Cap and Ball Revolver Sights

[KCSO]

As most folks know most cap and ball revolvers come from the factory sighted like the original guns, way to high shooting. Now even in the old days that was a problem as a lot of original guns I have seen have had the sights replaced. I usually re-sight a number of guns a year and here's what works best for me...

I get my sight blanks from Track of the Wolf and for the most authentic sight I like to use the narrow base fsca 1 B sight blank. The FSDRU series of brass, silver or steel also work well. Each of these is made for a shallow dovetail and can be dovetailed into a 44 calibre revolver barrel with some care and are no sweat for a 36 or 31 calibre gun.

The base on these sights when cleaned up are just at 1/2 the depth of the barrel from flat to bore. On the DRU seriese I trim off the overhang on the front and rear of the sight and leave the center section stick up. This gives plenty of height for sighting in the gun. I cut the dovetail to the right depth for the barrel, usually 1/2 the available metal or just a little less. The roughed out sight is then tapped into the dovetail, TAPPED not HAMMERED. If you are mauling the front sight as you put it in the dovetail is too tight.

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The first photo shows the rough sight in place on the gun. It is then taken out and shot and filed for height and drifted for windage. I also deepen and square out the rear hammer notch on Colt copies to give a better sight picture. AFTER the gun is hitting where you want it THEN mark the sight position with a marker and remove the sight and finish it with trimming of the base and polishing for bluing. The second photo shows the finished sight on one of my Danite conversions, a 1851 Navy with a 3" barrel. The finished gun shoots to point of aim at 20 yards and will shoot under 3" at that range. Hey even Wild Bill had real sights on his gun, there is no reason to have to hold under.

[Bent Ramrod]

Nice job, KCSO!

I once saw a picture of a Remington revolver belonging to Frederic Russell Burnham ("Chief of Scouts") and noticed it had an aftermarket dovetailed front sight fitted. From his writings, Burnham was not averse to going in harm's way in a good cause, so I was impressed by the good sense on his part that the picture conveyed.

[Hellgate]

Many of the original Colt's revolvers I've seen for sale at gun shows had dovetailed front sights or a dovetailed rear sight. I suspect many of them shot off windage wise.

[KCSO]

Funny you should mention Burnham as I just finished a new biography of him the other day. I have both his books and Baden Powell's Matabele Wars.

Now my next project is a copy of the London 1851 1/2 round dovetail sight.

[nekshot]

Nice work, but I always simply compensated as to me that was as real as it got back then! Drove my son nuts because he wanted the sights dead on and I only needed 1 shot to know where it shot and then I was good to go. To each there own! I thought of working on my 58 but passed until I or we get a conversion cylinder.

[Omnivore]

That's the way to do it. A gun that shoots to point of aim is simply more fun than one that doesn't. That, and it can be shared, meaning other people who pick it up don't need to learn the hold-off, meaning it's more fun yet.

I have no use for a gun that's off by two feet at ten yards, like my Uberti Colt Police was when I got it. There's just no point in putting up with it, being that it isn't terribly difficult to correct. Golf balls at ten yards, I think, is a good minimum standard for pistol sight regulation, meaning that the sights should be aligned at the bottom edge, or somewhere on the golf ball, and you hit it.

[swathdiver]

Have you picked out any of TOWs sights for the rear? I bought a bunch some time ago but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[DanWalker]

Which rear sight would you use?

[KCSO]

Rear sights on the Colt copies are the hammer notch which I reshape to give a better sight picture. Fot the Remington copies I have used a shallow dovetail and a standard GI 1911 rear sight. That way it doesn't stand out but still gives and improved and adjustable sight. I turn a higher front sight just like the factory sight and simply solder it in place.

Hold off is fine if you have one gun and shoot it al the time, I have several and want them all to shoot into POA. I shoot standard offhand matches and our competition is pretty stiff a 90 will not get you in the money.