thin front sight

[ChrisC]

do they make a thinner front sight for the L frame? i have a 686 with the factory ramped orange front sight and would like something a little thinner. do they make anything like this? or am i SOL? the factory sight takes up a lot of space of a B27 at 50 yards.

[Bill Sahlberg]

do they make a thinner front sight for the L frame? i have a 686 with the factory ramped orange front sight and would like something a little thinner. do they make anything like this? or am i SOL? the factory sight takes up a lot of space of a B27 at 50 yards.

Chris,

Use a good "bastard" file with the same strokes on each side!

Gunsmithing 101 :-)

[scottyinAZ]

my gunsmith milled mine thinner for $10 for me. takes no time and came out perfect. went from .125" to a .090", what a difference. makes pepper poppers and small targets a lot easier for me to hit.

[Chris Christian]

+1 to the file ( I use a flat Swiss file). I've thinned many a front sight for my old eyes. I normally mic it first. Most are around .125. I prefer .100. I thin one side of a .125 sight to about .118... mic... then thin the other to get the .100. If you don't do it exact... you just make a click or two of windage adjustment on the rear sight. It's easier than it sounds.

Chris Christian

[Toolguy]

Or if you don't want to do your own, I make black and fiber optic replacement sights in .100 and .125 width plus a fiber optic rear sight that replaces the rear blade.

[ChrisC]

warren,

are they post or ramped?

[Ahab]

Depending on what you're looking for, Brownells has a pretty good selection of front sights. My Bianchi gun (which is the only gun I shoot out to 50 yards) wears an SDM gold bead front that I've been pretty happy with.

[Toolguy]

warren,

are they post or ramped?

I can't talk about that here. Please PM me and we'll get it figured out.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Toolguy

[Carmoney]

If you want a thinner front sight, I strongly recommend buying one from Toolguy. Back when we didn't have the options we do today, I thinned a lot of revolver sights with a file and bottle of cold blue. It's not terribly difficult to do, but it's really hard to make them look good cosmetically. It's well worth the money not to have to dick with it for hours trying to make it look right.

[ChrisC]

I agree mike that 686 looks too prety for me to jack up the front sights.

Warren I want post. It 200 tall and the 100 would be good. Ill paypal you when I get home.

[MIT_Shooter]

I've been looking into a thin F/O front sight for a 686 too, but I just got the gun and haven't done any messing. What kind of attachments are there (it seems pinned and ??) I think that mine is pinned. What do folks do for rear sights? The notch on the factory rear doesn't seem very deep and I'm sure there is a rear with a large, flat, serrated rear blade out there.