Blackhawk front sight blade with red insert?

[cocomen69]

Hello Gents, I am trying to replace the factory front sight blade on my 4-5/8" Ruger SBH with a standard height blade that has the red insert.

I cannot find it in Midway, Brownells, or anywhere on the net. I only see the SRH and SBH Hunter blade, but those wil not work on my SBH.

I have seen pictures of this blade on pics of guns that have sold here on the classifieds, and I know they must exist! I called Ruger, and the nice lady says that they currently only have the regular black blade (with no insert) or the Hi-Viz sight blade (which I do not care for). Also, I do not want to "paint" the front sight, as easy as that may be.

Does anyone have any info on what I am looking for? It would be much appreciated.

 

[rugerguy]

most of those type of front sights are done by hand, a dove tail cut into the blade and a solution poured in, and allowed to dry, polished down, to blend it all in...used to be a company called Lee's red ramps . a solvent and a orange? red? powder mixed togther..........well lee died they went out of business, now most gunsmiths use a dayglo orange and a two part epoxy mixed to gether.the trick is to build a "form" (dam) on either side of the blade to allow the solution two 'set up ' ( dry)...most gunsmiths still offer this today....me, I'd go a buy a bit of testers dayGlo orange paint, and put a couple of coats on the top of the blade, you don;t like that , try yellow, OR red, OR whatever works for YOUR eyes....this way no "permanent" damage to the front sight blade and down the road the next owner "questions" why........never say you will not ever sell your guns, this cannot happen...the gun will OUTLAST you................. :wink:

 

[cocomen69]

Thanks for the info Rugerguy... I am surprised by the lack of information on this, I would have thought someone would "make" a blade with the insert at a "production" price, what with all of those Blackhawks out there.

 

[rugerguy]

well the 'fact" is most all of those Blackhawks out there the front sight is all ONE piece and is soldered (brazed) in place, major task to redo one just to make a 'blade" go into the sight body...yes, later on, the stainless guns in fact have a "blade" (blued steel) pinned into the stainless steel 'body'...this "extra" step in the manufactruing process cost them money & time, which is money..
the job (task) of making a red ramp insert is NOT that hard or complicated and has been done forever............they even make files for this task, called "dovetail files".......safe on the sides, cuts only on the bottom...its making, picking out the proper color 'solution'.......

 

[DeletedMember275]

It also used to be common to cut the dovetail in a sight and cut a piece of red/orange plastic to fit the dovetail. Brownells used to sell the plastic years ago; I think I've still got most of a sheet of it somewhere back in the States.

 

[98Redline]

IMHO, while you can certainly do the red insert, they rarely are as bright and easy to pick up as the paint that you can apply.

I just recently painted the front sight on my blued SBH and feel that it is way more visible than the red insert on either my Redhawk or SBH hunter.

Your gun, your choice, however the paint can be applied in one day where a sight replacement or filing out a dovetail will take significantly longer.

If done carefully it does look quite good.