Help! Front Sight Won’t Drift for Sighting

[Splitear]

I recently installed a .50cal barrel on my TC Hawken (barrel purchased through a member). The barrel has a fixed rear buckhorn sight, adjustable for elevation. The gun is shooting to the right, so I attempted to drift the front sight for the wind are adjustment. It wouldn’t move at the range, so I brought it home and got stern with it in the vise today, and still no movement. Am I doing something wrong, or missing a wind are adjustment on the rear sight? Should I try to see if the sight will drift out the other direction and then clean up the dovetail and reinstall? I’ve never messed with drifting a front sight, so I just want to make sure the I’m doing the right thing.

 

[64Springer]

The rear sight is dovetailed.

It's driftable.

Move the rear sight opposite the direction the bullets are impacting.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

I recently installed a .50cal barrel on my TC Hawken (barrel purchased through a member). The barrel has a fixed rear buckhorn sight, adjustable for elevation. The gun is shooting to the right, so I attempted to drift the front sight for the wind are adjustment. It wouldn’t move at the range, so I brought it home and got stern with it in the vise today, and still no movement. Am I doing something wrong, or missing a wind are adjustment on the rear sight? Should I try to see if the sight will drift out the other direction and then clean up the dovetail and reinstall? I’ve never messed with drifting a front sight, so I just want to make sure the I’m doing the right thing.

I am not criticizing you, but the photos clarity do not communicate what you are really dealing with. If there is not a windage adjustment on the rear, then the front is the best selection. Two major items: The barrel should be against a solid surface. Not a bouncy table. The punch you need should be aluminum or preferably brass. Go in the direction that measures wider if it is not a parallel dove tail. If you can't determine which way, you just have to try both directions. If the barrel is solid on a good surface, with a good punch, and 12oz or better hammer, it will move.
Larry

 

[French Colonial]

That front sight is dovetailed and so is the rear sight, use a bigger hammer and a non-marring punch.

 

[nhmoose]

Move the rear sight the way you want the ball to hit

Move the front sight the opposite way you want the ball to hit.

 

[Splitear]

I am not criticizing you, but the photos clarity do not communicate what you are really dealing with. If there is not a windage adjustment on the rear, then the front is the best selection. Two major items: The barrel should be against a solid surface. Not a bouncy table. The punch you need should be aluminum or preferably brass. Go in the direction that measures wider if it is not a parallel dove tail. If you can't determine which way, you just have to try both directions. If the barrel is solid on a good surface, with a good punch, and 12oz or better hammer, it will move.
Larry

Criticize away I placed it on a hard surface with a towel underneath. I do not have a brass punches, so I will invest in some. It never occurred to me that the rear is dovetailed, so maybe I’ll have more luck drifting that guy. Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[TDM]

Criticize away I placed it on a hard surface with a towel underneath. I do not have a brass punches, so I will invest in some. It never occurred to me that the rear is dovetailed, so maybe I’ll have more luck drifting that guy. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Just to add, put barrel in a secure, padded vice. Thick leather over the jaws of a bench vise will do. Center the sight in your vise. Find a piece of 3/8” brass rod or at least 1/4”. You only need 4” or 5”. Grind and/or file a tapered tip to match the thickness of the sight base. Hold it square on the dovetail and give it a whack. It will move.

 

[Brokennock]

The only reason to move the front sight would be if the rear site is at the right or left limit of its dovetail and the POI is still wrong.
As said by at least one other above....
Drift the rear sight in the direction you want your group to go.

The gun is shooting to the right,

So move the rear sight left. If you run out of rear sight dovetail to the the left,,, then you can worry about moving the front sight. But honestly, if you run out of rear sight dovetail and the group hasn't moved enough,,, you have bigger problems than worrying about how to move the front sight.

 

[Brokennock]

Just to add, put barrel in a secure, padded vice. Thick leather over the jaws of a bench vise will do. Center the sight in your vise. Find a piece of 3/8” brass rod or at least 1/4”. You only need 4” or 5”. Grind and/or file a tapered tip to match the thickness of the sight base. Hold it square on the dovetail and give it a whack. It will move.

I use a brass tool with a stepped tip, part of it lays on top of the flat of the sight base then the step comes down along the side/edge of the flat to just shy of the bottom of the dovetail cut. This seems to keep things from slipping and marring parts.
The other end has a larger head on it filed to an almost triangular shape to almost match the angles of the dovetail, this is for sights with no flat base,, usually rear sights on pistols. Made from a brass hinge pin for a door. I'll try to get a picture later....


But the o.p. should still concentrate on moving the rear sight left.

 

[Brokennock]

Criticize away I placed it on a hard surface with a towel underneath. I do not have a brass punches, so I will invest in some. It never occurred to me that the rear is dovetailed, so maybe I’ll have more luck drifting that guy. Thanks for the advice everyone!

See the above,,, and a little heat isn't a bad thing either....

 

[TDM]

I use a brass tool with a stepped tip, part of it lays on top of the flat of the sight base then the step comes down along the side/edge of the flat to just shy of the bottom of the dovetail cut. This seems to keep things from slipping and marring parts.
The other end has a larger head on it filed to an almost triangular shape to almost match the angles of the dovetail, this is for sights with no flat base,, usually rear sights on pistols. Made from a brass hinge pin for a door. I'll try to get a picture later....


But the o.p. should still concentrate on moving the rear sight left.

I like your idea of using a stepped tip. And I'm going to copy it. One can never have too many custom specialty tools.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Criticize away I placed it on a hard surface with a towel underneath. I do not have a brass punches, so I will invest in some. It never occurred to me that the rear is dovetailed, so maybe I’ll have more luck drifting that guy. Thanks for the advice everyone!

You do not have purchase a punch, just a 1/4" or 5/16" diameter x 6" chunk of brass from a hardware store.
Larry

 

[Kansas Jake]

I just installed a nos TC brand front sight on a Renegade barrel that didn’t have one when I purchased it. Those things fit snug! It took numerous whacks on a brass punch to get it installed. Be firm with your taps on the punch but not brutal. You don’t want to damage the sight or barrel. Lots of taps rather than a big thump.

 

[Caterpillar Hunter]

Once on an expensive custom rifle, the gunstocker casually mentioned that he soldered the front sight in place, so "only move the rear sight".

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have fooled with several TC front sights lately; all l were very hard to get to move. One was so bad that I had to soak the sight with oil for a while, to get lubed enough to move. These were all so bad that I mushroomed the bases before they moved, this was with a brass drift.

I put gun grease in the dovetail and on the sights when I put them back in, they went in much easier that way.

 

[Brokennock]

I'm not sure it will work with these particular sights but really can't see why it wouldn't.
When I do front sights on a pistol I fit the sight to the dovetail until it goes in snugly, but not difficultly, about a 3rd of the way. Then I put the front sight in the bottom of my freezer. While that sits and gets cold I make my measurements and mark a centerline, left to right, with a pencil from the muzzle edge to just behind the sight dovetail. Now, I start warming the dovetail area with my heat gun. Because I work in a cool to cold basement, I start on low until the steel is warm to the touch and stays that way for a minute or so, then turn up the heat, always moving the heat gun. Next I go get the sight out of the freezer, when I get it to the work area I give the dovetail cut another blast of high heat directly on the cut, then quickly tap the sight in to center. Let cool. When the slide is hot and the sight of cold the size difference makes instalation easier, when the slide cools and contracts and the sight warms up it expands, it locks the front sight in place.

 

[Brokennock]

I apologize for not getting to this yesterday like I said I would.
Home made sight drift punch next to a store bought one....

The one shown that I made is an older one, can't find the newer, less beat-up one, and is made from the brass pin of a door hinge. I use these for the large head on the other end, shown in the last pic filed into a sort of triangle. This is compared to an aluminum one, I think I got from Dawson Precision. The object to the design is to direct the energy to the bottom of the sight or site base.
Both got beat to heck on a very uncooperative gun from the Springfield Armory Custom Shop that a friend wanted a more visible front sight on. That gun took every trick I know, a lot of patience, and some colorful language, to get those sights changed. But what a shooter when done, 1.5 inch groups to point of aim off hand at 25 yards....

 

[bptactical]

Your first picture tells the entire story, the rear sight is way too far to the right.

 

[Bobby44]

Once on an expensive custom rifle, the gunstocker casually mentioned that he soldered the front sight in place, so "only move the rear sight".

I have never been tempted to use heat to solder on the front of a barrel. They are sensitive to all kinds of abuse. I have used Loctite. You can still move the sight with force or you can heat it with an electric heat gun without fear of damage. Years ago when working on Rolls Royce aero engines I was issued a set of hammers. The set went from small to tiny. Never fall for the iron worker's fix of a bigger hammer!

 

[Brokennock]

I recently installed a .50cal barrel on my TC Hawken (barrel purchased through a member). The barrel has a fixed rear buckhorn sight, adjustable for elevation. The gun is shooting to the right, so I attempted to drift the front sight for the wind are adjustment. It wouldn’t move at the range, so I brought it home and got stern with it in the vise today, and still no movement. Am I doing something wrong, or missing a wind are adjustment on the rear sight? Should I try to see if the sight will drift out the other direction and then clean up the dovetail and reinstall? I’ve never messed with drifting a front sight, so I just want to make sure the I’m doing the right thing.

Well?
How'd you do? Is she shooting point where you want yet?