Made my first sights yesterday!

[Bill Ladd]

Not even in the same universe as the patchbox and engraving threads, but it was a big deal for me.

Putting these on a .45 Green Mountain barrel I got from a gracious member here at the forum.  Dovetails were already cut, so I reckon I get to meet that challenge on the next one!

I cut the rear sight out of a chunk of steel and filed, filed, filed, sanded, sanded, sanded....





Front sight I folded and soldered out of sterling.  Much easier to work and finish!



Hope it all passes muster, sirs.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I like your front sight  - the rear sight looks a might bit tall and I would have slanted it back a bit other wise it is a good start - keep it up .

[Bill Ladd]

I like your front sight  - the rear sight looks a might bit tall and I would have slanted it back a bit other wise it is a good start - keep it up .

Thanks for the feedback. I realized after all that work that rear sights tend to be slanted.  I'm still working it. It's still soft so I can heat and bend (and lower) it.

[rich pierce]

There is a lot of fun and pride and freedom in making our own parts. Nice start!  On rear sights the thinner the metal in the slot area the less glare you will see. Notice how some rear sights are hollowed beside ggd slit?  Several ways to do that.

[Bill Ladd]

There is a lot of fun and pride and freedom in making our own parts. Nice start!  On rear sights the thinner the metal in the slot area the less glare you will see. Notice how some rear sights are hollowed beside ggd slit?  Several ways to do that.

Ahh! That's what that hollow is for! Duh.

I have a milling attachment for my mini-lathe. I should be able to salvage this.

Man, I  love coming here and learning. Thanks.

[ejcrist]

That's pretty neat Bill. I've never made my own sights before so this might be a dumb question, but are those silver soldered to the dovetail base?

Gene

[kaintuck]

nice!!!
I sat down one afternoon, and took old bits of metal, a RR spike etc and made a bunch of different ones...then after a week or two, I stopped at the machine shop and bought some flatbar stock, then just bandsawed it into sections....the used a goodly size bit....and drilled the pieces.....so when I want to....all I do is hacksaw thru that area, and it already has the 'dimple' 'milled' into the front face.........

yours turned out nice...hard part for me is to get them EVEN on each side!!!!!!

marc n tomtom

[Bill Ladd]

That's pretty neat Bill. I've never made my own sights before so this might be a dumb question, but are those silver soldered to the dovetail base?

Gene

I used the method in the tutorials by E.vonAschwege (folded then soldered) - http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=28967.0

[Bill Ladd]

....yours turned out nice...hard part for me is to get them EVEN on each side!!!!!!

marc n tomtom

Umm.  Don't look too closely at mine!  

[smylee grouch]

That first one dont look too bad. My last one looks like a toilet bowl. When I shoot poor I can say my shooting went down the s-----r.

[Eric Krewson]

Angle iron is the right shape to make sights out of with less filing.



After a little more filing;

[PPatch]

Making sights is fun and interesting, I agree. But I believe doing so fits nicely within the phrase "Why spend $5 on a part I can make in half a day?" Well the answer is it is more prideful and satisfying to have made it yourself. Good first effort Bill.

dave

[Pete G.]

Making sites is fun and interesting, I agree. But I believe doing so fits nicely within the phrase "Why spend $5 on a part I can make in half a day?" Well the answer is it is more prideful and satisfying to have made it yourself. Good first effort Bill.

dave

So true, but you can make things that you cannot buy.

[Hungry Horse]

 the best primitive sights I've ever encountered are on an original small caliber rifle that I bought years ago. the rear sight has a slight rearward tilt to it, that shades the notch, preventing glare. The notch is a incredibly small round bottomed affair, at the culmination of a very lazy "V" that starts at the outer edges of the sight. This "V" naturally draws your eye to the notch. The face of the sight has been cupped to make the sight notch area as thin as possible, eliminating shadows that give you a false sight picture. The front sight is a very small barley corn, with a blade not over an eighth of an inch high.
 When I bought this rifle I glanced at the sights, and declared they were young mans sights. How wrong I was. This is precisely the sight formula Teddy Roosevelt required to be a remarkable marksman in spite of his notoriously poor eyesight.
 My Gillespie poorboy has copies of these sights, and I shoot very well with them.

             Hungry Horse

[Bill Ladd]

Hungry Horse - man, I'd love to see those sights as this is a Gillespie-esque rifle I'm working on here.  Any images posted here on the forum?

Thanks

[Hungry Horse]

 I'm not a photographer, and my computer skills are less than sterling. So, pictures are unlikely. The last set of sights of this type I made for a "blind" friend had the center bored though with suitable drill bit, and the actual sight notch was filed into a thin piece of silver, that I soldered to the muzzle side of the sight. The sulfur in the burnt powder keeps it a nice glare free flat black. I will make all my sights in the future this way.

                  Hungry Horse

[Bill Ladd]

Got some great rear sight ideas from this thread and from some private conversations. Busy will all other aspects of the build but will get back to the sights soon.

But I must give credit where credit is due.  Along with E.Von's tutorial, I was also guided by Mike Brooks description on his blog.  Scroll down to "Making a Barley Corn Front Sight."  http://www.jsbrookslongrifles.com/theclassroom.htm