Is it difficult? If the bead is missing from a barrel (no rail -- just regular barrel), is it hard to do a "do it yourself fix?"

Otherwise, would a gun smith do it affordably?
Thanks.

Nope not hard to do at all. You can actually buy replacement beads and front sights at Wally-World.

it just screws in . just make sure u get the right size bead and put a light inheisive on it before you screw it in as so it doesnt fall out again. i thought it was going to be hard too, but i went to a gun smith and he did it for under 5 bucks including the bead it self and i was out the door in20 minutes(half that time was just to shoot the sh*t). if you have one close bywould go that rout. but if not its real easy to do it your self.
good luck
Jeff

Thanks. I assumed it was epoxied on or something. Glad to hear it's easy.

even if you are adding a mid-bead, it's stillnot that much... I took my Red Label to the most expensive place in town, and it still cost me less than $20.

If you are going to replace it yourself you must make sure you know the thread pitch of the hole and purchase the correct bead.

Also something that no one mentioned is that the threaded shaft of the bead will most likely portrude into the bore. This MUST be filed down smooth with the inside of the barrel. If not you can rip it right out when you fire the gun and then damage the end of the barrel.

I additiion to what Bigbull stated the protrusion into the barrel has to be cut off,filed,and polished out for this is were your choke is. Note some shotguns front beads are NOT THREADED into the barrel they are pressed in. Your most commom treads for front beads are 6x48 or 3x56 TPI. vangunsmith

Whoa guys, alot of beads are screwed in, but some are pressed in (i.e: Rem 870 express).
If your bead is missing, clean the hole out with gun scrubber or something similar and see if there are any threads in the hole. If there is, get a bead with matching thread and add a drop of loc-tite and screw it in. If no threads, it shouldn't be much to have a smith tap the hole and put a bead in for you. Probably <$20 including the bead