KCSO
07-27-2016, 12:43 PM
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.
173110173111
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.
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.
173110173111
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.