Front sight quick change.

Greg S

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
Vancouver Island
I'm impressed! Recently I bought a new to me (1979) lever gun. Real pretty rifle, nice shape, hardy fired, brand name. Surely it was made by craftsmen with great quality control as it was many years after 1964. I read up on the gun, a legendary firearm, and never noticed any mention of one of its modern innovations. This gun is made to have a quick change front sight. I suppose to make it easy to change in the field, if you have a particularly long shot I suppose it's made to pop that front sight off and slip a shorter one in its place. Possibly to swap from the original blade sight to a fiber-optic one if you get into lowlight conditions around dusk. Anyway - I can't seem to figure out how the locking mechanism works to keep it in place after you've changed from one sight to the next. I'm happy with the sight that's in it and don't have any of the optional ones anyway.

After I grasp the sight in my fingers and lightly slide it sideways and off the barrel I can see that the next sight gently slides back into place, but how do I lock it in position? Is that mechanism lost in the bottom of a gun case somewhere? The index seems to be gone too that would show when it is centered, or would that be a separate tool.

In the mean time I think I'll just put a little center punch mark on the bottom of the sight to snug it up so it doesn't slide out if I happen to turn the gun on its side. Should I put the dimple on the tapered part or the flat of the bottom? Then I guess I'll just have to go to the range and adjust windage with a little tap left or right. Darned new fangled devices! You'd think that after making over 5 million of the same model that they'd figure they had the right combination and wouldn't have to add these high tech features.

Now, who has that locking kit I'm missing? Should I try on the EE?
 
Had me going for a minute there... SOunds lilke someone altered either the base of the sight or the doetail. Probably the latter if it seemed too tight.

There are a couple of ways to get that FS to stay in place. The usual solution is to take a hammer and punch and carefully tap the tops of the sight base (ie the overhanging bits of the dovetail cut) so that it will pinch the sight when it's drifted in. Alternately you could cut a shim out of brass and put it in the bottom of the dovetail cut, which will have the effect of forcing the sight higher in the cut.

If you can get a replacement front sight with a fibre optic rod in it, you'll get the advantage of a sight that should fit tight as well as a a very visible front sight. :)
 
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