Front sight issues...

[sooter76]

So I'm finishing up my TVM in the white kit and all I really have left is the front sight. There's a gap between the barrel and the bottom of the sight. No big deal I thought when I first got the kit, I'll just file the base down and it should solve the issue. Nope... All I'm doing by filing the base down is creating a gap between the base of the sight and the barrel cut (see pic).

Any advice?

 

[bubba.50]

get another sight? :idunno:

 

[sooter76]

I assume in the white kits are not supposed to have such messed up sights?

 

[Vaino]

Whatever the blade is made of, you could solder some onto the bottom of the blade. If not, buy or make a new sight that has a wider dovetail because as you go deeper, the dovetail widens......Fred

 

[fleener]

can you file the base down, and add some brass shims to the top in the dove tails. Should push the base down.

Fleener

 

[bubba.50]

I assume in the white kits are not supposed to have such messed up sights?

you are correct sir. it should have had a better sight included. but it doesn't & looks to me like any effort to correct the situation with the existin' sight would be more trouble than it's worth and you'd still be likely to have a botched-up lookin' end result anyway.

 

[sooter76]

So I have to ask then... There's also a casting mark on the buttplate that I had to file down. Was that also not supposed to be there?

Did I just get really shoddy work by TVM?

 

[bubba.50]

no, that's a whole different animal. unless ya get one of the kits that's basically just an in-the-white completed gun it's normal for the cast parts to be "as cast".


ya might show that picture to whoever ya got yer kit from. if they're a reputable company that likes repeat customers they'll make an effort to make it right with ya.

 

[don hepler]

Here's something to try. Sight is bad, so what do you have to lose.

Place the sight, upside down in a vice. Using a small ball peen hammer, peen the base of the sight. As you peen the base will become thinner and also become wider and longer. With some trial fitting and careful filing, you might be able to get a decent fit.

Guns, sold in the white, require finish sanding, filing and fitting, staining, browning or bluing and etc. If this is out of the realm of comfort, then one should just have a rifle finished or seek an experienced persons help.

 

[kaintuck]

1st good project for ya....make your own...2 pieces of brass, some file work, solder together and press in dovedail........ :hmm:

marc n tomtom

 

[Vaino]

Making a front sight is quite simple..just takes some time and is a nice little project.

Shown below is an example of my front sights for MLers that they suit.

The .100 thick steel blade is a separate piece that has a dia. filed on the bottom for riveting to the base and also has a sterling silver insert soldered in and sometimes it has an angled face for improved light gathering.

The steel base has higher sides adjacent to the blade slot and a size hole for the blade's riveting dia is drilled through inside the slot. The bottom side of the hole has a ctsk for riveting...no soldering is req'd......Fred

 

[Onojutta]

On my first build I made a similar mistake by not cutting the dovetail deep enough. My site looked just like yours. The problem was that I had already filed the angled dovetails into the side, so I could not deepen the notch without also making the angled sides too wide at the bottom. I came up with a solution by doing two things.

1) I ordered a sight from TOTW that had a thinner (shorter) base that was very close to the depth of my existing notch. This is easy to measure using the depth gauge part of a caliper.

2) The new sight required a tiny bit of filing to deepen the notch which resulted in the sight being just a bit too loose for a proper fit. Peening down the sides of the notch with a punch did not help, so I just soldered on the front sight. This worked out very well and now I don't have to ever worry about the front sight getting bumped and moving.

The only way I would ever need to remove the front sight post would be if it gets damaged someday. The solder may make that a little more difficult, but I'll cross that bridge if I ever get to it. In my case I cold blued the barrel, and that is easy to touch up if future heating of the solder causes any discoloration. I don't know if driving the sight with a hammer and brass punch would be able to break the solder bond without heat, but like I said I'll cross that bridge if and when I ever have to.

 

[54ball]

Is this a dove tail you cut or one they cut?

No matter really but if it's one they cut it will be a little undersized. You may have to tweak both the cut and the sight, mainly the sight if it's pre-cut.

It's a friction fit. The sight will want to ride up in the dove tail creating a gap underneath. Most of the time this is caused by the bottom edges of the sight base being too wide or too sharp and digging into the dove tail cut. For this you file and blunt that bottom edge of the sight.

What you are doing is making the sight base mirror the cut. Most dove tail cuts are not as sharp on the bottom corners as the sight bases.

Sometimes you might have to dress the cut. That's why you need a safe sided triangle file.

The sight blade should be on the the top flat with no gap underneath. This means taking material off the bottom of the sight to bring the blade down. Try to make the sides of the sight base match the sides of the dovetail cut.

Most of the time, even if fit fairly well the sight will want to rise up in the slot. A drift and a hammer can persuade it back down.

As mentioned the sight base can be spread by peening the base. Also the tops of the barrel dove tail or ears can the tapped down to make it tighter as well as punching a divot the top of the sight close to the edges to spread material.

This is fitment. There's really no good way to tell you how to do it. You just have to take your time , pay attention use common sense and do it.

As with most things it may look pretty bad at some points but unless it's totally messed up, it will clean up with a file. That's part of it too, cleaning it all up after fitment.

Brass shims, solder and all that jazz is for one that's really messed up. IMHO, you have a lot to play with before you get to that point.