Front sight dilemma!

Gruntr Huntr · 05-11-2007, 12:21 AM

My dang eyes are just not what they used to be and it's causing me some grievous problems! My Ruger 77/50 has a front sight with a bead the size of a pinhead. Now, that fine sight makes that rifle put the bullets on top of the bullets, but, only when I've got enough light to see the thing.

I've called Ruger and they don't stock anything different cause they discontinued the gun a while back; I've called Brownell's but they don't have any aftermarket alternatives either.

The main problem is that the front sight on this Ruger has one of those really long dovetail bases that no one makes. So, I'm left with having to engineer something that will work. I've thought about having the front sight rampgrinded down and a new dovetail cut into the base of the existing sight that would accept some type of sight, or, shave the front sight flat and drill & tap a shotgun-style fiber optic sight.

Anybody got any other suggestions or ideas?

dmurphy317 · 05-11-2007, 03:28 AM

A quick and easy test to see if you can still use the original sight is to paint the bead white or floressent orange or whatever you can see best and try it out.

Is the existing blade mounted in a dovetail on the ramp? If so what is the width of the dovetail? If not a standard size maybe a dovetailed piece could be made to fill in the excess space with a screw taped into the ramp to hold it leaving a standard 3/8" dovetail for an aftermarket front sight.

It's also possible that someone like Williams makes a ramp front site that would work on your gun.

Good luck and keep us informed.

lonewolf5348 · 05-11-2007, 06:05 AM

Buffalo Arms Co
try the above and see if they have what you need

cayugad · 05-11-2007, 09:23 AM

I went to a craft store and got some fluorescent paint in all colors. Just paint the bead and it will stick out like a sore thumb. I had the same problem hunting bog marshes one afternoon. Enough light to hunt but hard to get a sight picture. So I painted the front sight lime green and shot a nice deer almost at closing that afternoon in the shadows. Had it not been for that paint I never would have been able to pick that sight up on the body of the deer.

Gruntr Huntr · 05-12-2007, 11:51 PM

Still not having any luck finding a replacement sight. I've got a hunt coming up in a couple weeks that I was planning to use this gun on! I've got an idea that I could grind the front ramp down enough to JB weld a fiber optic sight insert directly to the top of the reduced front sight. This would be just a temporary alteration so I could use the gun for the hunt and then dedicate it to a gunsmith long enough for a proper fix.

What do you all think?

dmurphy317 · 05-13-2007, 04:49 AM

That might work but I would try to grind a slight groove along the length for the FO rod to set in. That would give it a bit more support and surface area for the "glue" to hold onto. I tried attaching a FO rod to the top of a flat blade sight once and found it easy to knock off when bumped, not something you want to happen in the field.

Godd luck with it.

falcon · 05-13-2007, 07:35 AM

"I went to a craft store and got some fluorescent paint in all colors. Just paint the bead and it will stick out like a sore thumb."

This is theway to go. Took the cheap sights off my old Staghorn when I first got it.Put on a good set of iron sights. Went to Hobby Lobby and got theflourescent paint. Put some on the front bead and it worked great. Later put a scope on that gun but the front sight still has its paint.

Gruntr Huntr · 05-13-2007, 08:14 AM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: dmurphy317

That might work but I would try to grind a slight groove along the length for the FO rod to set in. That would give it a bit more support and surface area for the "glue" to hold onto. I tried attaching a FO rod to the top of a flat blade sight once and found it easy to knock off when bumped, not something you want to happen in the field.

Godd luck with it.

That's a good idea. Thanks. I really want to use my Ruger 77/50, just hope this works! I already thought about the possibility of knocking it off, which would not be good, but I'm taking a backup gun 'cause you never know what problems you might have.

Falcon, I would paint the bead but the problem is that the bead is about as big around as the head of a pin, really. In good light that little dot accounts for some excellent bullet placement, but I'm expecting low light conditions and my eyes just won't pick it up in low-light.