'51 front sight

Dirty Dan Dawkins · June 11, 2006, 05:35:58 PM

Is this a common problem: The front brass bead sight on a '51 Navy bending or moving. I have had to adjust mine from time to time. Easy to do either by pushing or a SMALL ballpeen hammer and a punch. BUT I fnd it bends after firing, due to heat in barrel I suppose. Is there a remedy for this and was it common to replace this with a blade type sight? How could this be achieved? Also, what style grips could replace the flaired out Pietta grips? I was shooting high as well ( about 6 inches at 35 feet. Easily remedied by powder load, but opted for filing rear sight down on hammer to keep full charge (important on reactive targets I have found). A great point and shoot gun. All in all a regret free purchase.

Sir Charles deMouton-Black · June 13, 2006, 06:43:19 PM

I had a small dovetail sight installed on my '51 and my Navy Richard Masons.

Dirty Dan Dawkins · June 13, 2006, 10:32:24 PM

Nice! Simple job of dovetailing the barrel ,eh? I thought that's all it'd take, just wanted to see if it was my only option. Thanks!

Smokin Gun · June 13, 2006, 11:17:58 PM

A friend did it this way, I'm gonna try it if the rear site filing ain't enough...

If you didn't want to go through the work involved with cutting the barrel for a dovetailed site, you could consider silver soldering a brass cone, which I did with my '62 Pocket Police.

I took a piece of brass welding rod about 3" long and hollowed out a cone shaped recess in one end with a cone shaped Dremel mill bit.

That recess conformed pretty much to receive the small factory cone bead on the barrel. I ground the new site into a rough cone, but left it attached to the 3" piece of brass rod (so I could hold it better), then cut it off once it was soldered in place. I heated the factory sight for soldering with a small, focused butane torch, so as not to damage the bluing, then before final shaping with fine files, I wrapped around the barrel/new sight with masking tape so as not to scratch the barrel.

It worked pretty good. The new sight is solid, and its height , combined with filing a deeper notch in the hammer rear sight,.... has really helped it shoot more to point of aim.

Major 2 · June 14, 2006, 03:31:58 PM

That's a new one on me ....Heat from the barrel ,
I would think the Holstering and un-holstering might do it, in a tight holster.

Is the bead itself bent or moving in the recessed hole ?

Dirty Dan Dawkins · June 15, 2006, 02:31:43 PM

Yeah the holsering occured to me last night. I just noticed heat from the barrel and made an assumption, taking into account the softnes of brass. I do believe it has more to do with holstering than anything.

Dirty Dan Dawkins · June 15, 2006, 02:33:43 PM

And to answer your question, the bead is bending.

rifle · July 16, 2006, 12:00:02 PM

Howdy! If the sight bends it must be really soft since it has to be relatively short. I'd screw it out. Drillpress.....drill larger hole.....tap threads....die threads on a thicker brass rod section.....screw it in using Locktite Industrial grade....shape to suit and since it's widder now it can be shaved off some on either side to POA-POI. A piece of brass as short as a front sight shouldn't bend. It must be moving in the threads some or was partially broken when screwed into the barrel. If you silver solder a cone to it then it would be like building a house on mud. No foundation. The cone thing is for raising the sight. I've dovetailed Remington 1858 sights to 1851's to POA-POI. Not totally authentic but works good. Doing a dovetail in a barrel isn't as easy as it appears. Easier said than done. I have seen antique Colts 1851's with blade sights on the barrels??!! Not factory I imagine. I might add that when screwing in a bigger diameter brass sight for filing to POA-POI the "bottoming tap" used to finish the hole(at least three threads) threads isn't adequate. The bottoming tap needs to be ground on the bottom to get more complete thread in the hole. Gring the bottom flat while cooling in water often so it doesn't heat up. Start with the "plug" tap. Finish with the bottoming tap. Ya gotta have a decent drill press and drill oress vise to make a new wider threaded hole. Anyhow the sight mentioned in this thread must be broken partially(twisted at the factory when it was screwed in) so just a new factory sight screwed in would work. Screw it in with padded pliars or vise grips. Stop when ya get snugged to the bottom of the hole or the new brass sight can get fatiqued right off the bat. Making a replacement that is longer can give something to grab onto and if that is marred it can be filed "off". Take care