Changing brass foresight on .31 pocket

[Sheriff Langston]

I need to swap the front sight on my Pietta .31 pocket Remington for one about twice as tall. No problem making the new one out of a nice piece of brass just the right thickness. But how do I remove the original and swap them over? How are those brass sights held in to the slot in the steel barrel - are they soldered or what?

[St. George]

You have a choice - some are threaded, some soldered (you'll see the line), and some are a press-fit.

Try a different bullet weight before you modify the piece.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Montana Slim]

Mine was just peened in place.
I Clamped the sight in the vice and tapped the barrel with a plastic mallet.
Made a trial sight out of stiff cardboard (extra tall), taped it in place and headed to the range.
Fired away at a target & trimmed the cardbord with scissors to determine the height.
Made the new sight based on the cardboard.

Regards,
Slim

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi 'Slim,

I have the same prblem with my little .31 Remmie-conversion-to-.32 S&W Short ... when I remember to aim low, I hit the target. When I forget and use the sights the normal way, I am 'way high.

Just out of curiosity, about how high did your sight end up (above the barrel; not counting the the part in the barrel groove)?

[Montana Slim]

I recall it's a shade over 2x the original height.

Slim

[WaddWatsonEllis]

'Slim,

That's great!  Now I can start with a sight that is 2X the original height, place it, and just file it down until it is right on .... shoot, file, shoot again, file more if necessary .... sounds like a plan!

[Sheriff Langston]

Slim - Is yours a Pietta? So was it just a good tight fit with no solder or anything like that? So I can just pull out the old one and gently hammer in a new one?

Instead of cardboard I took a bit of thin brass sheet, bent it double and superglued it around the original sight. The glue held it so surprisingly well that I was able to file it to shape and unless you look really closely it looks fine anyhow. But somehow having a gun partly made of glue seems not quite right so I'd like to fit a solid new sight.

All - Yes, the sight needs to be about twice the height of the original. In my case a hair under twice the height - original front sight was .106" and shot about an inch high for every yard of range, now .206" and an inch or so high. When I fit the new one I'll go for .22" and shave it down gently at the range. Windage and grouping are fine, at least at 10 or 15 yards, group opens up a bit at 25 yards but I guess a pocket pistol with 3.5 inch barrel is no medal winning target piece.

Many thanks for your replies,

Sheriff Langston

[Montana Slim]

Slim - Is yours a Pietta? So was it just a good tight fit with no solder or anything like that? So I can just pull out the old one and gently hammer in a new one? ........
Sheriff Langston

Sheriff,
The sheet brass I used was a shade thiner than the stock sight. I slipped it into place and slightly peened the edge of the slot in the barrel to tighten it up. If your sight fits snugger, you may be able to tap it in. Peening is best done using a thin steel strip as a punch.

Regards,
Slim

[Sheriff Langston]

Thanks Slim, very useful to know. I guess since brass is softer than the barrel I'll try to just tap the new sight in, but make it extra tall so the top edge that gets gnarled up by the hammering can be tidyed up afterwards.

By the way - just re-reading my post from yesterday I see I worded it confusingly. Thing is the old sight shot an inch high per yard, so at 10, 15, 20 yards it was 10, 15, 20 inches high. Now it has a pretty flat trajectory but all about one inch high