How to make a dovetail filler

[Major Tom]

I read the thread on how to make dovetail cuts in barrels. Very good info.
Now, I have a Winchester M94 which I mounted a Williams receiver peep sight and removed the factory rear sight. I'm left with an ugly open dovetail. Being the insert is so small. how would I go about making a filler piece from metal?

[RayO]

I bought a sight blank from Gun Parts.There is enough material there to make a few.

http://www.e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=221170&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

[pietro]

Well, there's easy ways, and then - there's harder ways.

The easiest, bar none, is to buy a Lyman slot filler blank from MidwayUSA or Brownell's.

The next easiest, and what I usually do, is hunt around for an older longleaf open rear barrel sight with an interesting shape forward of it's male attaching dovetail, cut off the longleaf about halfway along it's length - then file the rear face of the male dovetail area to match the front with a fine file, and use that as a slot filler.

Somewhat harder, is to set a large pure lead boolit in the middle of the clean/degreased dovetail slot, and swedge it down into the dovetail, taking care to shape the ends to match the cruve of the barrel sides. The lead will become a much darker color with a bit of use, blending in a lot more than when fresh.

The hardest is to use or cut some male dovetail stock at least 1/4" longer than the barrel slot, and thicker than the top curve of the barrel is high. It's then filed down to match the barrel contour, polished & cold blued.

.

[docone31]

Brass also looks good too.
Get some brass stock, file the male dovetail, a little larger than the cut out. I like to taper it slightly. Drive it in, and file it to fit.
Steel also works. That can be blued. It won't neccessarily match the blueing, no matter what you do, but it is nice to get it close.
A side note.
Once I made a dovetail "cover", I made it larger than the contour and draw filed it to shape. Of course I made some shiney spots on the barrel. I touched it with cold blue. As the blueing darkened the piece I made, the blueing also ate the blueing on the barrel! A little at a time. I finally ended up blueing the entire barrel. Came out ok, but it was more work than I had planned on.
If that happens, the closer to perfect you can file the dove tail filler, the better the overall finish.
JBWeld is not the way to go!!!!! It looks good at first, but it can be dinged up with use and look like a redneck Bondo job. No. No. No.
Get some steel stock, or brass, or copper, file the dovetail, drive it in, finish it to match the barrel contour. Copper also looks good. On the copper alloy piece I made for my Winnie 94, I made some Mokume'Gane. That looked great in the slot! A small piece of copper alloys damascus! A lot of work for a beater, but I liked it.

[deltaenterprizes]

Take a piece of round stock slightly larger (.010'')than the spot on the barrel where the dovetail is located and cut a matching dove tail. Fit a piece of metal to fill this dovetail and use some red Loctite to hold it in place. File or grind as close as you can, then put the roundstock in the lathe true it and turn the part with the dovetail to match the diameter of the barrel where the dovetail is located, heat to soften the Loctite and tap out the part and then tap it into the dovetail on the barrel. If you want to blue it heat it until red and drop it into some oil before installing in dovetail on barrel.

[6.5 mike]

Brownell's has a blank strip about 12 in long, oversizer, so you can custom fit. You can do alot of dovetails with it. Don't remember how much tho.

[C A Plater]

I just use a Marble's filler on my Winchesters. I'm way to lazy for all that cutting and fitting. Besides they come blued or nickle plated for stainless. Just tap them in place with a brass hammer or punch.

[Limey]

Guy's,

Just got an e-mail back from Numrich after enquiring about a length of dovetail filler....thanks for the ''heads up'' RayO....

...cost of dovetail filler, $9.90

...postage charge to me here in France, $4.90

...but here's the stinger!....Service Charge $25!!!!

...so it might be easier to buy this blank but it certainly isn't cheap!....I've invited them to explain and justify this service charge.......I guess the strip must weigh about an ounce in weight......so to my way of thinking popping it into a suitable sized Jiffy bag sure doesn't justify 25 bucks....

...looks like I'll be out in the shed ''whittling'' myself a dovetail blank out of a bit of scrap this W/E....

Safe shooting,

Limey

[docone31]

I think you will find it easier than you think.
You can use either copper, brass, or steel. Depends on what you want for a finish.
Leave the piece long, so you can draw file it, then cut it to length. It is simpler to draw file long than short.
Drive it in, file it to finish, touch up with blueing, or leave it plain if brass or copper.
Doing it yourself, it should look better than generic plugs.

[Limey]

Guy's,

...here's what the nice lady from Numrich said when I asked her to justify the $25 service charge:

....''We are now required to register all foreign orders with AES, a part of our US State Department. The $25.00 is to cover this.

Thank you,

Nancy
Web Services''


....so I clearly you guy's in the States do not have to pay the service charge....but that still seems like a lot of dough to just fill in a form!.....

Safe shooting,

Limey


PS:....I was so fed up with this that I went out to the shed and made one in an hour......maybe could've been quicker but several glasses of local Loire Valley red wine probably slowed me down a little!.....but it sure mellowed off my mood about all this....