drilling and tapping a ghost ring.

[T-Bird]

This will be a stupid question to a lot of you for 2 potential, opposite reasons #1That the answer is "of course you can". or #2 " of course not". But is it reasonable for me to ask a gunsmith to drill and tap a David Pedersoli ghost ring on one of my muzzle loaders to accept a Lyman screw-in aperture that I have? I don't know squat about machining.

[JSnover]

It's pretty simple, you'll get plenty of advice here about how to do it yourself. I wouldn't pay someone to do that job because 'machining' doesn't get much simpler than that.
BUT... It's your sight and your rifle. If you'd rather not risk it, a gunsmith or a machinist, or a mechanic would be able to knock it out easy enough.

[country gent]

It can be done and isnt a hard job to do,depending on the size of the aperture in the ghost ring. What may become a issue is the back of the lyman apertures eye piece diameter, it may be big enough to limit sight travel down.
If memory serves the lyman threads were 7/32 X 36 tpi

[T-Bird]

the aperture that I have in mind, has a small eyepiece, but the opening is smaller than the ghost ring. The reason I want to do this is that I have a T/C Cherokee that I was given this sight for, for Christmas last year. I had it installed. My eyes are to the age that peeps work better for me and I have them on several lever guns. This one however, I guess due to the short stock, barrel, looks like a cave opening and the "your eye will center the front sight" just ain't workin'. I'm shooting 4-5 in "groups" at 30 yds with this gun that I used to squirrel hunt with (successfully I might add). The aperture that I have won't slide into the hole in the ghost ring so I figured it would have to be drilled, then tapped but I thought the size of the thing might make it hard to mess with. That knowledge concerning the the twist rate for Lyman may prove valuable, thank's Gent!

[marlinman93]

My concern would be the diameter of the hole in the Lyman staff and whether it has enough meat to tap for the aperture. Then my next concern will be how hard the Lyman sight is, and how hard or easy it will tap. Some of those sights are made pretty hard to avoid wear.

[country gent]

Another thing to look at is instead of the lyman aperture have your smith turn one up to fit the sight. this allows it to fit the sight and allows the size aperture you want

[T-Bird]

Guy said that the Ly aperture was too big, I don't know why I couldn't see that home. I thought I checked for that. He said I need an aperture 6x40 or 6x48. The Ly is 7x something.

[pietro]

I'm shooting 4-5 in "groups" at 30 yds with this gun

I guess due to the short stock, barrel, looks like a cave opening and the "your eye will center the front sight" just ain't workin'.

With all due respect, like a young lady once told me when we were both very young, "you're doing it wrong".

It will take some practice, but if the ghost ring is ignored completely, and the shooter concentrates only on the front sight, and placing it "on target", the accuracy will follow.

I'm past my 80th birthday, and the accuracy of the method still works for me.

You might want to consider swapping out the front sight for another that's more prominent ( like a gold bead, or a fiber-optic bead) to make concentrating on it easier.


.

[T-Bird]

I'm gonna do that, thanks. It ain't the gun! I have peeps on several other guns and am not having this problem with them though.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I believe the thread is a 7/32-40, not really too hard to find, Brownell's - $23, www.victornet.com - $9.50, probably others out there selling them. Victor Machinery carries many 'non-standard taps, dies. I've had mine a very long time, probably got it from Victor's.

[T-Bird]

Well, I went from .310 balls to .315 based on the handbook from T/C that I found in my possession that I've had since the '80's.( had it in a place where "I wouldn't loose it") I can't imagine that I didn't use that dia. RB then if it said to in the manual. Ordered some, all of a sudden this sight was better! Don't know why I had a partial box of .310 ball from that era but apparently they weren't what I used.