Vaquero front sight removal options

[cal44walker]

Got a blued Ruger Vaquero that has a front sight thats almost a millimeter too low. Looking at 2 options.

1) Heat it up and remove it. Replace with a wider one that I can make/buy.

2) Run an endmill to just slightly clean up and flatten the top and use metal glue to add a silver strip to the top of the sight and add a millimeter. File to fit.

I've not removed a Ruger front sight before but I read that they are hard soldered in and the kind of heat required to loosen them and clean out the groove will ruin the blueing. So......from what I read in the SASS rules there is nothing saying I can't use an authentic material to add front sight high. Silver is resisant to tarnishing, reasonably hard and would help the sight to stand out like a bead sight.

Any thoughts/ideas?

cal44walker

[Pettifogger]

The front sights are hard soldered or brazed in.  I mill them off and cut a new slot in the barrel for a taller or wider front sight.  You can add material to the top, but a "bead" front sight is not SASS legal on a revolver.  The entire sighting surface is supposed to be the same color.  Anything you do that involves heat and solder is going to mess up the bluing some, so be prepared for a little touch up work.  You can also buy one of the new "Slick" front sights that glues on over the original with industrial epoxy. Then you file the file sight to the height you want.

[cal44walker]

I was afraid they were brazed. Well, looks like I'll be getting busy with a piece of mild steel to make a new front sight and then mill a slot for it to fit into. That'll teach me for getting courageous with the file.......

However, I wonder how a solid silver front blade would hold up to CAS use? That could be a fancy way to make it up to myself for that wooopsie.

cal44walker

[petrinal]

you can regrow it with stick welding, using 1,6 mm electrodes. Tig  welding is another option, but gives a lot of heat, and requires to be very competent in it.

just put two steel plates on both sides of the front sight, start in one, and end in the other. Cut the welding seem in both plates, and then file your front sight which has more material now.

cover the whole barrel area with painters tape, to avoid spattering from the welding.

with this method, the blueing in the barrel will remain untouched, as the amount of heat will  be limited to the front sight if you do it with care. If you have to add more welding, let the front sigth to cool, and of course, dont remove the start and end plates.

milling the front sight to install a new one, is too much work..  not probably adequate for something as simple as a regrow.....the front sights are welded or brazed, as you say...you dont really  need to mill them, and then do  the cut again. It is a waste of time and effort. To remove them, just heat with a propane  torch with care.....

if you make a new one from mild steel plate, , you can weld it  with tin, it will stand a hard use and is professional. Glueing a regrow  is not, and sooner or later, might fail. Fine double barrels are still welded with tin, which is  a very efective welding for steel.

anyway, with this method of removing the old sight, is probably too much  complicated for just a regrow,  and you will of course ruin the blueing in the barrel near the front sight area.

in short, the easiest way is  a regrow with  rutile stick welding,  but requires experience with stick welding. It is probably the cleanest  and more quirurgical way to do it.

[Coffinmaker]

Well...... There's always holding the target a millimeter higher 

Coffinmaker

[cal44walker]

   LOL.....smart#ss

I made a few front sight blanks to check for suitability and found that most options other than glass blasted blued steel reflect badly in the sunlight. So its going to be a steel blued blade polished sides and a sandblasted rear edge. Anyone have a measurement on the width of the wider blades that are available? I'm looking at making it around 2.75mm wide. The standard one is 2.20mm.

Pettifogger: Do you mill the slot for the new sight vertically with an endmill or do you flip the barrel on its side and cut a  slot with a circular disc cutter? I'm guessing the latter to get the flat bottom of the blade to fit snugly against the radius of the top of the barrel.

cal44walker

[Pettifogger]

I don't speak millimeters so I don't know that those dimensions are.  Typically, I will make a new sight out of brass and it will be from .125 to .156 inches.  I mill the slot flat and fairly deep so that when I solder in the new front sight I know it is sitting flat and square in the bottom of the slot.  A circular key cutter will make a nicer looking site as the ends of the sight will blend into the barrel better.  When I flat cut with an end mill the ends of the cut are round and I have to hand fit the sight.  Here's a brass sight in a 50th Anniversary Blackhawk.