Just curious, does anyone know how many pins hold the front sight in place on a K38. I've looked with a magnifying glass and only can see one on the one I have. And does the front sight blade come off when the pin or pins are removed or the whole blade and what it is attached to?. Been thinking about getting a few of the gold bead front sights for a few of my revolvers as they seem to be easier for me to use. And was curious as to wether or not this is doable on a K38. Not a target shooter by any means. Thanks, Frank

This must have been done differently in different eras. On some of my guns the front sight BASE ( ramped) is held on with two pins and others ( 14-3, 14-3 and a early K-38) with a single pin. All these later mentioned guns have the blade itself looking solid with the ramped base. I've got some N frames that the blade itself is pinned with a single pin.

My 17-3 was showing some rust coming out of the junction of front sight base to barrel. I removed the pin and never did get the sight separated from barrel. I wrote about this somewhere on this forum asking if it could have been silver soldered in place as well as pinned and got the opinion "no." I gave up getting it off and just make it a point to saturated the area of rust as often as I look at the gun. On that gun, the pin itself was VERY difficult to remove and I had to DRILL it .

Hi Frank,
Here's a pic of my 1954 vintage K38 Heavy Target Masterpiece. It has 1 pin holding the front sight. I've never had it off, but your idea of a gold bead is quite interesting as I also have issues with my aging eyesight. If you do this, please post a pic and give us a review of the results.

This is not something I usually look for, but it seems that most, if not all of the K38s and Model 14s I have seen have a single pin holding the Patridge sight in place. The revolvers I have seen with two pins seem to be the longer bases, such as the base used with the Baughman Ramp or Red Ramp front sight (Remember, the specs used to read "Baughman Ramp or Red Ramp on Ramp Base).

824tsv, I used one of those little foldup magnifying things to see how many holes there actually were. Mine is exactly like yours heavy barrel, 14-3. All I can find is the one pin. So if I remove the pin and do manage to get the old base and sight blade off will have to order an sdm gold bead front sight. Which also means that I will have to have someone mill a slot in the base for the new gold bead sight. Does this sound correct to you?. My 624 44 special, 24-3 4" bbl and my 24-3 3"bbl all have two pins holding the sight base in place. On the 624 and 4" 24-3 they used domed pins but the three inch 24-3 they blended them with the metal surface.Frank

If memory serves me correctly, my 14-3 has a single pin and my 8 3/8 14-2 has 2 pins and a longer ramp. My 62 year old eyes seem to prefer a 6in or longer barrel with a black partridge front site. My 4 and 6in red ramps seem to bloom and look larger than they actually are. This makes it very difficult to get a good definition of the front site, especialyy the width. Being near sited, I find I do better actually looking over my glasses. The front and rear sight have good definition and the target is a little blurry. 4 in offhand at 25 yds is about my limit, but I am still able to call the shots in that 4 in group.

Hi Frank,
I havn't a clue as to what's needed to instal the new gold bead. I wish I did. I just wish that all our eyes were 40 years younger and we wouldn't have this problem. I really does suck getting older.....

824tsv, The pin on your revolver is easily visible. Mine I had to use a strong light and a magnifying glass as it is almost invisible. Thanks to you and everyone else for responding. Frank

I know it's an old thread, but I had good luck getting a gold bead made by a local goldsmith - used a stainless earring 'finding' (base) and a drop of gold melted to it. I had him flatten the face of one and left one hemispherical (I prefer the rounded one - it catches the light well). I drilled into the face of the front blade, in situ and epoxied the bead into the blade - I roughened/scored the post somewhat before installation. One is probably 2k rounds and the other @500 and no problems.

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