The single action sixgun had been residing in the gunshop showcase for several weeks. You’ve admired it the last couple of trips to the shop and now you have finally decided. The finish is excellent, the action feels great, and you’ve wanted to get into single action shooting anyway. The decision is made. The .45 Colt single action will be yours.
When you shoot it for the first time you know it will be dead-on with any ammunition tried. If you believe that you will also believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and honest politicians. Chances are highly probable that it will either shoot high, low, left, right, or any combination thereof.
The best case scenario is a sixgun that is dead on for windage but shoots low. This is the way most single action sixguns, both foreign and domestic, are coming through now. Most but not all. It hasn’t always been this way but the Italian replica sixgun makers have especially gotten their act together in recent years and the better clones are being made with front sights that are designed to be dialed in by each individual shooter with the judicious use of a file. This is something that most of us can handle quite well without the aid of a professional gunsmith.
If the sixgun in question shoots low but is on for windage it is necessary to lower the front sight to raise the impact of the bullet on target. This is where the file comes in as to accomplish this, ‘simply’ file the top of the front sight until the bullet strikes exactly where desired.
I say this is a simple operation BUT there are cautions to be followed. First and foremost, the sixgun barrel should be wrapped with tape just in case the file slips and hits the barrel. It is natural to look at the front sight, barrel, and file and be lulled into a false sense of security that says I can do it if I am just careful. Don’t believe it! I’ve been there. Twice. Murphy’s Law will definitely kick in and if the file can hit the barrel, it will.
Metal that is removed cannot be replaced so every file stroke is most important. It takes very little metal removed from the top of the front sight to change the impact of the bullet on target drastically. It is also necessary to choose the load that will be used with each particular sixgun and tailor file the front sight for that load.
With care and moving slo-o-o-o-o-owly, the top of the front sight can be filed parallel to the barrel BUT another caution is apropos here. If the sixgun is shot from sandbags or a Pistol Perch using two hands for sighting in, and then in actual use, fired from a standing position using one hand, chances are very good that the point of impact will be different. For myself, the point of impact is higher from a standing one-handed position. The stance that will be used for most shooting should also be used as the front sight is filed in.
That is the simplest case scenario, but what if the sixgun in question shoots to the right or left? Now we need a gunsmith to turn the barrel. A gun that shoots left, needs the front sight moved the opposite of the direction that one would move the rear sight to change point of impact. The barrel is turned to the left to move point of impact of a sixgun that shoots left to center. For most sixguns the barrel is simply turned in tighter to move the impact and loosened slightly if the sixgun shoots to the right. Better gunsmiths are set up with a barrel vise that will not scratch the surface of the barrel. I have had numerous barrels turned by the gunsmiths at our local gunshop, Shapel’s, with excellent results.
Carefully shoot a target and take it into the gunsmith and he will proceed accordingly. Ask him to mark the barrel and frame with a reference point, under the ejector rod housing is a good spot, in case the barrel must be re-adjusted slightly. A sixgun that is off as to both windage and elevation should be adjusted for windage first as turning the barrel for windage will also effect elevation.
If the change needed is minor, say one-inch right or left, or a couple of inches up and down, it may be possible, with a little experimentation with bullets, powder types, and charges, to move the point of impact enough to bring the sixgun to point-of-aim impact.I have been able to do this with several sixguns with very little time and trouble. Generally, to lower the point of impact use a lighter or faster bullet or both. To raise the point of impact, the opposite is normally necessary, that is use heavier bullets, or slower velocities, or both. For some strange reason, differences in powder and velocity will often move the impact right or left.
Drastic changes require drastic steps, so the worst has been saved for last. If a sixgun shoots high by several inches or more, the front sight must be changed, that is replaced by one that is higher. For several years, I have had a pair of Uberti-made Remington 1875 Single Actions, both nickel finished, and both with 7 1/2″ barrels. This duo is a matched pair except that one is in .45 Colt and the other is in .44- 40. Both sixguns shoot exceptionally well except for the point of impact. With the loads I wanted to use, the .44-40 shot nine inches high at twenty-five yards while the .45 Colt was even worse placing its bullets in satisfying small clusters but fourteen inches above point of aim! No amount of tinkering with loads, powders, velocities, or bullets can off-set this problem.
Obviously higher front sights were needed. Talking with several gunsmiths over the years resulted in no progress as no one really wanted to tackle the job. So these sixguns spent most of the time in my vault and were taken out occasionaly for the use of black powder blanks in Western re-enactments and shot sparingly on tall targets. This really bothered me as the guns shot so well.
Then I hit on an idea. I had previously had Shapel’s cut the barrel of a .303 Enfield Mark IV #1 back five and one-half inches and the front sight replaced with a Williams Shorty Ramp and a Marble gold bead front sight that I found in Brownell’s catalog. Brownells’ book is a must for every professional gunsmith and sixgun tinkerer as it is simply full of all types of gunsmithing goodies including many items for sixgunners. Instead of trying to replace the front sights of the Remingtons with the same factory style sight, why not take the same path as the Enfield and use a rifle ramp with a bead insert? Brownell’s carries a full line of Williams Shorty Ramps that attach by drilling and tapping a hole in the top of the barrel and using a screw through the top of the ramp. Ramps are available in height sizes of 1/8″ (.032), 3/16″ (.0945), 9/32″ (.188), and 3/8″ (.282). Heights are measured from the top of the barrel to the bottom of the dovetail.
To match up with the Williams Shorty Ramps, Brownell’s Marble Ramp Mounted Front Sights are offered in heights of .260, .290, .312, .343, .375, .410, .450, .500, and .538, all sizes in thousandths of an inch. Mating four ramps to nine front sights allows thirty-six possible height combinations, so how do we find the right height?
Using a Hornady Electronic Digital Caliper I found that the barrel diameter of the Remington .45 Colt was .696 inches and the height of the front sight above the barrel was .284 inches. Three other measurements are also needed: the change in impact that is desired, in this case fourteen inches, the sight radius of the .45 sixgun, and the distance to the target. The latter two measurements came out at 8 5/8 inches and 25 yards repectively. We now have everything necessary for a little junior high mathematics.
A simple proportion that is used is the change in impact desired (A) compares to the distance to the target in inches (B) as the change required in the front sight (X) compares to the sight radius (C), or A/B = X/C. Cross multiplying gives us AC = BX, and X = A times C divided by B, or in this case 14 inches multiplied by 8 5/8 inches all divided by 900 inches (25 yards) equals .134 inches. Add this to the height of the original front sight and we come up with a new front sight height needed of .418 inches. Note very well, that a change of only .134 inches changes the point of impact fourteen inches at 25 yards, or a one-inch change is accomplished by a front sight change of only .01 inches.
This emphasizes how careful one must be when removing metal from the front sight of a gun that shoots low. A slight change on the front sight results in a large change on target.
A simple proportion that is used is the change in impact desired (A) compares to the distance to the target in inches (B) as the change required in the front sight (X) compares to the sight radius (C), or A/B = X/C. Cross multiplying gives us AC = BX, and X = A times C divided by B, or in this case 14 inches multiplied by 8 5/8 inches all divided by 900 inches (25 yards) equals .134 inches. Add this to the height of the original front sight and we come up with a new front sight height needed of .418 inches. Note very well, that a change of only .134 inches changes the point of impact fourteen inches at 25 yards, or a one-inch change is accomplished by a front sight change of only .01 inches.
This emphasizes how careful one must be when removing metal from the front sight of a gun that shoots low. A slight change on the front sight results in a large change on target.
With an original front sight height of .284 inches on the Remington .45 Colt and a new sight height calculated to be .284 plus .134, it was concluded that a front sight combination of .418 inches would bring the point of aim to point of impact. To accomplish this a Williams Shorty Ramp with a height of .0945 inches was matched up with a .312 Marble Ramp Gold Bead Front Sight giving a height of .4065 inches. With the load I want to use in this sixgun, impact is two inches low with the front bead in the bottom of the rear sight notch and dead on when I allow the bead to ride immediately above the notch.
Going through the same process with the Remington .44-40 resulted in the need for a front sight height of .363 inches. Mating a .0320 ramp with a .312 ramp front sight brought the sight up to .344 inches. With this combination, the .44-40, that was shooting nine inches high is now dead on with both 200 and 225 grain bullets at a Cowboy Action Shooting range of 15 yards.
Marble bead front sights are available in both 1/16 and 3/32 diameters and in both gold and white. I chose 1/16″ gold beads and will replace them with the larger, and thus easier to see, 3/32″ gold beads. Windage can easily be adjusted by tapping the ramp front sights right or left.
Matching a Shorty Ramp and Gold Bead (or white) Front Sight with a fixed sighted sixgun is one of the easist and least expensive ways to bring the reluctant sixgun to point of aim. It also results in a more precise sighting system, round bead plus U-notch, and it plain looks great. Two virtually unusable guns are now in sixgun service.
The Remingtons turned out so well that I did not hesitate to recently purchase a 4 1/2″ barreled Colt New Service .44 Special. This rare sixgun would have been better, and worth more, had it been left alone but somewhere along the line it was fitted with a adjustable rear sight while the front sight was left factory. The result, as expected, was bullets printing 26″ high at 25 yards! The answer is a Williams shorty ramp and bead front sight.