Mounting Lyman 57 sights

[abunaitoo]

I was asking, on another forum, about a rear target sight for my Winchester 74 and 63.
Seems they are kind of hard to find.
A few members said they use ShoeGoo to mount rear sights, rather than drill and tap.
I've used ShoeGoo on a shoe before, and that thing is tuff.
I was thinking that if I could find a sight, with a base contour close enough, it might work.
Has anyone here tried it????

[W.R.Buchanan]

I wouldn't do shoe goo. If the contour of the sight base wasn't an exact fit to the receiver I would use Devcon epoxy paste as a filler.

By positioning the sight in it's new place and waxing the receiver so the stuff wouldn't stick you would get a perfect transfer of the receivers shape. Then you'd drill and tap. The Devcon is pretty tough stuff and as far as strength is second only to the actual metal itself.

If the gun was valuable then I'd find the correct model Lyman or Redfield Sight for it, or make an adapter plate that didn't alter the gun in any way. I have done this on Enfield rifles adapting Lyman and Redfield sights to them with no alteration to the gun itself.

Here's Pics of my #4Mk1 with a Redfield Olympic adapted to it.

Randy

[2152hq]

For a flat sided frame you need a Lyman 66 series sight. The 57 is for round sided rec'vrs.

IMO attachment of sites with glue like that would be a 'Bubba Gunsmith job', It's not that difficult to do a drill & tap using the site base itself as a guide for the placement and drilling of the holes.
Clamping the base in place and getting it square to the bore is the important first step. Then spotting one hole w/a drill the same dia as the screw hole for a center is the next step, followed up by the tap drill. Then tap that first hole. Screw that one down tight. Then do the same procedure to hole #2.

If you don't want to drill & tap, about the only other alternatives would be to soft solder (sweat solder) the base into position carefully so the solder job does not show. That takes very careful prep and soldering so as not to damage/discolor the bluing on both the site base and the frame.

Using epoxy glue to attach the site could be done also and has been done by many in the past with positive results.
It's easier to do than soldering for most and small adj to the site to make it just right(square) can be done before the epoxy sets up. But I still view any sort of glue attachment as a poor gunsmithing technique. JMO of course, but it comes from many years full time in the business.

[Blackwater]

I'm with Randy on this. A rifle becomes pretty useless if the sights come off, and the way epoxy is generally gotten to detach is to freeze it, as when a bedding job sticks the metal and wood together. Taking a hunting rifle, that will likely be exposed to some pretty low temps, with only epoxy holding it on is just asking for trouble. I think you'd be time and money ahead to trade your sight off, or sell it and rebuy the correct sight. Other than making up some really precise sort of adapter, which might not work due to the spacing and dimensions of the aperture and the parts holding it, I think you'd be WAY ahead to just do it right to start with. Don't ask me how I know this. The answer would be embarassing to me! :)