Blackhawk .45 Colt front sight

Help Support Ruger Forum:

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
I recently had my 7 1/2in Blackhawk .45 Colt cut down to ~4 5/8in. The gunsmith did a good job of remounting the front sight but then he went ahead and milled the front sight down using a bore-sight as his guide to get the height close. He left the rear sight in the middle of its travel believing this would give enough adjustment for most loads.

Unfortunately, he cut a little too much and the front sight blade is too low. Now my rear sight is cranked all the way down and the gun still hits 4-6in high at 25yds. I really want it to hit at the POA.

I checked on Midway and they have a sight blade listed (cheap too, ~6-8$) but it is out of stock (ditto for Brownells). Does anyone know of another source for replacement blades. Ruger has squat on their ShopRuger website.

I wouldn't mind getting a fiberoptic front sight, but the ones I have seen are for different sight designs. Apparently Ruger uses a different front sight on their .357 and .44 mag Blackhawks than they do for the 7 1/2in .45 Colt BH.

I could take it back to him, but his shop is a fair piece away and it would be easier to just get a new sight blade and put it in myself.

Ideas?
 

CraigC

Hawkeye
Joined
May 27, 2002
Messages
5,197
Location
West Tennessee
Why the hell did he cut the front sight down? Any `smith worth his salt should know that shorter barrels need taller front sights, not shorter. Is the sixgun blued or stainless? If it's blued, the front sight is all one-piece and silver soldered to the barrel and you need to take it back to the gunsmith. Have him cut the old blade off, mill a pocket in the base and fit it with a removable, pinned blade. If the gun is stainless, you can replace the front sight with a factory unit for the shorter barrel.
 

Tommy Kelly

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
1,045
Location
MISSISSIPPI
This is true you always need a taller sight when you cut the barrel down shorter. I have cut several of mine down to 4 5/8 and always go with a taller front sight after cutting the barrel. If you want to play with it you can get some jb weld and a wood popcicle stick and clamp the popcycle stick onto the front sight on both sides with about 1/8" of wood above the sight then mix up the jb weld and put it into the slot to build it up. Let it dry then remove the sticks and take a file and dress up the jb on the sides. then take it out and shoot it and file down as nessecary to the proper height with the rear sight in the middle of the adjustment range. That way you will have a measurement to order a correct sight height from.
 

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
Its a stainless pistol. The front sight base was silver-soldered on. He got the sight base off and then remounted cleanly. He did drill and tap a hole for a retaining screw. Its not original, but it works and looks clean.

The blade is replaceable though. Drift out a small roll-pin and the front sight should come right out. The replacement will need to be drilled though. That is one thing that bugs me about Ruger pistols in general. The P-series guns and now my blackhawk both have a drilled-and-pinned front blade. You have to fit the sight in, mark it and then drill it. Not easy if you dont have a drill-press (and I dont...feck).

This is the gun pre-shortening. You can see the roll pin in the front sight.

Blackhawk45.jpg
 

5of7

Hunter
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
2,296
Location
SW. LOWER MICHIGAN
I wonder why he didn't at least shoot it to see where it was shooting with the shorter barrel. Measure twice and cut once would seem to be a good placard for his work bench. 8)
 

flatgate

Hawkeye
Joined
Jun 18, 2001
Messages
6,784
Location
Star Valley, WY
I don't like saying this but your gunsmith is a moron. Make your own blade out of 1/8" flat stock. The attachment pin can be either a press fit pin or a "spring pin".

flatgate

157334697.jpg
 

NewportNewsMike

Single-Sixer
Joined
Mar 28, 2010
Messages
243
Location
Poquoson VA
sargents1 said:
Not easy if you dont have a drill-press.....

Actually, it is VERY easy without a drill press....maybe even easier than setting a drill press to do the job.

First, determine what size your new pin hole needs to be. The ones I have done have been 1/16 - inch, but I would double check.

Either put the gun in a vise or other holding mechanism - I have had good success just hand holding the gun.

Then insert the new (un-drilled) sight blade into the base, and clamp or hold the new sight blade very tightly in place.

Next, using a regular power drill, drill HALFWAY through the base and blade. Then, DRILLING FROM OTHER SIDE, complete the job.

Viola - a drilled blade hole with each side lining up perfectly with the hole in the base.

Final step, insert pin and drive home.

These instructions are not original to me. They came with a replacement sight blade for a SP-101 - from Gemimi Customs, if I remember correctly.
 

SargeMO

Single-Sixer
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Messages
162
Location
MO
I've had a couple of 5 1/2" 45 Blackhawks that shot 4-5 inches high with 325's at 50 yards. I was able to cure those by removing a little material from the underside of the rear sight and relieving the main body so it would lower a little more. I actually prefer that they zero with the elevation screwed down snug. In your shoes I think I'd just build me a new front sight.
 

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
5of7 said:
I wonder why he didn't at least shoot it to see where it was shooting with the shorter barrel. Measure twice and cut once would seem to be a good placard for his work bench. 8)

Yeah, I wondered that too. He test fired my Mini 14 after he threaded the barrel. He did an ok job with the Barrel threading. If I had to guess it was one of two things: No .45 Colt ammo on hand or ......? I dunno.
 

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
flatgate said:
I don't like saying this but your gunsmith is a moron. Make your own blade out of 1/8" flat stock. The attachment pin can be either a press fit pin or a "spring pin".

flatgate


I don't like throwing out statements like that, but I am surely not impressed with him right now. I get the impression he hasnt done one of these before. uhhg. What a pain in the butt.
 

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
NewportNewsMike said:
sargents1 said:
Not easy if you dont have a drill-press.....

Actually, it is VERY easy without a drill press....maybe even easier than setting a drill press to do the job.

First, determine what size your new pin hole needs to be. The ones I have done have been 1/16 - inch, but I would double check.

Either put the gun in a vise or other holding mechanism - I have had good success just hand holding the gun.

Then insert the new (un-drilled) sight blade into the base, and clamp or hold the new sight blade very tightly in place.

Next, using a regular power drill, drill HALFWAY through the base and blade. Then, DRILLING FROM OTHER SIDE, complete the job.

Viola - a drilled blade hole with each side lining up perfectly with the hole in the base.

Final step, insert pin and drive home.

These instructions are not original to me. They came with a replacement sight blade for a SP-101 - from Gemimi Customs, if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the instructions. I will give it a try when my front sight blade shows up. It was backordered from Midway with an expected ship date in mid-October.
 

Dale53

Blackhawk
Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
925
Location
Hamilton, Ohio USA
I have no idea who the gunsmith is that did this. However, before jumping all over him realize that different people see the sights differently.

I had a shooting buddy (now gone to that better range in the sky) that shot as well as I did. However, shooting the same gun and load he would shoot low and to the left of my sight setting. Frankly, about the difference the O.P. mentions. It's unfortunate that he is having the sight problems that he really didn't "sign on for" but sometimes "things" happen.

When he gets his new sight installed and zero'd for HIS point of aim, he will have learned something, and that is not all bad...

FWIW
Dale53
 

CraigC

Hawkeye
Joined
May 27, 2002
Messages
5,197
Location
West Tennessee
If he did a good job remounting the base, I could forgive him for getting the height wrong. Silver soldering a front sight base in place, straight, without making a mess, is not an easy task. So with that, I would simply order a new front sight from Ruger for the 4 5/8" .45 Blackhawk and install it myself.
 

Boxhead

Blackhawk
Joined
Mar 28, 2004
Messages
969
Location
Either Texas or Idaho
I would suggest one of Dave Clements blades at 0.100" width not 0.125" as is typical. Tell him the range of loads you plan to use and the barrel length and he will make you one that will work fine.
 

sargents1

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
365
Location
Maine
I spoke with the gunsmith about this. I actually had him thread my Mini 14 barrel at the same time he shortened the Blackhawk. I took the Mini back to him because the front sight was not exactly vertical.

Well, when I came back and explained that there were issues with both my rifle and revolver he was skeptical at first but agreed to take the rifle in and check it out.

Anyway, he called me this weekend and apologized for his mistakes and said that there was no charge to straighten out the front sight on my rifle and that if I wanted, he would install my new revolver sight blade at no cost.

So, this ended well. Its nice dealing with honest people, even when they make a mistake.
 

ElmerKeith

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Messages
8
CraigC said:
Why the hell did he cut the front sight down? Any `smith worth his salt should know that shorter barrels need taller front sights, not shorter. Is the sixgun blued or stainless? If it's blued, the front sight is all one-piece and silver soldered to the barrel and you need to take it back to the gunsmith. Have him cut the old blade off, mill a pocket in the base and fit it with a removable, pinned blade. If the gun is stainless, you can replace the front sight with a factory unit for the shorter barrel.


Excuse me for disintering this thread but I have quite the same problem before buying the wrong Ruger NMBH.

I'm offered by a dealer here in Germany two blued Ruger NMBH 45. One with a 4.62" bbl., the other one with 5.5" bbl.
He send me a lot of pictures taken just for me in intention to buy one the guns.

It's clearly visible from the pictures that the front hight of the longer barreled gun ist higher than that of the shorter barreled one. I wasn't sure about the correlation of barrel length and hight of front sight. But now I am.

Quote from SargeMO

I've had a couple of 5 1/2" 45 Blackhawks that shot 4-5 inches high with 325's at 50 yards. I was able to cure those by removing a little material from the underside of the rear sight and relieving the main body so it would lower a little more. I actually prefer that they zero with the elevation screwed down snug. In your shoes I think I'd just build me a new front sight.

But after reading this I'm not sure if to take even the 5.5incher.

But how can I remove some material from the underside of the rear sight without interfering with windage elevation function if this gun should way to high.

And what about not taking 325grainers but the 255-265grainers?
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
I would be careful about trying to remove material under a rear sight blade. Here is a thought that was taught to me by an old mechanic. "Always work on the cheapest & easiest part to replace. That way, when you screw it up, you can fix it easier."
If your friend has a blued 5.5 in barreled blue .45 Ruger, that barrel has already been cut. It was likely a 7-1/2" long barrel. So, if it has a higher front sight, it was likely done correctly. Besides, if it is too tall, a little filing on the top of the front blade can bring it down a bit.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
517
Location
Barnstead, NH
The rear sight blade on the standard Ruger rear sight has sort of a dovetail shape to it, stamped from metal stock, as viewed from the rear as you would be holding the revolver. The newer models have also a "bump" stamped into the surface, presumable to give it more friction and wiggle less. One can, with a good flat file, remove some amount of material from the wide, flat bottom of the blad, but I would say that this would allow a little less than a millimeter or so extra lowering. But, this could bring your point of impact about 4 inches lower at 25 yards. Alternatively (or in combination with a slight amount of removal from rear sight blade), you could file down a little of the top of the sight blade to gain a couple inches and add some epoxy to the top of the front sight. Adding nerely a couple millimeters of epoxy to the front sight could easily get you additional 6 inches or more adjustment, and you can file it off until you achieve the result you like. Then, you can shop for a sight blade of the matching height or have one custom fabricated to be fitted to the revolver.

Usually, the lighter bullets will strike lower than the heavier ones, and with the same bullets, the lighter powder charges will strike lower than the heavier ones, due to the differences in the recoil, time spent in the barrel, and the rocking upward action of the SA revolvers.
 

Latest posts

Top