original rear sights

[Red Owl]

Rear sights are another detail item that often is hard to find in studying photos of originals, all the photos tend to concentrate on the patch box or lock, etc.  In any event I believe the originals were small. My question is this, a lot of replicas have a dished out area in which the notch is cut. Was that the way it was done on original rifles? It seems that dished out area would have been difficult to create.

[b bogart]

Why couldn't the gunsmith use a cherry like when he made a roundball mold for the rifle! Just a smaller version.

[Lucky R A]

Yes, most originals do infact have the "dished out" area where the thickness of the blade was reduced to the minimum for the notch to be cut. Consider the fact that most gunsmiths supplied a mold with the gun, they had the capability to produce a cherry to make a mold, a dished out area of a rear sight blade wouldn't even be a challenge.  

[A.Merrill]

    The dished out part thins down the groove thus eliminates some of the glare inside the grove.    AL

[Red Owl]

Thanks, appreciate it.

[J.D.]

Browse through the library, I think you will find a few photos of rear sights.

God bless

[doug]

      the dished out area is not that hard to create and does not need a cherry.  Think in terms of drilling a hole and then removing most of the metal on one side to leave a dish.

cheers Doug

[Red Owl]

Good idea, thanks.

[rich pierce]

I bet they forged them that way, using a round ended punch on red hot iron.

[Stophel]

The iron probably wouldn't even have to be hot.

[dannybb55]

Yeah, but if you did it could, it would upset your punch. CW uses a cherry.

[Levy]

On some of the rifles that I have seen, the base of the rear sight was narrow enough (front to back) that a round file was used to thin the sight where the notch was cut.

James Levy

[Jim Kibler]

On RCA #42, the relief for the sight notch is not cylyndrical, but rather rectangular with rounded corners.  I fell pretty certain this was punched in.

[Stophel]

This is dead soft iron....you can almost crease it with your fingernails!  Very easy to pound into shape.

[Acer Saccharum]

most original sights I have seen are very low, and very softened by age and wear. The modern cast steel sights are way too big and way too fancy.
If you are going to shoot more than one shot, you may very well want to make your sights taller because of mirage.

[Stophel]

Don't forget the TINY V notch!!!