Poor Man's Express Sights

A couple years ago I snatched up a new model RSBH .44 Magnum, blued w/ 7.5" barrel. The idea was to have it as a base gun to try some nice basic upgrades. First thing was to refit and finish the grips. After that I did some load work and found a recipe of Lil'Gun and 240gr Penn SWC's that it really liked...but there was a problem. The slugs were hitting above the POA w/ the rear sight cranked all the way down. To get them dead on I had to nestle the front blade way down in the rear notch. So, I could either lower the rear blade height or increase the front blade height.

After some pondering, I liked the look and sight picture of an express style sight. But to send it off for the custom intallation and shipping was more than I wanted to spend.

By hand, I filed the rear sight blade from a notch to a "V". Then I took it to my local smith and had him install a shotgun bead up front.



He drilled and tapped the front blade then installed the bead. To protect the bead as well as make the sight picture clean, he milled the edges of the blade to the same width as the aiming bead head. This now allows me to tuck the bead into the bottom of the rear "V". Target and sight acquisition is super fast.

The cost of the 'smith work and a basic action job...ran under $50.

Interesting idea.

That is pretty cool, Dan B.

Thats a great idea Dan!

Thanks guys. I've been wanting to do this to several other RBH's in the safe.

I'll sidepackin' a RBH .357 Magnum to WY this fall...before hand it's getting the same treatment as the above .44 Magnum. I just refit the grips, worked a load with 180gr Penn TC (1300fps) and 158gr Penn SWC (800fps). Next is the front sight. I think I'll leave the rear as the standard notch and have a brass bead installed up front.

I was just re-reading Kelly & Jones' book Hunting For Handgunners. In chapter 13, Doc Rogers wrote about using Rugers front bead and V rear sight on a Redhawk for a similar set-up. He said it cut his group size in half. Too bad Ruger doesn't carry that set anymore.

I can tell you it sure does a lot to make aiming more precise. Being a long time fixed sight pin shooter in archery compeition, I took immediately to the bead front sight.

That looks like it works!May have to try that on something.