Rear sight blade on M66 no dash

[corgiS&W]

When I bought this M66 several years ago I knew the front sight was not original; it was a dead trijicon, so I added a dollup of red paint which is obvious in the photo. My question is about the rear sight blade. It measures 0.110" thick, which is thicker than that on my M67. Is this OEM or will it require a whole new rear sight strap and blade to bring it back to original? It may be best just to leave it as-is since it's primarily a shooter,not a collector piece.

 

[k22fan]

Those look like a pair of Mepro-Lite (?spelling) night sights I installed on a .44 special during the 1990s. The rear blade was swapped for the OEM in standard fashion and the front replaced the red insert.

The 4" 66 I bought in 1976 came with all stainless steel sights. I don't know when those were superseded by a red ramp and blued rear but yours may have originally had all stainless sights. In the absence of a red insert the dovetail would have to be filed up front but that would have been easy.

It won't be hard to get a blued or white outline rear and red ramp front on your 66 to make it look normal. In the past kits were sold to add red inserts. It's likely they still are. 4" 66s used .140" height rear blades. S&W and Brownells sell them. You need the kit that includes a replacement windage bolt because in order to remove the existing blade you break the old bolt. Rear blade kits are under $15.