I'm looking for some good advice...
I have a few older K-frames (14-0, 17-0, 19-3, 66-1), all of which are in excellent condition and have lots of finish left on them. Some I have boxes for and some don't, I guess I'd say that the worst of them is at least a high grade shooter and a few of them may be collector grade.
And, being older, all of them have black rear sights. I find that I see a white outline rear sight much better and feel more comfortable shooting them. So, I've been thinking if I could find a replacement rear sight at a decent price, it didn't seem to be too difficult to replace them.
I did a little reading and found that smith, brownell's, midway, and numrich all have the rear sight blades in stock for around $12-15 I can get a kit and put it in. Then I watched the instructional video on how to replace the rear sight blade, and to my astonishment the procedure calls for breaking the adjustment screw in order to remove the old blade! Well, I'd rather not do that to my guns, because if I ever did want to sell them I'd prefer to return them to their original state, since original state tends to be what buyers want, and "customization" tends to lower the collector value.
So then I thought, rather than replace the rear sight blade, maybe I could find the entire rear sight assembly, and replace that. Seems like it'd be a simple matter, just a couple of screws on the top of the frame and it's a drop-in replacement job, something a non-gunsmith should be capable of doing (unless I'm overlooking something -- am I?) Looking around, the full rear sight assembly with a white outline blade seems to be a bit harder to find, especially in the kind of condition I'd find acceptable, and a lot more expensive -- $60-70+. And I see at some point Smith switched the design of the assembly slightly, so I need to find ones that aren't rounded on the front, and I need to make sure that the replacement sight matches the height of the original blade height. Is there anything else I should know? Are k-frame rear sight assemblies more or less interchangeable, or do I need to look for one from the exact model and revision I'm working on? What other variations should I be aware of and look for?
So, I'm weighing what I have learned and trying to figure out what to do... as I see it, my options are:
1) Do nothing, leave as is.
2) Buy WO rear blade kits and accept that it's a one-way operation to change it out, and don't look back.
3) Keep my eye out for complete rear assemblies with WO rears and buy one if I ever see it at a reasonable-to-me price, and swap out the whole assembly, so I can switch it back to original condition if I decide I want to sell it down the road.
So, what would YOU do? Why?
I have a few older K-frames (14-0, 17-0, 19-3, 66-1), all of which are in excellent condition and have lots of finish left on them. Some I have boxes for and some don't, I guess I'd say that the worst of them is at least a high grade shooter and a few of them may be collector grade.
And, being older, all of them have black rear sights. I find that I see a white outline rear sight much better and feel more comfortable shooting them. So, I've been thinking if I could find a replacement rear sight at a decent price, it didn't seem to be too difficult to replace them.
I did a little reading and found that smith, brownell's, midway, and numrich all have the rear sight blades in stock for around $12-15 I can get a kit and put it in. Then I watched the instructional video on how to replace the rear sight blade, and to my astonishment the procedure calls for breaking the adjustment screw in order to remove the old blade! Well, I'd rather not do that to my guns, because if I ever did want to sell them I'd prefer to return them to their original state, since original state tends to be what buyers want, and "customization" tends to lower the collector value.
So then I thought, rather than replace the rear sight blade, maybe I could find the entire rear sight assembly, and replace that. Seems like it'd be a simple matter, just a couple of screws on the top of the frame and it's a drop-in replacement job, something a non-gunsmith should be capable of doing (unless I'm overlooking something -- am I?) Looking around, the full rear sight assembly with a white outline blade seems to be a bit harder to find, especially in the kind of condition I'd find acceptable, and a lot more expensive -- $60-70+. And I see at some point Smith switched the design of the assembly slightly, so I need to find ones that aren't rounded on the front, and I need to make sure that the replacement sight matches the height of the original blade height. Is there anything else I should know? Are k-frame rear sight assemblies more or less interchangeable, or do I need to look for one from the exact model and revision I'm working on? What other variations should I be aware of and look for?
So, I'm weighing what I have learned and trying to figure out what to do... as I see it, my options are:
1) Do nothing, leave as is.
2) Buy WO rear blade kits and accept that it's a one-way operation to change it out, and don't look back.
3) Keep my eye out for complete rear assemblies with WO rears and buy one if I ever see it at a reasonable-to-me price, and swap out the whole assembly, so I can switch it back to original condition if I decide I want to sell it down the road.
So, what would YOU do? Why?
