How to center a front sight?

[crabo]

What method do you use for centering your front sight in a dovetail when you replace it? I have done it on a couple of lever actions and it is a PITA. Does anyone have a good way to meaure where you put it?

Thanks,

[pietro]

I tape the barrel, just in front or rear of the sight, with a small strip of masking tape BEFORE I remove the old sight, and make pencil marks on the tape that define the old sight's position.

Of course, the sight could simply be re-installed so that it's edges were equi-distant from either end of it's dovetail slot.

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