Serrated Vaquero Rear Sight

[Alaskan454]

Has anyone reprofiled the rear sight on a Vaquero with a serration file?  I just did the front sight on mine with a 50 LPI and have been thinking about flat filing the rear and doing a serrated ramp to cut down on glare in the sunlight.  Mine is high polish stainless so it really shines in the sun.

[serialsolver]

I've done my front sight that way on my sheriff vaquero. It helps a lot.

[contender]

I traded into a stainless Vaquero several years ago that a previous owner had the rear area of the groove bead blasted to reduce any glare. A good job too.
(PS; Ask sixshot how the gun shoots!)

[Alaskan454]

I decided to give it a go and the whole rear sight area has been reprofiled with a 50 LPI file, took out and shot in bright sunlight with no problems. Once I clean up my work a little I'll post a picture.  On a different gun I decided to bead blast the whole thing and those sights are probably the best fixed sights of any Vaquero style gun I've shot.  I bet it looks great with just the sight pocket blasted.

[bulasteve]

With a polished SS Nm Vaq Sheriff 44spec here, am interested to see how you folks have dealt with the shiny sights too. Lead on !

[Alaskan454]

Aug 21, 2015 10:49:32 GMT -5 bulasteve said:

With a polished SS Nm Vaq Sheriff 44spec here, am interested to see how you folks have dealt with the shiny sights too. Lead on !

I'll post a picture of my plow handle that's been completely refinished and also the serrated high polish one for comparison.  How do you get pictures to show up in a post?  I couldn't get the insert image icon to work.

[kooz]

I have used a 40LPI file on the front sight of a stainless Uberti, worked well. I was thinking about taking it to the local smith to blast the rear sight.

[contender]

I'll drag mine out & post a picture of the rear sight area.

[Alaskan454]

I forgot to take pictures in actual sunlight, but at least I remembered to take them right?  At home the best simulation was directly under some recessed lights so I parked both guns in the same spot for a comparison.  The high polished one is a large frame 44 magnum Bisquero and I'm done with the front sight serration but haven't totally decided how I want to do the rear.  You can only remove metal once so I'm going to shoot it for a while before going any further.  I was out in bright midday sun and had no problems hitting steel at 50 yds, my Dad and I could barely hit anything at 25 yds with the same gun and load before the serration.  The plowhandle is a New Vaquero 45 convertible which has been bead blasted to a medium finish.  I use it in SASS so I wanted something that would still look good with a bit of wear and use.  Right now I think I prefer the serrated rear to the bead blasted one, it has virtually no reflections of any kind in bright sun and gives a very sharp sight picture.  The blasted sights are still good but you have a smooth rounded surface on the front sight which does make it a tiny bit harder to see clearly under the same conditions.  You might be able to notice I used my file at several different angles and actually rounded the serrations with the curve of the top strap.  The base of the sight notch is cut at 90 degrees but everywhere else it's blended with some type of radius.  It was really hard to get a picture of that so hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.  Initially I tried to do the serrations at a fixed angle but this method was the best for reducing glare.















Edit: Turns out DropBox was the problem, pictures should be working now from PhotoBucket.

[Cholla]

I bead blasted just the top strap of my blue New Vaquero. It was quite a challenge to mask off the remainder of the revolver, but the finished product looks good. The real travesty of the revolver is the ridiculously thin front sight. Why didn't think to make it .10" like the Colt repro's will forever remain a mystery.

I love the file job on the rear sight above. I wish I had the cojones to try that! Is it a difficult, time consuming job?

[mk70ss]

Aug 20, 2015 15:06:53 GMT -5 serialsolver said:

I've done my front sight that way on my sheriff vaquero. It helps a lot.

I love your Sheriffs model in your avatar!!! Drool.

[serialsolver]

Here's a bigger picture of it.


I have often thought about filling on the rear sight also. This thread has given me more to think about.

[Alaskan454]

I probably spent about an hour on the rear as it was the first time I tried something like that. I did it in four steps and shot out in the sunlight after each to see how the sight picture changed with different cuts. If I did it again it would take maybe 15-20 minutes. I figure worst case you can always start over with a mill file, just don't change the notch depth.

[Alaskan454]

Had a chance to play around with the mill and serration files again, decided to square up the front sight and make it more of a ramp profile, looks pretty good.  I also changed the rear serrations just a tad to make it look crisper at the top.  I went out in the bright morning sun and it works really well, nice crisp profile with zero reflections.  If I had a 20 or 25 LPI file it might have been a touch better cosmetically, but the 50 LPI serration kills any glare whatsoever.  I'll start off with the obligatory glamour shot.  

[ezekiel38]

Alaskan I really like your file work on the Bisquero. Especially effective on that front sight, especially the shape. Thanks for the photos.