Revolver sights

[coyotejoe]

I've seen a lot of questions on "how do I get my revolver to shoot where it's aimed". Here are some photos of my solutions. This concentrates on the front sight but rear sights need some work as well. Whether hammer notch or frame notch It will most likely need to be filed deeper and wider to provide a decent sight picture that is consistently repeatable. But it is the front that seems to give folks the most trouble.
 Here are some front sights I have installed on revolvers. The 1851 Navy was the simplest, just a taller pin. It may look like it would gouge a holster but it is nicely tapered and smoothly rounded and causes no problems in a Slim Jim holster. I dovetailed the 1860 Army to take an old sight I had in my "miscellaneous parts box". I got along with just lifting the factory sight a bit out of it's slot until I added a .45 Colt conversion cylinder, then it needed to be much taller. The last is on an 1862 Police I did for a buddy. He will have to cut it down to proper elevation and probably round off the sharp corners but at least he now has something to work with. A dovetailed front provides windage adjustment as well as correcting height.

[AtlLaw]

Good topic!

The member I bought my Dragoon from had dovetailed in a front sight on it, but I was wondering; what are your thoughts on how to file the hammer notch to make a better rear sight?     Do you think it's possible to "square" up the notch to get a more conventional sight picture?

[coyotejoe]

Certainly! Many Colt style revolvers have barely a scratch of a notch in the hammer. I always cut the notch deeper and wide enough to present a usable sight picture. I square the notch of Remington frames as well. Sometimes the Colt hammers are too hard to file, that's where a cut-off wheel on a Dremel tool comes in handy. Modern pistol sights have evolved into pretty much a standard "Patridge" style sight picture because shooters have learned that is what makes for the most accurate shooting. You can't shoot with sights you can't see.
 Cap & Ball revolvers were just one step removed from the big singleshot horse-pistols which often had only a front bead and some had no sights at all. Handguns were thought of as point and shoot weapons, not intended for accurate aimed fire so precise sighting was not really given much consideration. Today our revolvers are for recreational shooting and we like to hit what we aim at so modifying sights to make that possible is a natural thing to do.

[powderman]

I have pietta 44s in 1860 colt and 1858 rem. The 1858 has the blade broken off. it came out of the box shooting way off. I stupidly tried to gently bend the site, it snapped off. In all honesty it shoots closer to point of aim than it did. I'd like to have the site fixed someday, just can't afford it right now. They are a blast in more ways than one. POWDERMAN. 

[coyotejoe]

I got to shoot the 1862 yesterday and as tall as that sight looks it shot dead center at 25 yards, go figure.