Alex Johnson
New member
A friend of mine asked an interesting question the other day. He had just finished reading an article in handloading on the 32-20 revolvers where they mentioned that many of the original 32-20 revolvers (Colt, S&W) were altered by putting adjustable sights on them. He has an old Colt 32-20 (Police Positive type) that is in good mechanical condition, but has little finish remaining and not a whole lot of collector interest. His ideas were to have the top strap welded, milled flat, and have a period, adjustable sight dovetailed into the strap. His ideas would produce a pistol that would be similar to the Colt Officers Model Target that I own. The front sight would have to be altered as well. Now, aside from the questions concerning altering an antique, would this work? My only concern would be the amount of heat necessary to fill in the groove through the top strap, and the amount of metal that would have to be removed to flatten the top. Would any of these things damage the structural integrity of the pistol? The idea would be to produce a classic custom pistol that might have been produced by a gunsmith in the 20's. His idea is intriging enough to make me somewhat interested in it myself.