Front sight, on octagon to round barreled rifle

[rich pierce]

I have to decide what sort of front sight to use on my current (eternal) build, RCA 19, which is built like a smooth rifle (but this one is a rifled smooth rifle, LOL) with an octagon to round barrel.  It will have front and rear sights of course.

Options seem to be to use a
1) dovetailed sight.  Barrel wall thickness is about .125- .150, I am guessing
2) "turtle" sight soldered on
3) to chase a groove and solder a blade in the groove (how deep?)
4) use a "spider" sight and install that like an inlay in the barrel (how deep?  Undercut and peen it in, I assume?)

I want a good sight picture so the #2 may not appeal to me, if I see something lumpy down there.  I also have to consider the elevation situation- with an essentially tapered barre, it may want to shoot high unless I use a really low rear sight and a reasonably high front sight.  I want it to look good and be sturdy also.  Your suggestions/experience?

[Birddog6]

Rich:

Just a suggestion.  Glue several dif ones on there one at a time & go shoot it, then decide on what you can See good first, then figure out how you will attach it.  I know here in the shop & out there on the range they appear differently at times, so I have found this works well for me.   I always epoxy mine on & go shoot the rifle first, then make the adjustments I want after I know what will work.   

Keith Lisle

[jcmcclure]

I have had a few different Oct to Round rifled guns over the last six or more years. There were two different .50 cal rifles and a .62 cal. All of those guns have had turtle sights and I had been well pleased. I have since sold all three of those guns but cant say it was due to accuracy. As a matter of fact my favorite shooting gun was a one of those .50 cal. Personally I can tell no great difference in my shooting accuracy between oct-to-round with turtle sight and swamped oct with a low silver blade sight. Just my experience, not sure if it will help you or not.

[Dave B]

Rich,
Herr is one way to do it. I cut a notch under sized and up set the edges to allow the sight to drop in. I also under cut the sides of the tab slightly. After peaning the lip down I fluxed and soldered the blade in place. I think the depth of the notch was .020 at most.

[rich pierce]

Dave, that is what I was thinking of doing because it looks really clean.  I did a practice slot last night on hot rolled steel.  What did you use for the blade?  Silver dollar?  Does coin silver solder well?

[Dennis Glazener]

Does coin silver solder well?

I just did a front sight out of coin silver. Used acid core solder and it soldered perfectly. I did put extra flux on it before I heated it.
Dennis

[rich pierce]

What kind of silver coins are good and cheap?

[Mike Brooks]

What kind of silver coins are good and cheap?

Buy pre 64 quarters, halves and dollars.

[heinz]

You can try a coin dealer and ask for scrap silver (coins).. Ususally will be a minimal markup over the silver weight.   

[Jim Filipski]

Rich ,
 Since I have been in the photography business for 37 years I have electroniclly reduced the silver in my fixers for years (oh well doesn't work well any more since I went digital!) I have large amounts of 99% pure silver which I have used for just such. Of course you need to workharden it a bit to get it tight. I probably have a few guns here that are worth more just because of the AG content!  
Jim

[Dave B]

Rich,
I use  18 ga sterling sheet silver That I picked up from a jewelry findings company.

[northmn]

On my round ended barrels I always used brass because I hate silver sights.  I fold it and form a T similar to how those do that make underlugs.  Tin one edge before bending with silver solder and solder it together.  I file the base down very thin and solder it to the barrel with a good low melting point solder.  Takes longer to describe it than to do it.  Also if I am a little off on centering I can resolder. I have made ones out of steel that way and brazed them at the base and formed a brasse bead with braze, but the all brass is simpler.  You can make the base into any type of design you want.

DP

[Jim Kibler]

If choosing to inlet a blade in the barrel, with some care you ought to be able to just lock it in place with the metal and avoid the use of solder.  I've not done it, but I would imagine you could chisel or mill your slot, undercut the edges of the inlet slightly with a small chisel causing metal to be raised, insert your sight blade with perhaps just a very slight grove or doveltail shape filed in, and then peen down the raised metal locking the sight in place.

[rich pierce]

I'll have to practice, for sure.  Thanks for the tip.  It's always a pain soldering and keeping it clean.

[Don Getz]

I'm with northman on his suggestion to make it out of sheet brass, steel, silver....whatever.   You can make them as small
or large as you want, file the base into a small heart shape.   Thin the base with a file, tin it first, then solder it on.   Very
easy to make.............Don