Blackhawk rear sight "repair".

[Dave King]

On a recent "zeroing" trip my Super Black Hawk (SBH) bottomed out the sight and was still hitting high. Upon closer examination once I got home (via loupe cuz I'm old(ish) and can't see near items) I noticed the rear sight was still about .025 off the bottom stop (the SBH frame).

I took the rear sight off and found that the sight was hitting some of the frame casting. It appears this particular sight was mounted further forward (pivot hole extra rearward) and the crossmember holding the sight blade was making contact before the sight could swing completely to the bottom of its stroke.

With a little filing and some aluminum black I have another .030 to .040 inch of sight travel recovered.

This image is of another sight I lowered about .020 and I've highlighted the area I additionally needed to remove on the SBH sight.

The extra travel isn't much but I generally/normally end up with my rear sight at the bottom, the little extra lets me shoot with a little extra "down" left. I believe the .020 gives me about 2" to 2.5" of buffer at 25 yards on the 7.5" barrel guns.

Anyone else mess with the rear sight to get some adjustment back?

 

[contender]

While I've not seen that type of repair,, it is an excellent solution! Many times a person can find & then fix a problem w/o expensive & time consuming trips to the factory. Way to go!

 

[flatgate]

Good for you. I've done similar work to the rear sights on a few of my shooters. I invariably end up installing a taller front sight as a "proper" fix since the rear sight modification usually just doesn't quite "cut the mustard"......

flatgate

 

[Dave King]

flatgate

That rear sight fix on the SBH gave me back about .025" that in my mind should have been there all along. I only needed a little to get to the desired "POA=POI" for that revolver.

The flattening of the bottom on a regular "bottomed out" sight only gets about .020 and that's not much in the downrange change.

I do have some blue Ruger Old Army's that have the "short" front sight but I'm reluctant to send them to a smith for a tall front sight install. Same with my 4 5/8 45LC Blackhawk, I'd like a taller sight to allow me to shoot heavy loads. I believe the barrel would need a re-blue post new sight.

I've heard of folks cutting a slot into the fixed front sight to allow use of the pinned front blades... Maybe that would be a good compromise.

 

[flatgate]

There is a way.....

It takes a Milling Machine to remove the front sight blade then cut
a slot for one of Bowen's special sight blades. A transverse retaining
pin finishes the job and no refinish work is needed.

Link P401

flatgate