Removing & installing dovetail front sight

[shootrj2003]

I don’t know,but,my experience has been 90 %( I did not figure this mathematically however) of dovetails ,looking from the breech to the muzzle,foreward,toward the target,as if you were shooting the piece,drive out left to right and install right to left - out> in< My daddy told me that,he was a veteran of 3 wars ,and he told me MOST did,not all and my experience agrees to this ,even foreign rifles like Mausers ,my Renegade does Too. My ….Hell,they damn near all do!

 

[M. De Land]

I have a new front sight to install on my Renegade. I've read that some dovetails have a taper and need to be driven out/in a certain direction. I've also read several contradictory things about which way this is.
The common saying I've seen is "Drive it right out unless you want it left in".
To me this means that with the muzzle pointing away like it would when you shoot, you would remove a sight by placing the punch on the left side of the sight and drive it to the right. Yet several youtube videos of supposed gunsmiths are driving them out to the left side. So, which is it? To establish directions that can't be confused, with the barrel pointing as it would when shooting, which side of the sight should the punch be placed to REMOVE it?

I'm worried I may have removed the taper, if there is one, on my barrel because I removed my old front sight by placing the punch on the left side of the sight and driving it to the right to remove it. It did not require a lot of effort to get it out this way, just some semi firm tapping. I did put it back in after finding that the new sight isn't an easy install without some filing, and the old sight holds fine so I'm probably okay on how I did it.

The new sight will not go in. I can get it slightly started into the dovetail, but then it would require way too much beating on it to get it to the center of the barrel. The aluminum Williams sight shows some metal starting to be scraped on the top, right side of the angled edge when looking straight down on the top of the sight with the muzzle to my right side. I'm glad I didn't beat on it and try to force it.
I've since read that sights are manufactured to be slightly oversized and require some filing. One post I read said that just filing the bottom of the sight base, a couple passes at a time and then check fit, will get it to the point that it will fit.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, I don't want it to end up damaged or too loose of a fit.

First of all one needs to understand how dovetail sights should fit into the female in the barrel. If properly fitted they will not only fit the female dovetail slot corner to corner but will also fit bottom of dovetail to the underside of the flats of the sight at the top. A properly fit dovetail sight when looking side to side after installation will show no or very little light any where.
I never go by direction of insertion or removal but rather mic the width of the sight male on each side. That will determine which way it is to be inserted or removed and it is fool proof.
Another thing I have done is to file the sight itself instead of the dovetail because if you ever want to go back to a standard sight base you will have to shim what was filed out of the female on the barrel.
If you have to shim there is a couple of ways it can be done but is not necessary to explain here.
If you have to deform the sight when pushing it in with a press or driving it in with a plastic insert in a punch it is not fit correctly. It should be slug but not so tight it cannot be drifted for windage adjustments without deforming it. When you have it adjusted then mark it with a witness mark and keep it their with a drop of lock tite under the sight base. This will keep it in place and seal water out from under it to cause corrosion from cleaning or foul weather.