Pistol sights

[Scota4570]

I am at the point where I need to make sights.  The original appeared to have  a front blade sunk in a slot in the barrel.  I can do that,  or make a dovetailed front sight of the same shape, and remove all evidence of the dovetail after I sight it in. 

Rear sight?  I want one, even though the original had none.  I am a shooter more than a looker.   I was thinking of something discrete dovetailed into the tang close to the end of the barrel.  Make the dovetail below the wood, let the sight sit on top of the tang and wood, thus giving room to drift it for windage below the wood?

Ideas and advice eagerly solicited.  : )

This has been a tough build.  My head was not in the game.  I did somethings out of order that caused me problems later.  Pistols are more difficult than I anticipated.  The next one will be perfect!   

 

[Daryl]

I don't know how this will go over, however, on my pistol, I soldered on the front sight, having a small curved base to fit the bl., however the rear sight
is simply 2 dome headed pins C/A'd into 2 tiny holes in the tang, just back of where it meets the barrel.  This makes for a decent sight that is unobtrusive,
 but works.

[Elnathan]

Kennedy, from NC, usually put his rear sights on the pistol tang, I think. He was using octagon barrels, though, so sighting in could be done with the front sight only fairly easily.

[Daryl]

The (many) Wogdon Dueling pistols had rear sights mounted just as the same location as my pins.  Interesting that they have very low
front sights, meaning they must have shot high indeed.

[Dale Halterman]

Page 54 of "The British Dueling Pistol " by John Atkinson contains a quote from a paper read by John Rigby to the Royal Dublin Society in 1838 which states that Wogdon bent the barrels of his pistols so they would strike the point of aim at 12 yards.

To get back to the original question, I file a notch in the forward end of the tang and solder in a piece of steel the same width as the tang but taller. Then fit the tang to the barrel as you normally would and file out the sight. Of course, lateral sighting in must be done with the front sight as Elnathan pointed out. This does require a taller front sight which I am not crazy about, but i am not going to try bending a $100 barrel.

The book mentioned above also contains a diagram which shows Rigby's solution. He bored his barrels off center, so the bore was parallel to the sight axis and not to the outside of the barrel.

Dale H

[Scota4570]

I was thinking along the same line.  Except, I was going to make the rear sight with a small integral pin.  The pin goes into a hole in the tang. The pin makes it easier to locate it for soldering.  I might even try Loctite retaining compound 680, it is as strong as solder, theoretically.   I would then file and shoot the notch to the correct windage and file the front sight for elevation.   

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

My target pistol is a .60 cal. Hoch barreled Hawken style.  It shoots a .595" pure lead ball, .018" denim patch, and 25 gr. FFFg GOEX @ around 550 fps.  From a rest at 25 yards it shoots cloverleaf five shot groups.
The rear sight is cut into the tang itself, ie:  the tang casting includes an appropriate raised portion at the forward end that has a good notch cut.  the front sight is dovetailed into the octagonal barrel.  the only disadvantage is that the rear sight is adjacent the nipple, so the sight fouls up and must be wiped frequently to keep it clear.  Click the image twice to enlarge to close to full scale.

[Daryl]

Taylor is not exaggerating the accuracy of this pistol.  We've both done exactly that - virtually a cloverleaf shape, all in the 10 ring of a standard
25 yard target, but with 5 shots - and standing, 2 hands, of course. We were both younger, then. 

[alacran]

Since you say you are a shooter, sights that you can see are important.  I shoot pistols in NMLRA style competition, I have to abide by certain parameters, as they relate to Kentucky pistol competition. The rear sight has to be no more than 5/16ths tall. The front sight can be no more than .100 wide and can be as tall as necessary to be on target. Of course this like modern Bullseye competition is shot with one hand. These are sights that I have on my pistols.  I hand filed all these sights and they meet the rules parameters for a Kentucky pistol.