Front Site in a Dovetail

[muliehunter]

Maybe someone out there has some experience in this.

Looking to put a front globe site in a 3/8 dovetail on my muzzleloader. The sight is slightly loose. Read where some have filed down the dovetail however I think I have build mine up. Thinking of either building it up with epoxy then filing it down or trying a shim of some sort.

Any help/opinions of what you my have done.

Thanks.

 

[bbell]

How lose is it? I have turned the sight upside down and peened (?) the bottom of the dovetail. It spreads out the metal a little bit. If it's loose definitely don't file it. Hope that helps.

Brandon

 

[ATX762]

Yeah you file things cause they're tight!

Peen both big faces of the dovetail and then use green loctite 660 or 680 (or one of the other green loctite gap-fillers, I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head). That will allow you to remove it with heat (about 350 ish so you won't affect the finish. Or you can two stage epoxy it in, which I would not do, because it's in there for good.

 

[muliehunter]

Thank you for the advise.

I will try.

 

[ATX762]

I've used the green gap filling loctites to solve tons of problems. If you can get a partial mechanical fix, i.e. peen enough to get even a tiny bit of mechanical lock, the loctite will go the distance. But definitely get the one that spans gaps.

Also...duh...depending on what the globe is made of (i.e. plastic inserts or not) you could just sweat it in, get 60/40 solder, it melts at a low temp and is strong but you might have to look around a bit. Low enough temp in theory you will not mess up any finishes.

 

[ATX762]

That is 60/40, not 40/60...