Who to mill front sight

[ydennekb]

So I have a couple Model 25's in 45 Colt that shoot high with my favorite load. The rear sight has the smallest insert so at this point I'm left with milling off the front sight and having some interchangeable type installed. Can anyone recommend a good smith for this?

My guns are blued, will they need to be refinished?

 

[ExcitableBoy]

Don't mess with the sights. Just learn how to change your POA. All fixed!

 

[ydennekb]

Sounds nifty in theory but it ain't worth a **** when I'm in a jam and revert to the same sight picture I use on every single other pistol I own.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

Okay. A couple of questions that need to be asked: What is the barrel length? How high do the 25s shoot at what distance? How much meat is there at the bottom of the rear sight notch?

If you have 1/16"-1/8" to work with on the sight leaf, it may be just a matter of using a gunsmith file to regulate the loads to your POA. Sight leafs are cheap and easy to replace.

 

[ydennekb]

It's shooting around 4" high at 12 feet. I'm pretty sure I've got room to file it down and even ordered an extra shut blade in case I screw it up. I guess I need to file it in place as I just have an extra blade but not the extra screw, plunger, etc...

 

[ExcitableBoy]

Just take the filing slow and steady, with perfect alignment. 1/32" at a time until rounds are printing where they should.

I would also see what groups are doing at 25' and 50' from a steady rest before taking the notch down too far.

 

[H Richard]

You realize when you file down the front sight it will shoot "higher".

 

[ydennekb]

Not to speak for him but based on his previous post, I believe he's talking about filing down the rear.

I made contact with mr.revolverguy's gunsmith and I think I'm going to have him mill my front for a partridge front sight.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

H RICHARD is correct. That's why I suggested working on the REAR sight leaf.

To get things right in your mind about sighting, and changing sight alignment in relationship to the bore, point of impact, etc., take a pencil, a piece of paper and diagram how things will change when you crop the front sight or cut the rear sight notch deeper. When lowering the front sight, the muzzle will be RAISED when acquiring the correct sight picture. Lowering the rear will DROP the muzzle when the correct sight picture is acquired.

It may sound counter intuitive, but ya can't change the geometry and physics of it.

 

[petemacmahon]

So I have a couple Model 25's in 45 Colt that shoot high with my favorite load. The rear sight has the smallest insert so at this point I'm left with milling off the front sight and having some interchangeable type installed. Can anyone recommend a good smith for this?

My guns are blued, will they need to be refinished?

ydennekb,

I can vouch for the work done by Karl Sokol at:

Karl Sokol Chestnut Mountian Sports Gunsmithing Services

He did a DAO conversion for me on a 581 that included milling for, and installing, an XS sights big dot tritium sight, and milling the rear notch a bit to match. Since I also had the outside of the cylinder Chamfered for easier re-holstering, I had to get mine re-blued. But not sure about a simple sight milling.

mr.revolverguy , I checked out your conversion, it's just like mine. That looks like quality work as well! I too prefer my Sq.Butts. While I would not consider my hands all that big, Sq.butts just feel right to me. Both my 696 & my 629 mountain gun have SQ.Butt "conversion" grips on their round butts.

Might be that my preference started with the very first S&W I had in my 20s, my model 17. IDK.