Virginian Dragoon .44 mag question (s)

[Pro Gun]

Hello guys! Say, what species of wood were used for grips on these wheel guns? Yesterday at the gun show, I was lucky to find a very nice, almost never been used dark brown hardwood original grips! I started with a low price and worked my way up to $60 for the set before the seller's eyes would light up. I think I still made a good deal for them. The grips really make the pistol, and looks all original now!

Picked up a 20 rnd. box of Hornady .44 Mag boolits. They are 225 grain FTX boolits, brass case, copper with a red plastic tip on the bullet itself, .44 Rem Mag. Wondering from the experts, how these preform. Muzzle is 1410 fps.

What I did not find at the show, was the .062" o.d rear sight pin that is missing on my Virginian. I have the rear sight and the two springs for it, just no sense in my mind to bother shooting it at the moment. I'd like to find the factory correct replacement pin ultimately. I tried a .060" drill bit for a pin that would need cut to a length of .639", but have no safe idea to keep that drill bit from sliding out of the gun as the bit is hardened. Has to be the right diameter to allow the rear sight to freely adjust.

Going to read around the board for any answers, as there seem to be a number of years worth of catching up to do. Any feed back would be great! Thanks!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

You're the fellow that has the one marked "We The People", correct? I had a matched consecutively numbered pair purchased new in 1976, and
they did have wood grips, a medium brown color, probably walnut. They were pretty plain and had no figure to the grain as I recall.

I do understand your problem in using a highly polished drill bit shank for a pin and expecting it to stay in place. They're too hard to flatten the ends. Of course there are drill bits and there are drill bits....if you can find some of the cheaper bits that are of blued steel they're probably softer. One solution would be to grind the pin a bit short so that it is recessed a bit on both ends and fill the rest of the hole with epoxy.

[44man]

Why not the back end of a 1/16" bit? Or go to the hobby shop and buy a length of 1/16" piano wire.

[DougGuy]

Drill rod is hardened after they grind drill bits and will shatter before it swages. If you get plain 01 drill rod it would work for what you want. I have used drill bit shanks for various tools before but they are hit or miss how hard they might be or how well they might work. HSS bits from China suck bigtime so count those out.

Brownell's has a wide selection of sight pins, I bet one for a Ruger rear sight would fit. For $2.99 it's not going to hurt you to try one!

http://www.brownells.com/handgun-parts/sights/sight-parts/sight-pins/index.htm

[Knarley]

I was thinking "roll pin" myself

[Pro Gun]

Thank you for the tips and references! Ill get back on this when I find the pin!