Pietta front sight

[David]

Howdy folks. Its been a year or so since I last visited this fourm as Boots McCrackin. I have switched from Euroarms to Pietta. Somehow between the range and home I managed to snap off my front sight flush with the barrel!! Anybody have an idea as to how I can remove the remaining bit so I can replace it with a new one? Thank you.

[Major 2]

Considder dovetail and put in a windage adj. sight like Uberti has...

Pietta solders their's in place some heat and the remander might drop out .

[Flint]

My experience has been to have Pietta front sights drop off, out of 4 Pietta 58's, 2 blue and 2 Stainless, one of each has lost its front sight.

I replaced them with Uberti 58 front sights, which are dovetail type, shaped to match the octagonal barrel, and they don't fall off.  They are also the correct height to hit the target where you aim.  You need to get the sights from VTIgunparts, and a gunsmith or machinist with a dovetail cutter to unstall the sight.

If you are capable of cutting a dovetail yourself, the cutters are available from Brownells.

[Cincy Slim]

Go w/ the Uberti style dovetail mounted sight. Midway and Brownell's sell a Wheeler Engineering Dovetail cutting kit. Just follow the instructions, take your time and you'll be fine. Includes a hardened steel cutting fixture and a smooth side triangle file. The Uberti Remington front sights can be had from V.T.I. Gunparts or Dixie at about five bucks a pop. Get a couple so you have spare ! You can use the hole w/ broken Pietta front sight as a depth guide. File down with an appropriate width (1/8 inch wide) machinist's file until the cut is as deep as the sight base. Then use the Wheeler file to widen and under cut the dovetail slot. Go slow and test fit a LOT ! Use a little brass punch to drift in the sight. Stop when it looks centered.

Now go shootin'. Remember to bring a little hammer and the brass punch. You can now easily correct for windage by carefully tapping the front sight back and forth as needed.

I've replaced the useless little "acorn" sight on my Colts with the Uberti Remington sight.
Soooo much easier to see and shoot. The Uberti blade will almost certainly be too high and shoot low. Just file off a little at a time until she hits where you point her ! 

Happy Trails,

Slim

[Flint]

Be careful to keep the Uberti dovetail sight oriented correctly when you fit it, the octagonal matching sides look the same as the dovetail at a quick glance.  Make sure the blade is parallel to the barrel.

[David]

thanks for all the imput pards. Lucky for me,and its about time some thing went my way, this gun shoots point of aim with the 200 ten X colts and schofields. So I took the easy way out and was able to drill the rest out. Had I knowed that the hole in the barrel went all the way thru into the bore I could have just pushed it all the way thru from the top. They are a press fit. Real soft metal.
I understand the advantage of the drift adj sights of the Uberti. I tried to fit the Uberti sight on Euroarms. Not good. If I end up with a Pietta that wont shoot straight I will definetly have a dovetail cut. Thanks again.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Had I knowed that the hole in the barrel went all the way thru into the bore I could have just pushed it all the way thru from the top. They are a press fit. Real soft metal.

Well, you taught me something on that. I always thought the sights were pressed into a shallow hole. Thanks.

[Flint]

Sounds like the Pietta is set up to launch front sights and then use the hole as a muzzle brake...............

[Major 2]

Well, you taught me something on that. I always thought the sights were pressed into a shallow hole. Thanks.


Posted by: Flint 

Sounds like the Pietta is set up to launch front sights and then use the hole as a muzzle brake...............

Should have been set in a shallow hole .. something isn't right !

[David]

Not having ever repaced a front sight before on a Pietta I also expected to hit bottom. Started with a 1/16th inch bit at slow speed it cut like butter. I had my new sight on hand so I knew how deep I had to go to hit the barrel but it just kept going. If in fact it should have been a shallow hole, someone else drilled completely thru the barrel.

[David]

Ok now Im worried. Did I drill thru the barrel??? Crap!! Is my front sight going to act like a mortar?

[Cimarron Lawman]

Interesting question.

Look at the plus side: you can roast the birds that you shoot down. 

[Major 2]

The holes are cut with a bottoming mill bit ( Not sure that's the correct name )
the bottom of the hole is flat as is the pin on the sight.
a Drill has the 60 degree point...

I'm afraid you did go to deep
I can't imagine Pietta milled through into the bore... every one I've  every work on were shallow holes
but I can imagine someone before you messed with it and buggered it.

I'm thinking you have a canadate for 5 1/2" or 6 1/2"  barrel , assuming your is a 7 1/2"

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Whack that puppy off to 4 3/4" bbl length and make your self one of my Gunslingers.

You'll love the balance and they still shoot good too......Or cut it off just behind the sight hole and in front of the rammer latch. flat file it straight, and dovetail in a new sight.
If you can, center the new sight over the rammer latch.

[Cimarron Lawman]

Yes, chopping the barrel is a good suggestion. If it were mine, I'd make it 6.5".

[David]

Thanks Major2 and everyone else for all the advice. After cursing myself up one side and down the other, wacking off the barrel was my next thought. Now when you all say do this and do that your actually saying have a competent gunsmith do it RIGHT. I don't have the equipment to cut a dovetail. I might manage to cut off the barrel. I saw Charles Bronson do it on  shotgun once.LOL. VTI's got barrels for 60 bucks. Whats it like to swap barrels? How do you index so the sight hole is where it needs to be.Just wondering. Still leaning toward cutting it. 

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Nope when we say whack her off we mean you! It is easy with a hacksaw and a speed clamp. You put the speed clamp on the bbl with one edge where you want the cut. The using the speed clamp band as a guide you cut to one side of the clamp. I put the nut at the bottom of the bbl(nut area is wider than the band area) and cut half way thru from the top, then turn the band so the nut area is on top of the bbl. and finish the cut. this will give you a straight(er) cut.

Sometimes the bbls come out with ease and sometimes it's like pulling teeth. I'd just cut the bbl down. If you have to cut it beyond the rammer latch then you'll have to reset the latch as well. then you have to shorten the rammer a bit, but after you have done it once it is relatively easy, unless you are not mechanically inclined. I don't have a pistol like yours here right now so I cannot remember if the rammer latch and the sight are in line or staggered. I believe that the sight it closer to the muzzle than the rammer latch.

Dovetails can be made with a hacksaw making straight cuts across the bbl to a given depth, then a file can be used to file these little islands of steel down to the given depth, then a trianglar file with tape on the flat(down) Side can be used to cut the dovetails.

[Flint]

Had the front sight actually reached into the bore, it would have had to be installed before the bore was drilled and rifled, which is not at all likely. 

Presuming it's a 44, there is enough offset between the front sight and latch stud to shorten the barrel and dovetail a new front sight position, you'll probably lose a half inch.

[David]

Thanks for the vote of confidence there HCC. I like to think of myself as a mechanic. I been rebuilding auto transmissins for nearly 30 yrs for a paycheck. I thought I could use my exp and attention to detail and cross it over to use in gunsmithing but it just not that simple. I have the upmost respect for you all that do your own work. Using a tape measure and copying the same configureation By putting the front sight over the loading lever latch, I come up with about a 6-5/8" barrel. Ill give it a go.