Quick do-it-yourself sight dovetail blank

[Adirondack Jack]

I have a shoot tomorrow, and decided tonight that the rear sight on my Marlin #2 cowboy .45 Special conversion had to go.  Unlike #1, this gun had the original rear sight, that does not fold down, and I plain don't like it sticking up there while I'm using a Marbles peep.

With no time to ORDER a slot blank, a quick and dirty filler had to do.

So, I snipped a piece of dead soft lead (recovered bullet) to about the right size, and using a small brass hammer and brass plate anvil, beat it into a roughly "brick shaped" rectangle just about as wide as the narrow aspect of the slot, and just about as long, but too tall.  Then I peened the lead into the slot, trimming and final shaping uising a piece of sheet brass under the hammer as a "leveller", and the same sheet brass as a scraper.



I don't expect Tiffany's will be hiring me any time soon, but it'll work,and only took about 15 minutes

[Howdy Doody]

Dang pard, that is one hell of an idea. I would never have thought of that in a million years. I use a tang sight on my 38-55 336 cowboy and I dealt with that sharp dovetail until I had a order going into Brownells for some other stuff before I got a marbles blank and I think your idea is even better because the marbles hangs over the octagon section of the barrel.
AJ, I just love innovation and thanks for a great tip.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

What a great idea!

I'm going to remove the (basically useless) barrel sight on my repro 1874 Sharps from Taylors.  That and a finely applied Sharpie (tm) will make that open slot look a lot better - at least until I can find one of those barrel spirit levels ade to fit in the rear sight dovetail.  The only one I've found SO-FAR is $89 or so, and that's a bunch steep, IMHO.

Thanks for the great tip, A.J.!

[Adirondack Jack]

Thanks fer the kind words.

If ya do this, just be sure to use SOFT lead (if ya can't scratch it with a fingernail, it's too hard.

Also,a SMALL hammer and a lotta light taps are the way to go.  After a while ya see the lead begin to flow almost like working dough.  It does pretty much anything ya ask of it.  A BRASS scraper, sharpened with a file will remove excess without hurting bluing, and a bit of sheet brass or a clean and smooth brass block makes a great anvil.