To Pin or not To Pin?

[BoCash]

Maybe a silly question and maybe has been covered before::

Why did Smith and Wesson have some front sights that are pinned and a lot of them that were not pinned?

I understand eliminating pins to save costs, but why would some modern pieces have pins and some older models not?


A friend recently asked me about my recently purchased 696 that had pinned front sights. I never gave it or any of the others a 2nd thought.

I just now looked at a few that were visible without having to dig too deep and found the following have pinned front sights:

696 .44 spl. L-frame
625-2 .45 acp bowling pin gun
625-7 .45 Colt Mountain Gun
pre-18 .22 combat masterpiece........about 1951
pre-17 .22 target masterpiece..........about 1951

The following did not have pinned sights:

629 early production long barrel .44
25-9 .45 Colt long barrel, later production
15-3 .38 Combat Masterpiece
48-4 .22 magnum combat masterpiece
18-4 .22 combat masterpiece
none of the 686 or 586 models
17-2 .22 target masterpiece, mid 1960's
none of the model 66's
pre-model 34 .22 kit gun from 1957
Many other kit gun models in .22 LR and .22 Mag.


I could dig out a lot more that are hard to get to but I believe this is a good representation of both sight styles and different ages.

 

[shawn mccarver]

Interesting info in post 2 concerning barrel pins, but I understood the question in the OP to relate to pinned on front sights.

Often, the front sight pins are polished so perfectly that it is nearly impossible to see the pin without a really careful look under really bright light, often from an angle.

I know that the Model 13s used by the FBI had pinned front sights (the pins were carefully hidden by virtue of the polishing I mentioned earlier), but the S&W-trained armorers and gunsmiths at the FBI Gun Vault would exchange the front sights as necessary to help an agent get his Model 13 properly sighted for the duty ammo, which was 38 Special +P 158 grain LHP and the 145 grain Winchester Silvertip.