolver, I'm going to leave it as is. Thanks again Bill

[country gent]

Another reason for gold over brass is gold dosnt tarnish as fast or as bad.