How do you remove a press/hammer fit front sight?

C

Carmady

New member
It's a High Standard Sentinel, seems to be pressed into a keyway.

I tried Vise Grips with leather to protect the blade, but didn't get anywhere, which is better than breaking it off.

Is there some sort of trick to this, like heating and cooling the sight, and then pulling? Soldering iron on the sight a while, then let it cool and pull?

The sight is too short and I might replace it, but first I want to try just pulling it up about .035". The gun shoots about 4" high at 50'.
 
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If it isn't held there by a screw or in a dovetail, more than likely, it's soldered.
Careful with the heat, though, especially if it's made of something other than steel.
You might be better off just adding to it to make it taller, rather than risk damage, replacing it.
 
I would try putting the gun in a padded vice,then giving the rear of the sight a couple of good smacks with a brass drift punch and a BFH,just to see what happens.Looks like it might be keyed into the barrel,from front to back.
 
Your vise grips are the way, but you might not be able to get it out without damaging it. I have not removed the sight from a Sentinel, but I doubt it is soldered in; most of the makers just use a press fit with a tool shaped to not damage the blade.

Jim
 
It's out, all of it, in one piece.

What worked was putting the leather protected sight in a vise and clamping down. The gun was upright with the sight going into the vise from below. Then some thick cloth over the barrel, a short piece of 1 x 2 over the cloth, and a 16 oz hammer (regular hammer). Two or three moderate taps did the trick.
 
In back in, about .345" above the barrel. It was around .307"-.310" before.

I taped pieces of a green guitar pick in front of and behind the part that goes in the keyway, to keep the bottom of the sight parallel to the barrel, and tapped it in with the hammer (1 x 2 on top of the sight).

The LFH did just fine.
 
I didn't see any solder.

I tried heating it because that's a technique to install piston pin without a press. Put the pins in the freezer overnight, heat the end of the rod, push the pin in while it's cold/smaller and the hole in the rod rod is hot/bigger.
 
Thanks. So many folks say those sights are soldered in that I thought there might be something to it, even though I never saw one.

Jim
 
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