Rear sight bent/with pic

rimfire458

rimfire458

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So my win 95 is coming at a snails pace, however. I did get a pic if how the plastic gun case was only taped at each end so the sight got out of the box. Being pinched by the plastic case lips grabbed the sight firmly enough that every time the gun got launched by a UPS no life puke it pulled on the sight. The girl says it has about a 3/8" lift off of barrel which she can push down to meet the barrel with little thumb pressure. Now we all know that it's supposed to be about that much but in the opposite direction. I am Assuming that the hardness req'd to make that sight have tension to the elevator might mean that I need to heat a bit to bend it back, or would that wee bit be best done cold. I'm trying to figure how to get the bend back in the same place as the bend up so as not to have a big ripple in blueing.

God why can't just one of these go right for me??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

ANY THOUGHTS?
 
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OK,
Glad you got it sorted.
I guess sometimes even just an attempt to explain the problem is enough to solve it.
 
Can-down said:
Remove the sight, mount it in a padded vice ( hard wood works) and tweak it till it looks good.
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I thought. kind of a 8itch though, wish it was further from dovetail cause then I would have scroll sawed two blocks to the shape I wanted and pressed it to shape. Oh well just a tad trickier, and me thinks its a tad more than the 3/8 I was told
jaydensiphone1971_zpsf649ebf4.jpg
 
You should compare it to the shape it's supposed to be on that rifle and try and duplicate the same curve.
You might have to re adjust where you clamp the sight and also where you are applying the pressure to get the shape right.
Be careful of over stressing the area where it meets the dovetail block and also where the slotted cutout for the elevator ends.
I doubt you will get the right curve by holding it where you want it.... I think you will have to over bend it a bit and let it spring back to the shape your looking for.
I'd use a small crescent wrench with some electrical tape on the jaws to protect the metal for the non vice side of the bending operation.....you can move the wrench around and apply pressure where it's needed.
Good luck!
 
If you bend it over a hard edge as an aid to bending it back be sure the edge has a good radius to it. A sharp edge might just kink it. You want at least a 1/16 inch radius. As in bending it over a 1/8 drill or larger as a bending form.

If this causes a ripple in the sights just sigh and accept it. Bending it back to straight right at the transition is just too risky IMO. Better to have a little wave there than a two piece rear sight.

If it really MUST be nice and flat along the top then you're in for a good amount of work. First step is to anneal the metal by heating it up to just the beginnings of a dull red and then SLOWLY pull it along the path of the torch so it cools slowly from the dull red and down to black and even then hover a foot away in the heated air for a minute before removing from the flame. Let cool naturally.

Now that it's annealed you can straighten it and flatten it. And hopefully there's no cracks. Once back flat and with a nice even curve along the spring portion downwards about 1/4 inch you need to find a way to bring the WHOLE THING up to an even bright red colour. If you want to do it yourself google for "soup can forge". It's a cheap way to make a propane torch hold the heat in well enough to let us heat treat such items.

You'll need to bring the whole thing up to a bright red and then quench it in motor oil. Reach in and grab the dovetail to hold it and work fast so the metal is still bright red when it goes into the oil. It's so thin that tenths of a second count for the transfer.

It's now brittle hard so you need to polish off the oxidation layer and expose the metal. Now use the torch to play the flame over the sight to bring it up through the oxidation colours from purple to just barely blue and quench in water right at that moment. You'll need to do this with some care so that the whole sight is the same colour. But if you do it right the result is a spring temper like it had originally.
 
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I don't disagree that the heat treatment offered is wrong or won't work, I just wouldn't go that route without trying the cold method first.

How I would try to fix it is to put two smooth flats (hardwood might be sufficient ) between the jaws of a vise. Put the sight lengthways between the flats with the buck horn part of the sight outside the jaws so it isn't squeezed by the jaws. now shim/support the parts you don't want stressed when you apply pressure by squeezing the jaws closed. the pressure of the jaws closing on the dovetail block should start to bend the sight body back into shape. subsequent shimming and blocking under the dovetail block may be required to "over bend" a bit to allow for spring back. The amount and position of bend can be very precise and controlled this way.
 
I took an old win sight of same vintage that was boogered anyhoo. Bent it to roughly the same angle as in the picture. When I attempted to come back I don't think it went 2/3 back b4 clink. You know what clink means huh. That's why me thinks the heat
 
Where did it clink? At the dovetail block or where the slot ends?

I'd go more by the bend by hand method then trying to bend it with the vice pressure. Just use the vice to hold it where needed when needed.
 
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