Ruger 50th Anniversary .357 magnum

[Shootist Elite]

I picked up one of these revolvers a little while ago and have a question about the way it works. I noticed I am able to rock the rear sight with my fingers sideways a little where it sits in the top of the frame. The higher the rear sight is elevated the worse the condition gets. I am not sure if the roll pin that holds it in its frame is a little to narrow or if the slot in the frame is to wide. Perhaps its a combination of both. The elevation screw because of the spring tension I would think keeps everything in place. I was wondering if this is normal for a Ruger rear sight or is this the exception. This is the first Ruger single action I have ever owned. I contacted Ruger about it already but was told I have to pay the shipping to them. We all know what that can cost so I would just as soon not go that route.Basically I want to know is this normal or is it something to be concerned about and should get fixed.  

[epochelyptikal]

The rear sight is one thing I've never been happy with on Rugers whether they be DA or SA revolvers.  The rear sight on my single six rocks a little as well, so I would suspect it's normal.  I'd definitely shoot it a while, and pack it a while, and see if your POA vs. POI changes over the course of use.  If not, definitely no concerns.  If it does, I think you'd be better off paying money to Bowen for a rough country rear sight replacement, than paying it to UPS to send it back to Ruger.

JMHO,
Epoch

[Shootist Elite]

I was looking at that situation with the rear sight again and checked with gunsmith. He told me that they could drill out the side of the frame and put in a slightly larger next size up pin. I wasn't real excited about going that route so I decided to try something myself. I took a feeler guage to see how much gap there was between the side of the rear sight and the inside side of the top strap. Mine was a somewhat tight .007 and a comfortable .006. So I took an old feeler guage and trimed the tip of the .006 guage off about 1/8 to 3/16 and pushed it down on the side as close to the pin that holds it to the frame as I could. I then cleaned up the area and took a cotton swab and cold blued the edge that was exposed at the top of the frame. I appears to work just fine. I seem to be able to adjust the sight up and down with no noticeable resistence and the piece seems to be statying in place. This tightened up that slop I mentioned in my first pose considerably. I perhaps could have tried to use 2 pieces of .003 shim and evened it out. But overall it looks and functions just fine. You would be hard pressed to see that piece since it sits below the top edge of the frame. Theres hardly any play in it at all now. It was a relatively easy fix without all the hastles of sending it off to someone.

[dakotashooter2]

I thought that was part of the reason Ruger put the "ears" on the later model guns. To help protect the sights and eliminate the sight wobble.