Blackhawk front sight mod?

[GunnyGene]

Question on filing a Blackhawk front sight as shown in the below pic. I have a NM .41 mag 6.5" barrel ( bought in 2000) and have thought about this to improve sight picture, however I'm also concerned about the impact on the value of the gun down the road a few years. How much would this effect value, say 10 or 20years from now, or am I just stressing out for nothing? Not looking for any specific percentage or dollars, just a general idea.

Only fired about 200rds thru it and it's been well cared for.

 

[rugerguy]

one makes the changes, mods, whatever needed to be able to get the gun to shoot to their eyes, whatever, and don't worry till its time to try and sell the gun, later, then you will find out, so use it , enjoy it, it is what it is, let the new owner , later on, have to worry about making it "right" to their eyes, or pocket book......

 

[Old Shooter]

I am an old man with limited years to shoot left. I cut, chop, grind and do as I please to my guns. If it costs my daughter a few bucks at the end so what. Enjoy what you have while you can.

 

[Tellico]

I am an old man with limited years to shoot left. I cut, chop, grind and do as I please to my guns. If it costs my daughter a few bucks at the end so what. Enjoy what you have while you can.

+ 1 from another old shooter. My guns--I do what I want with them. My wife will probably sell them for what I told her I paid anyway. :lol:

 

[DGW1949]

It aint my place to say what the next guy should do (or not do to his own stuff), but just to answer the question at hand......
Me personaly, the only way that I'd buy a BH with a sight which was modified as pictured would be IF it was offered at enough of a discount to cover the cost of replacing it with an original. There's more than one reason as to why that is, but that is the bottom line.

DGW

 

[GunnyGene]

Thanks for the comments, y'all. I pondered this most of yesterday, and I've decided to leave it alone. A couple reasons for that decision:

1. The sight protrudes far enough past my cowboy rig holster that it would catch on the holster when drawing and likely end up cutting a path thru the leather. (this was the major reason).

2. I don't shoot competition, so really don't need the minor improvement in sight picture.

 

[contender]

I'm with DGW1949 here. When I see a gun that has been modified,, I wonder what else has been done to it that I can't see. So, before I'd buy a modified gun, I inspect it as much as I can, study the parts I could sell if it turned out to be junk, and let the value of the parts dictate how much I'd pay for it. Lots of kitchen table "gunsmiths" out there who use a Dremel in places where they should NEVER go. So I use caution about modifications.

Now, you mentioned that this gun protrudes past the opening in your holster. I'd say a new holster is in order!

 

[tek4260]

If you plan on shooting it, the improvement in sight picture is well worth any decrease in value....

 

[gmartinnc]

There are better ways to improve the sight picture without hurting the value of the gun. Besides, once you start removing metal, how do you know exactly when to stop? Putting it back isn't so easy.
A visit with the eye Dr. might help with the sight picture too. It sure did for me.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

All my Blackhawk wear red nail polish on the front ramp and the rear sight notch has the white outline.

 

[Kolns]

Agree for fun guns modify to your hearts content!

Really a bummer that Ruger hard solders front sight onto most Blackhawks, an issue I have with my 357 Mag / 9mm convertible. To improve the rather lousy black front and rear site issue, I painted the front ramp fluorescent orange over a base white coat, with only the top 2/3 or so painted so it only fills up the rear site notch only when on target. For the rear sight, I painted the notch outline flat white. Used Testors enamel model paint flat white 1168 & and fluorescent orange 0711. Would post some photos if I could figure out how.

 

[Sharps40]

It ain't your gun till ya make it so. When it's somebody else's gun, they'll make it so or sell it in a fit of pique.

 

[xtratoy]

I wish Ruger made the front sight on the blued Blackhawks pinned like they have on the stainless models. Then you could change the front sight until you were satisfied without affecting the value down the road. This is part of the reason that I will only buy stainless New Models. There are certain New Models that never were never offered in stainless so I would still buy one of those!

 

[OldePhart]

I guess I just don't have the soul of a collector. I understand resale value...it just doesn't mean a darned thing to me. A gun (or guitar, or motorcycle, or car...) is most valuable to me when it is set up where I can get the best use of it. If that ruins some collector's day thirty years from now, tough. When I buy something I never consider resale value...if I was thinking about selling it then I wouldn't be buying it to begin with.

Yes, this means that there have been several cases where I have gotten less for something when I sold it than I otherwise might have. Again, doesn't mean a thing because by the time I sell something I have gotten my enjoyment from it and whatever I get in selling it on down the road is just a bonus...in fact I've probably given more things away than I've sold simply because I recognized that I wouldn't get near what the item was worth to me or to the person I gave it to. Sometimes satisfaction is its own reward.

John

 

[edlmann]

My wife will probably sell them for what I told her I paid anyway.

Just the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night . . .

 

[GunnyGene]

I guess I just don't have the soul of a collector. I understand resale value...it just doesn't mean a darned thing to me. A gun (or guitar, or motorcycle, or car...) is most valuable to me when it is set up where I can get the best use of it. If that ruins some collector's day thirty years from now, tough. When I buy something I never consider resale value...if I was thinking about selling it then I wouldn't be buying it to begin with.

Yes, this means that there have been several cases where I have gotten less for something when I sold it than I otherwise might have. Again, doesn't mean a thing because by the time I sell something I have gotten my enjoyment from it and whatever I get in selling it on down the road is just a bonus...in fact I've probably given more things away than I've sold simply because I recognized that I wouldn't get near what the item was worth to me or to the person I gave it to. Sometimes satisfaction is its own reward.

John

I'm not really a collector either, although I have a couple low dollar antiques from the mid-late 1800's. It's interesting tho, that I paid exactly $324.71 for it new (including taxes), and today MSRP is $625 for the exact same gun (except mine came with rosewood grips instead of the hard rubber on recent guns). Chalk that up to inflation, I suppose. I might go ahead with painting the sights as suggested by Kolns.