Red Dot for a wartime S&W 38?

[Rhieb]

I have a rather unique wartime S&W 38. It was my father's service revolver during the war. I did some research on it and apparently it was shipped from S&W to the BPC in January of 1941.
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My father went across on D-Day with the 12th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery and served in France, Holland. Belgium and Germany. After hostilities ceased he remained in Europe for about 6 months assisting with getting Canadian assets shipped back to Canada. He was discharged in December of '45 with the rank of Captain.

He was a very talented mechanic, welder, machinist and gunsmith. He sleeved the gun to .22LR for target shooting. Unfortunately he died in 1962 when I was 16, but I inherited the gun, and to the family, it is a priceless heirloom. I want to do some target shooting with it while I still can see, so I bought a Wonder Sight for it. That was a difficult process in itself, but when I got it, I found that it would not work on this particular gun. The reason being that in order to do the rimfire conversion the firing pin sits higher on the hammer than the original centre fire pin, and the hammer arc interferes with the sight when it is at its lowest setting. I'd still like to see if I could improve on the stock machined groove rear sight so I'm considering a Red Dot. Dad had drilled and tapped a couple of holes in the top rail, so I assume that he was considering some kind of precision sight addition.

I'd appreciate any opinions on what sight to get and any opinions on Red Dot sights in general.

 

[Can-down]

Sounds like you need a custom mount that will mate up with the top strap and the holes your dad drilled and tapped.

Rather then a rail, I'd lean toward making the mount convert the topstrap into an RMSc footprint so you can run smaller micro sized red dots such as the Osight SE.

How far apart are the holes in the top strap?

Sounds like a cool family heirloom.....How well does it shoot with the fixed sights?

Here's a mount made by EGW to give you an idea... looks like they make them for K sized frames, If your Dad's hole pattern was the standard S&W layout you should be good to go!

https://www.dominionoutdoors.ca/egw-smith-wesson-revolver-mount-fits-holosun-k-ser.html

 

[Rhieb]

Sounds like you need a custom mount that will mate up with the top strap and the holes your dad drilled and tapped.

Rather then a rail, I'd lean toward making the mount convert the topstrap into an RMSc footprint so you can run smaller micro sized red dots such as the Osight SE.

How far apart are the holes in the top strap?

Sounds like a cool family heirloom.....How well does it shoot with the fixed sights?

Here's a mount made by EGW to give you an idea... looks like they make them for K sized frames, If your Dad's hole pattern was the standard S&W layout you should be good to go!

https://www.dominionoutdoors.ca/egw-smith-wesson-revolver-mount-fits-holosun-k-ser.html

The gun has been in storage for years and I've had to re-register it, so I really don't know how it shoots. Hopefully I'll have everything completed in a week or so and can take it to the range and find out how it behaves.

The holes are drilled an tapped #6, 32 TPI, 0.915" on centres. The rear hole is just forward of the centre line of the cylinder.

 

[Janeau]

What a waste..red dot have no business on a war time gun..

 

[Rhieb]

What a waste..red dot have no business on a war time gun..

Sorry you feel that way

 

[Can-down]

What a waste..red dot have no business on a war time gun..

HIs deceased father drilled and tapped it years ago after surviving D-Day. He fought for Freedom.... including doing what ever he wanted with his property!

While I understand where your coming from, the fact the gun is already drilled and tapped changes your argument a fair bit.

OP, This is what a quick LLM search brought up for standard hole spacings which the EGW mount would be made for.... it looks like your spacing would require a custom mount or maybe a modification to something like the EGW.

Hopefully it shoots to point of aim as is and maybe you can put some nail polish on the front sight to help make it stand out enough to enjoy shooting as is.

For Smith & Wesson K-frame revolver that are factory drilled and tapped for optics/mounts, the standard screw-hole pattern on the top strap is three 6-48 threaded holes, and the spacing between them is:

• First hole (rear sight tang): reference point
• Second hole: 1.224" from the first hole
• Third hole: 1.824" from the first hole (so the spacing between the 2nd and 3rd holes is 0.600")

The holes are centered between the sides of the slot that holds the rear sight tang.

 

[Rhieb]

HIs deceased father drilled and tapped it years ago after surviving D-Day. He fought for Freedom.... including doing what ever he wanted with his property!

While I understand where your coming from, the fact the gun is already drilled and tapped changes your argument a fair bit.

OP, This is what a quick LLM search brought up for standard hole spacings which the EGW mount would be made for.... it looks like your spacing would require a custom mount or maybe a modification to something like the EGW.

Hopefully it shoots to point of aim as is and maybe you can put some nail polish on the front sight to help make it stand out enough to enjoy shooting as is.

At this point I'm just doing research. After I see if I can hit what I'm aiming at, I'll look into it some more. I'd like to sell my Wonder Sight, but I do not have posting privileges yet. Thanks for your input.