Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Advice needed

The red plastic piece fell out of the front sight on my Ohio-made Ithaca model 37. The replacement sight I ordered from Brownell's is correctly threaded, but not the precise length required for the fiber optic part to line up down the barrel when the sight is tightened down. What should I do to remedy this problem? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Brownells sells a cutter that will remove metal from the bottom of the sight and let it screw in farther to line up. For one job you can carefully file the bottom of the sight to achieve the same result. I would use a safe edge file to prevent damaging the threads.

Could you back it out one full turn until alligned to your satisfaction, and put thread lock on it?

I always just filed them to fit. GD

Bingo!

That is what I have always done in other applications, but with such fine threads I am concerned about the coarseness of my files and being able to re-start the sight in the threads. Perhaps the Brownell cutter is the way to go, if it's not too much money for a one-off project. BTW, what is a "safe edge" file?

I was thinking there might be a substance that I could put in the bottom of the hole to set the sight in. Would that be a workable use for Loctite? Or could I put a dab of JB Weld in there?


Might work, but I'd feel better if it was a snug, physical stop.

jBrownell's sells a three cornered file that has only one side with teeth on it, the other two are "safe"', they don't cut

Yep - I've got one and it's been a very handy item indeed...

Or just grind the teeth off the side of a mill smooth file you have for a one time job like this
You could even use 320 grit sandpaper on the bottom of a wooden block for "one and done" job like this

The sandpaper approach sounds like a good first try at it. Maybe that won't take enough off at a time to mess up the threads to where I can't restart them. It's difficult enough as it is, the piece is so tiny. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Curious, does the screw need to bottom out to be snug or does the body of the sight need to bottom out?

Hmmmmm. Ideally the two would happen simultaneously with the sight lined up down the barrel. But you raise an interesting point; I need to take a closer look. I was assuming that the threads had bottomed out, preventing further rotation to align the sight; could be the body of the sight has bottomed out and removing thread length might not help. If that's the case, then I see no solution other than Loctite or filling in the bottom of the hole with Loctite, JB Weld, Epoxy or something and setting the threads in that. They really ought to make a round plastic bead for the front sight so that it's always aligned. I have a brass bead, but it's hard to see in bad light (although it worked well enough on last Saturday's gobbler!). The gun is used for turkey hunting.

You got my point!

I would stay away from the no going back stuff like JB or epoxy. Blue Loctite should be OK.

Regardless, you will want the sight to be resting on the rib when you finalize the position.

Maybe place a lead shot in the hole and see where you end up after screwing it in again. #7, #6 etc. Whatever will fill the hole.

Oh, I am not a gunsmith. Just good at breaking stuff!