Front sight blade removal of Uberti Walker

[M. De Land]

I got started tonight on a new front sight and loading lever catch for the Walker. The front brass blade was removed with a single blow from a punch contacting the rear of the blade. It is set into a half moon cut parallel to the bore and is peened in from either side, no solder at all.
I needed to see how deep and long the half moon cut is for the proper placement of the dove tail cut required for the new front sight.
Laid out the front sight on a piece of flat stock mild steel and will begin milling it out probably tomorrow. The base of the new sight will need to be long enough to cover the half moon cut of the original blade in the barrel. I think .600 or a bit longer will do the job and look proportional to the height. The blade width will be .100 and height above barrel OD will be about . 450 to start with.
I start them a bit high and file to point of impact at 25 yards once I get my favorite load worked up.

 

[M. De Land]

I got started tonight on a new front sight and loading lever catch for the Walker. The front brass blade was removed with a single blow from a punch contacting the rear of the blade. It is set into a half moon cut parallel to the bore and is peened in from either side, no solder at all.
I needed to see how deep and long the half moon cut is for the proper placement of the dove tail cut required for the new front sight.
Laid out the front sight on a piece of flat stock mild steel and will begin milling it out probably tomorrow. The base of the new sight will need to be long enough to cover the half moon cut of the original blade in the barrel. I think .600 or a bit longer will do the job and look proportional to the height. The blade width will be .100 and height above barrel OD will be about . 450 to start with.
I start them a bit high and file to point of impact at 25 yards once I get my favorite load worked up.

Got the front blade rough milled out today and ready for filing to profile, sand out and barrel fitting. I do all that before parting as it's much easier to hold on to.
The brass blade set on barrel behind where it was peened in the half moon cut and then again set on the barrel flat for a better look at the profile. Sure isn't much to it and was really surprised it was only peened in with no solder.
End view of the profile and male dovetail cut with a ball mill and 60 degree dovetail tool. The female will be cut in the barrel across the original half moon cut covering it with the body of the new front blade. Hope I left enough width in case I have to use more windage than I figured on.
Oh well just mill out another a bit wider.

 

[Smokerr]

Good to know its half moon. I can build a sight to slot into that cut. The Walker is not too bad but it is 4 inches high at 25 yards and I may tackle that. I can grind things down with the best of them.

Of course I have to find or get Caps to continue, down to my last 9, sigh. Yes I have the kits to do those on order but a lot of mixed reviews on how reliable the process is. Some do fine and some struggle. It seems Hair Spray may have a combo of compounds to help that.

 

[Bad Karma]

Good to know its half moon. I can build a sight to slot into that cut. The Walker is not too bad but it is 4 inches high at 25 yards and I may tackle that. I can grind things down with the best of them.

Of course I have to find or get Caps to continue, down to my last 9, sigh. Yes I have the kits to do those on order but a lot of mixed reviews on how reliable the process is. Some do fine and some struggle. It seems Hair Spray may have a combo of compounds to help that.

For what it’s worth all of the Colts using a blade front sight are configured thusly. If your revolver is hitting well with regard to windage but the blade is too short as is the case with most of them, you can source the model 1873 steel blade from the same manufacturer and solder it in place. File it down to the desired point of impact and “Bob’s your uncle…” whatever that means.

 

[Smokerr]

Good to know. I super glued the sight back on the ASP 58 Remington and it stayed there, good news was it fell off on the bench and it was, whats that funny object there? (left to right dovetail)

 

[M. De Land]

For what it’s worth all of the Colts using a blade front sight are configured thusly. If your revolver is hitting well with regard to windage but the blade is too short as is the case with most of them, you can source the model 1873 steel blade from the same manufacturer and solder it in place. File it down to the desired point of impact and “Bob’s your uncle…” whatever that means.

I'm wondering (having second thoughts) about cutting the female dovetail across that original sight cut going the other direction and how well it will secure the male base.
I've not done this mod before through the half moon cut but think it should work. I'd feel better about it if it wore octagon out there.
Ah well if it doesn't work I'll just make a banded front sight to cover the whole deal.

 

[Bad Karma]

I'm wondering (having second thoughts) about cutting the female dovetail across that original sight cut going the other direction and how well it will secure the male base.
I've not done this mod before through the half moon cut but think it should work. I'd feel better about it if it wore octagon out there.
Ah well if it doesn't work I'll just make a banded front sight to cover the whole deal.

I’ve seen it done both ways. Is your windage ok with the stock sight?

 

[M. De Land]

I’ve seen it done both ways. Is your windage ok with the stock sight?

No, it prints a couple inches to the right and nine high at 25 yards with 200 grain flat point ACP bullet and a full load of 3F I've been testing so I'll need to move it for some windage. I also can add width to one side of the blade to compensate for some windage and still make it look pretty well centered , Old Polish trick I'm fond of, being of Polish decent!
I made the new sight three times as high as the original so should have plenty of elevation adjustment.
Not sure about sight shape I want yet as Walkers probably will look out of character with a target profile. I'll have to chew on this a bit longer before I get to crazy with the mill and file and have to start over. Wouldn't be the first time an idea went south mid construction.
I remember having to remake an overide fly 6-8 times to get it to work on a close couple double set trigger I made from a picture in a gun book that looked really neat. Dang thing still does not work flawlessly on cold days so I still have something out of balance somewhere in the contraption.

 

[Rum River]

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[Bad Karma]

No, it prints a couple inches to the right and nine high at 25 yards with 200 grain flat point ACP bullet and a full load of 3F I've been testing so I'll need to move it for some windage. I also can add width to one side of the blade to compensate for some windage and still make it look pretty well centered , Old Polish trick I'm fond of, being of Polish decent!
I made the new sight three times as high as the original so should have plenty of elevation adjustment.
Not sure about sight shape I want yet as Walkers probably will look out of character with a target profile. I'll have to chew on this a bit longer before I get to crazy with the mill and file and have to start over. Wouldn't be the first time an idea went south mid construction.
I remember having to remake an overide fly 6-8 times to get it to work on a close couple double set trigger I made from a picture in a gun book that looked really neat. Dang thing still does not work flawlessly on cold days so I still have something out of balance somewhere in the contraption.

I heard that about the profile. I think you have to go with a bit of a compromise here. I’ve never seen a patridge style sight that looked halfway decent on a something like that Walker or the Dragoons.
Maybe something like this?

 

[M. De Land]

I heard that about the profile. I think you have to go with a bit of a compromise here. I’ve never seen a patridge style sight that looked halfway decent on a something like that Walker or the Dragoons.
Maybe something like this?
View attachment 318079View attachment 318080View attachment 318081View attachment 318082

Yeah, thanks for the pictures, I kind of like that ramped one in the second picture, plus it will be holster friendly ! I'll get the metal checkering file going on the ramp before bluing it with some cross hatching. Target Partridge are the most accurate with the rear sharp corners but a Walker is not really a target platform plus if you rip one out of your sash in a hurry so sighted, without a holster, you may bring out your shorts or part of your anatomy !

 

[M. De Land]

Yeah, thanks for the pictures, I kind of like that ramped one in the second picture, plus it will be holster friendly ! I'll get the metal checkering file going on the ramp before bluing it with some cross hatching. Target Partridge are the most accurate with the rear sharp corners but a Walker is not really a target platform plus if you rip one out of your sash in a hurry so sighted, without a holster, you may bring out your shorts or part of your anatomy !

The other thing that needs doing on this gun is the chamber mouths are currently .449 and groove diameter is .4532 so will need to ream them out to .4533-4 and perhaps take the taper out of the rest of the chamber. These changes should make that ACP bullet do it's best and add maybe 6-8 grains of powder capacity in an already hungry chamber. I did order a set of nipples from slix shot this am for the new 51 as well as Walker.
One of the mods I've used on beat up nipples is to spin them in a hand drive electric motor and profile them against a diamond file to fit the caps I have on hand.
The vent hole in the slix shot does seem to make the caps work more efficiently on the guns I've tried them on mainly rifles.

 

[No second place]

Pulling front Colt type sights with a vice grip type wrench and hand filing a new front sight to proper hight and pressure fit worked fine for me. I guess if I had those nice milling machines I would use them. Would be nice...