WHAT A RELIEF! My Front Sight Wobbles!

[jeffh]

1) I have a revelation to share only because it is such a relief to me and I need to say it;

2) I am looking for some help regarding ideas to correct two issues on my "new to me" stainless Service Six.

First things first - I shot a little a couple days ago.  My 30-30 Contender Carbine NEVER lets me down and ALWAYS makes me feel good about my shooting, so I try to shoot that, regardless of whatever else I'm shooting.  This time, it shot amazingly, but not amazingly enough to douse the utter dejection I felt when I shot my new revolver at twenty yards, sitting, back against a tree, wrists between my knees. ala Mr. Keith style.

I burned the targets.  I should have seen easy one-inch groups, but they were FOUR-PLUS INCHES!  I'm falling apart way too young (60) and the one thing I always thought I'd always be able to do (shoot) is just a sickening memory.  Eyesight?  Wrong bifocals?  Blood-pressure?  I just SUCK?  Every shot was RIGHT THERE, DEAD-ON when I let go and it has the most excellent SA trigger to boot.  The holes just kept appearing here and there, and everywhere, EXCEPT where they were supposed to.  I was feeling pretty lousy about that.  BUT, I reminded myself that my cheap little 3" 357 Bulldog shot 1.5" groups at the same distance, shooting the same way two days prior.

This morning, I picked my prized Ruger I'd waited 33 years to replace, habitually opened the cylinder and confirmed SIX HOLES, closed it, looked at it and decided I should probably just sell it, keep the Bulldog on my hip and stick to my rifles.  Then, for whatever reason, I ran my thumb across the top of the front sight I THOUGHT I was going to replace (no point in that NOW), and the damned thing MOVED!  The sight flops around in the groove like a mud flap hanging off a truck with one screw!

WHEW!  Maybe I DON'T just SUCK!

Second matter, now that I have an idea it's not just me, is that the durn thing shoots 4" high.  Fortunately (unlike my beloved Flat Top 44 Special, which ALSO shoots way high), the Service Six in stainless, and therefore has a removable/pinned in front sight.  Ive made replacement front sights for Rugers before, using brass or 10 gauge mild steel.  If I had a fine checkering file ($50), there would be no question and I'd just make one.

My QUESTION is:  Does anyone here know how close a S&W pinned-in front sight is to a Ruger pinned-in front sight, dimension-wise?

There is a patridge-style S&W pinned-in front sight available with the back serrated and somewhat taller than I need, so if I can make it fit the Ruger front sight cut, it would be a shoo-in.  Well, a shoo-in with some help from files and abrasive cloth.  It's actually fairly cheap too, so it would save me the effort making one and the cost of the checkering file, which I'd never have cause to use again.

I have not found dimensions on Smith sights anywhere, but have references on the Ruger, plus have a couple (too short) to measure.

I know there are a lot of other options, but I want to first try to keep this as simple and cost-effective as possible before giving up and turning it over to someone else.

Any insight is appreciated and thanks for bearing with me on the long post.

PS: (short story) This has happened to me before!  When I qualified for my CCW, the retired Deputy knew who I was through a close mutual friend.  Apparently, the friend had bragged up my abilities and the Deputy asked me to demonstrate to the small, uninitiated crowd how engaging a 6" steel plate (quickly) at 30 yards was EASY with the "big, bad" 1911 shooting "big, bad" 45 caliber bullets.  I am NOT a ham, am careful not to be over-confident, but I was honored to be asked to help and this was going to be easy anyway.  I drew the 1911 and put SEVEN rounds right smack in the middle of..... SOMEWHERE, but not on the PLATE!!  I felt like a total ass.  I'd done all the drills with this gun, incidentally borrowed from said good friend, and did very well hitting everything we shot at during the drills.

I went home later and when I laid the gun on the bench to clean it - the front sight fell out of its dovetail!  The sight was flopping around, well like a mud flap hanging on by one screw!  Never got my chance to redeem myself on that one either.

[cas]

I once was puzzled and rather upset why I was yanking the trigger on a Bisley 44mag, the more cylinder's full I shot, the more the hits worked their way across the target. When it got real bad I noticed the barrel was unscrewing from the frame.

[jeffh]

Aug 7, 2021 17:47:48 GMT -5 cas said:

I once was puzzled and rather upset why I was yanking the trigger on a Bisley 44mag, the more cylinder's full I shot, the more the hits worked their way across the target. When it got real bad I noticed the barrel was unscrewing from the frame.

LOL!  I guess I'm not in quite as much a pickle as you were!

Sure doesn't take much to "unscrew" your confidence; a wobbly sight, barrel unscrewing itself.

[jeffh]

Got may answer from a fine gent who had a Smith sight and a chart from which we were able to make some estimates.

Looks like it'll work, so I'm ordering a S&W sight.

[ezekiel38]

Interested in your project. Parts numbers and work required, plus pics. Thanks!

[jeffh]

Aug 30, 2021 10:54:38 GMT -5 ezekiel38 said:

Interested in your project. Parts numbers and work required, plus pics. Thanks!

OK, so this is slow-goin' and I made a prototype, but have not had time to try it.  I calculated the new front sight height and made a brass sight to test.  Not much to show in the way of hacksaw/file/abrasive-paper work, but would like to at least share a useful trick for this modification I learned from the Dixie Gun Works catalog decades ago.  While the "trick" was for drilling tang screw holes which went through the breech tang and into the trigger guard, I have used it more for drilling holes in replacement front sights.

Align the twist drill with the center-punch, which is secured in a vise.  Set the off-side hole for the pin on the barrel on the center-punch and drill part way through the new sight.  Turn the gun over and drill a little through the other side.  This makes an incredibly straight and clean hole through the sight which lines up perfectly with the existing holes in the barrel/rib.

Once I've dialed this in, I will make a mild steel sight and case-harden it.  The front will be rounded at the top and the rear face of the blade will be slanted forward slightly for a "sorta-patridge" front sight of the correct height.

EDIT: I know I said I was going to buy a S&W sight from Midway, but they didn't have enough other things to make it worth paying for shipping on just the sight.  That, and I'm about due for my every third package delivered by USPS to go missing for a month and I was just not up for the aggravation.  Shipping, in general, has become a real sore spot lately and has affected what I am willing to spend in money on products, time tracking them down and aggravation dealing with careless couriers, who no doubt have not suddenly all copped a terrible attitude for no reason at all.

Not a rant, just that it has stifled my e-commerce endeavors to a serious degree lately and has affected a lot of my decisions - like making a front sight in the peace and quiet of my shop, in lieu of setting myself up for extreme aggravation and futile expenditures of time with people who don't care and are just trying to survive within a monstrous mechanism.

[jeffh]

Dialed in elevation and touched up a bit, rounding the front and slanting the back. I'll leave it like this for a while. If it starts to get dinged up. I will recreate it in mild steel and then case-harden.