Sights on the 1872 OT's vs. 1851 conversions

[Tommy tornado]

I am considering buying a 1851 conversion or 1872 open top and was curious about the sights, especially from those that currently shoot them.  Which do you prefer?  From what I gather the 1872 sight is on the barrel and the conversion is either on the recoil shield or the hammer (depending on the method).

[River City John]

I have both an Open Top '72 and a '51 cap 'n' ball with the notched hammer. It is becoming increasingly difficult for my eyes to acquire sight picture on the Open Top as it has a very small rear 'V' sight and a rather thick front blade. I find I have to really concentrate. The hint of those horn tips on the rear notch of the Open Top rub to bare metal quite quickly from holster wear and makes sighting especially slow for me.
The hammer notch rear sight on the c'n'b(no difference if it were a cartridge gun) at first was no better until I opened the hammer notch with a triangular file to give more daylight around that nubbin of a front post. Now it sights better for me.

But the Open Top is such a fine point shooter that I prefer it as my main match gun.
RCJ

[Fox Creek Kid]

I find the Open Top easier to gather a quick sight picture as it's farther away from your eyes on a focal plane. That's the way bifocals work I guess. Then again I am a point shooter and shoot with both eyes open for everything. Just my 2 cents.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

RC John, can't you do the same triangular file mod with the OT?

I have a butchered 1851.  (Butchered is a loose term - it was done VERY professionally.  Barrel turned so it's now round; innards REALLY smoothed with a 2.5 lb. trigger and NO creep and the front sight replaced with a dovetailed square sight and the hammer notch squared to match; then the gun was "antiqued".  It's a GREAT shooter - but no longer an 1851.  It's also an amalgamation of at least 2 different guns.)

It's here on the bottom left:




Sorry - I didn't mean to stray from the topic. 

[will52100]

Me personaly I like the 51/60 RM sights better, maybe just because my first pistol when I was a kid was a percussion colt replica.  I can't hit the broad side of a barn with my 72, but a buddy of mine that cant' hit the broad side of a barn with any handgun shoots it like it's got teliscopic sights on it.  The sights are hard for me to see.  Maybe my difficulty is that I've got a 72 with 5.5" barrel and the rear sight on the end of the barrel makes for a very short sight plain and the hammer mounted sight on the 51/60 is longer.  There not much differance between them other than the sights.

Best thing to do is go to a match and see if someones got both guns and try them out.

[River City John]

RC John, can't you do the same triangular file mod with the OT?

Steel Horse,
the rear notch on the '72 Open Top is on the rear of the barrel and is dang small, not a lot of wdth to file into before I'd be removing heighth.
RCJ

[Kidd Krystin]

I've shot Richards-Mason conversions (Army frame) and O-T's (also Army frame).  With no modification to the sights I have no preference of one over the other.  Currently I have three Army frame O-T's which have been worked on by Joe Alves (Will Shootem of Pioneer Gunworks).  A thing I had him do is square out the shallow "vee" rear sights.  Instead of a shallow "vee" I now have a squared off "U".  This has greatly improved the sight picture and allowed me to get on target much more quickly.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Steel Horse,
the rear notch on the '72 Open Top is on the rear of the barrel and is dang small, not a lot of wdth to file into before I'd be removing heighth.
RCJ

A-ha!  A simple case of not enough  metal to work with!

[Coffinmaker]

I shoot both.  I found the "out of the box" or "original" sight patterns on both guns to be equally .... ah ......... poor.  I did the only reasonable thing to correct the problem.  I lopped off the barrels even with the ejector rod assembly, dovetailed in a new front sight and and re-cut the real sights so I could see the front sights.  Huge improvement.

The '51 was initially the most difficult as you must first get thru the Color Case.  There is a lot of metal there, so you can widen the sight in the hammer quite a bit.  The Open Top was easy.  Very small file.  It was previously pointed out there isn't a lot of metal there.  Care must be taken not to ruin the rear sight.

I have another project.  I'm cutting '51 barrels to the ejector housing again (never met a barrel twaz too short) and I plan to dovetail a rear sight into the back of the barrel in a similar spot to the Open Top.  Should work really well.  I like the Open Top sight once opened up so a bit wider rear sight should be just the ticket.

Coffinmaker

[Patrick Henry Brown]

I shoot both.  I found the "out of the box" or "original" sight patterns on both guns to be equally .... ah ......... poor.  I did the only reasonable thing to correct the problem.  I lopped off the barrels even with the ejector rod assembly, dovetailed in a new front sight and and re-cut the real sights so I could see the front sights.  Huge improvement.

The '51 was initially the most difficult as you must first get thru the Color Case.  There is a lot of metal there, so you can widen the sight in the hammer quite a bit.  The Open Top was easy.  Very small file.  It was previously pointed out there isn't a lot of metal there.  Care must be taken not to ruin the rear sight.

I have another project.  I'm cutting '51 barrels to the ejector housing again (never met a barrel twaz too short) and I plan to dovetail a rear sight into the back of the barrel in a similar spot to the Open Top.  Should work really well.  I like the Open Top sight once opened up so a bit wider rear sight should be just the ticket.

Coffinmaker:

Been a while since you posted this, but was wondering how that 51 turned out and where you got the front and rear sights from. Thinking of trying the same thing myself.

Preacher Clint

Coffinmaker

[Long Johns Wolf]

The "Man with no Name" conversion of the 51 has a nice "high contrast" rearsight dovetailed into the barrel. That should provide a better sight picture than the one of the OT or the RM.
Long Johns Wolf