Filing down front sight on Remington

[mjulihn]

I took my two Pietta Remington NMAs to the range today. At 25 yards one was consistently hitting 6" low (windage was perfect). Is there a way to calculate how much to take off the front sight to raise the POI about 6" at 25 yards? This is a stainless Pietta NMA revolver with 8" barrel shooting 30 grain Pyrodex pellets with .454 round ball.

 

[Don]

I'm not aware of any calculations. Load your revolver, take three shots from a rest, file a little, fire three more shots repeat until your shots are hitting where you want them to hit. Be judicious with the filing and don't rush. It usually took me three or four goes with the file to get the sights where I wanted them.

Don

 

[swathdiver]

There is. But I would leave a little left to finally adjust it at the range. Do you have excel?

Send me an email and I'll send you the file.

[email protected]

 

[Zonie]

There is a method for calculating the amount of material to remove from the front sight.

First, you have to measure the distance from the rear sight to the front sight in inches. Write the number down.

Next, calculate the distance from the gun to the target in inches. At 25 yards it would be (25 feet) times 3 to get the distance in feet. 25 X 3 = 75 feet. 75 feet X 12 gets the number of inches so, 75 X 12 = 900 inches.

Now, divide the distance on the target from the point of aim (6 inches) by the distance to the target. 6 inches/900 inches = .007 inches.

Multiply the distance between the sights times .007 to get the amount of material that needs to be removed.

(guessing 9 inches) X .007 inches = .063 inches to remove.

 

[M. De Land]

Well the first thing you want to do is find the most accurate load you intend to use and don't start filing until you are satisfied on that score first.
After that is established now you have a base line from which to calculate and approximate sight reduction.
Even know you get some solid number still take a bit off at a time and let the gun tell you when to stop filing.
Calculations give you some reference but are not to be trust solely on their own merit. Mike D.

 

[rodwha]

I've read that Pyrodex Pellets are discontinued. If so you may want to find another powder to use before you do any filing.

 

[crockett]

That sounds sort of "off". Normally I don't think you would have to adjust things that much. Although it sounds crazy, a heavy bullet some times hits HIGHER (you would think lower). Rather than doing an irreversible change I would first try loose powder, real black powder, or conicals and then make a decision.

 

[Robert Egler]

Every single action revolver I've ever had, BP or cartridge, shot low to start with and required filing the front sight.

Just guessing, but that may be on purpose, since you can file down the front sight but can't add more material. 6 inches at 25 yards is about what my Remington NMA shot to start, 35g 2F bp, roundball.

I did the calculation using trig before I saw Zonie's answer, and came up with the same number. When I read Zonie's post I said "Oh yeah, you could do that, same thing with 2 fewer (and unnecessary) steps. Duh! :redface: ". But experiment is better than theory, so I wouldn't start with taking that much off, work your way down, after you experiment with loads to see what that does to the impact point.

 

[crockett]

I shoot Colts, I didn't know Remingtons were off 6" as well. With my Colts it was the "other way" if you aims low, for the belt buckle the ball was supposed to hit the opponent in the chest. So I had to raise the front sights. (I dovetailed in a blade).

 

[mjulihn]

There is a method for calculating the amount of material to remove from the front sight.

First, you have to measure the distance from the rear sight to the front sight in inches. Write the number down.

Next, calculate the distance from the gun to the target in inches. At 25 yards it would be (25 feet) times 3 to get the distance in feet. 25 X 3 = 75 feet. 75 feet X 12 gets the number of inches so, 75 X 12 = 900 inches.

Now, divide the distance on the target from the point of aim (6 inches) by the distance to the target. 6 inches/900 inches = .007 inches.

Multiply the distance between the sights times .007 to get the amount of material that needs to be removed.

(guessing 9 inches) X .007 inches = .063 inches to remove.

Thanks, Zonie. Yours was a very helpful response. I realize there are several variables to consider (BP load, RB size, etc.), and will go slowly. The front sight is noticeably taller than the one on my other Pietta NMA, which delivers the same load right on the POA at 25 yards.

 

[mjulihn]

I've read that Pyrodex Pellets are discontinued. If so you may want to find another powder to use before you do any filing.

According to my Internet shopping, they seem to still be widely available. While I would not use them in a brass frame revolver, they do make loading very easy!

 

[Rick Son]

For those with A.D.D. buy a couple more sights and start filin :hatsoff:

 

[crockett]

I know that historically, one occasionally sees a Colt Navy 1851 with a dovetailed in front blade that has replaced the post type sight. I don't know that much about Remingtons but are there any original Remingtons that had the post replaced with a dovetailed in blade style?

 

[Billnpatti]

Yes sir there is a way of calculating exactly how much to take off your front sight. Here is how it is done. First measure exactly the distance in inches between your front sight and your rear sight on your gun. Then determine the distance in inches from your muzzle to the target. At 25 yards, this will be 900 inches. If you are shooting at a different distance, you will have to figure that distance in inches. Then you determine how many inches you want to raise your POI. Now with those three figures what you do is divide the distance between your front sight and rear sight by the distance to your target and then multiply the answer by how many inches you want to raise your POI. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you measure the distance from your front to your rear sight and it comes out to be 10 inches. Let's also say that your POI is 6 inches low at 25 yards. So, here is the calculation: I multiply 25 yards by 36 inches per yard and find that from my muzzle to the target is 900 inches. I divide 10 inches by 900 inches and get 0.01111 So, I take that number and multiply it by the six inches that I want to raise my POI and I get 0.067. That means that to raise my POI by 6 inches at 25 yards, I need to remove 0.067 inches (67 thousandths of an inch) from my front sight. What is the best way to do this? First, you will need a micrometer. Then take an initial measurement from the bottom of your barrel to the top of your sight. That is the easiest way to do it. Then subtract 0.067 from that reading and adjust your micrometer to that setting. Place the micrometer up next to your front sight to see approximately how much you need to remove from your front sight. In othe words, see how much 0.067 is on your sight so you can file off that much. However, let me recommend this. Do not file off all of the 0.067 inches all at once. File it down just until you have removed almost but not all of 0.067 inches. Then test fire your revolver to see where you are. Slowly remove metal from your sight and test fire as you go so you don't remove too much. You want to ease up on the sight adjustment not rush up and over shoot with the metal removal. Once your sight is properly adjusted, you can use your file to shape your front sight but do not remove any more metal from the top of your sight. Then use a bit of cold blue to touch up where you have filed

Now, for a final and obvious caveat. Do not use my calculation of 0.076 inches for your revolver sight adjustment. It is only an example of how to make the needed calculations. Make your own measurements and do your own calculations so that they are correct for your revolver.

 

[Billnpatti]

Oops!!! Excuse me, Zonie, I just repeated what you had said. :redface: Once again, I jumped into answering the question before I read all of the previous answers. Well, at least we agree on how to make the calculations. :hatsoff:

 

[Zonie]

Well, at least you didn't say:

The first thing you have to do is to calculate the tangent of Alpha, Alpha being the angle from the line of sight to the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the actual location of the impact of the projectile.

With the impact being 6 inches from the line of sight at a 25 yard distance, following converting 25 yards to inches we have:

6/900 = Tangent Alpha = .0067, therefore determining Tan ^-1 Alpha, we find that Alpha = 0.382 degrees.

Now measure the distance between the sights and multiply that value times Tan 0.382 degrees.

If the distance between the sights is 10 inches, we have
10 inches X (Tan 0.382 degrees) = 10 X (.0067) = .067 inches. :grin:

(See? Trigonometry isn't that difficult, is it?) :rotf:

 

[bpd303]

Now I have a headache. :grin:

 

[mjulihn]

For those with A.D.D. buy a couple more sights and start filin :hatsoff:

This is actually a replacement stainless sight from Taylor & Co. that I took to my gunsmith who soldered it on for me. While the sight itself is not very expensive, the labor for soldering is. :nono:

 

[Billnpatti]

"(See? Trigonometry isn't that difficult, is it?) "

Maybe for some but I had to take it twice because the first time I had a C- and thought there was a good chance of it going to a D so I dropped the course to protect my GPA and repeated it next sememster. The second time around, I made a C and was glad to be done with it. I don't know why I found it so hard because Algebra was a snap and so was Calculus and Statistics. Trig, with all of its identities, just didn't fit my mind.

 

[mjulihn]

Well, at least you didn't say:

The first thing you have to do is to calculate the tangent of Alpha, Alpha being the angle from the line of sight to the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the actual location of the impact of the projectile.

With the impact being 6 inches from the line of sight at a 25 yard distance, following converting 25 yards to inches we have:

6/900 = Tangent Alpha = .0067, therefore determining Tan ^-1 Alpha, we find that Alpha = 0.382 degrees.

Now measure the distance between the sights and multiply that value times Tan 0.382 degrees.

If the distance between the sights is 10 inches, we have
10 inches X (Tan 0.382 degrees) = 10 X (.0067) = .067 inches. :grin:

(See? Trigonometry isn't that difficult, is it?) :rotf:

My guess is that you made all that up -- but who here would know the difference?? :idunno: