AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Gun Building => Topic started by: Duane Harshaw on March 21, 2017, 03:38:35 AM
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how would you go about putting a notch in a rear sight that does not have oneI was thinking needle files.what say you.
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I relieve the area in front of the notch area with a small burr, round file or drill, depending on the sight style, then start the notch with a jeweler saw and widen it if need be with needle file. I like finer sights with a tight notch, some like wider notch with more light on either side of the front sight.
There are lots of choices.
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I just reworked the rear V notch on one of my rifles with jewlers file. I was having some trouble picking up the front sight blade in the very tiny rear sight notch. I really don't care if the notch I expanded does not comply with some obscure and ancient requirement relative to how it was done back-in-the-day. The important thing is that I can see the sights and fire the rifle accurately.
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Hacksaw works well
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I hack sawed a slot and then opened a v at the top with a triangle file. Took all of 30 seconds.
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It's probably worthwhile to make dummies up plastic or paper or cardboard rear sights which have been slotted various widths to check how your sight picture will look before cutting your real rear sight. A lot depends on barrel length and front sight width.
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I always start narrow and widen if needed. It is easy to take away metal but harder to put it back.
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When Taylor and I could see, we oft used a knife with a good blade, and a hammer. Nice fine, V notch.
If the blade is too hard, you might lose a piece of it with this method.
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I start the notch in a blank rear sight using a triangular file which is right on the scribed mark. Needless to say, the "V" isn't as deep as the final depth of the notch. A 1/16" thick needle file is centered by the "V" and squares up the notch to the final depth, Then a safe edge needle file widens the notch to its final width. The final side cuts of this file slightly angle the sides of the notch so that the notch becomes wider towards the muzzle side.
For my "old eyes", I preferred a notch width twice as wide as the .100 thick front sight blade as viewed when the rifle is aimed. The bbl lengths used are 42"-46". This arrangement might seem to cause inaccuracy , but has accounted for 100s of head hit squirrels during the 31 yrs of use.....Fred