Repairing sight dovetails

[Livefast]

Been a real tool and managed to damage the sight dovetails on my Rossi 92 whilst trying to fit new sights. Read.....children at school, limited time and rushing = disaster.

Basically I didn't file the sights down small enough but still tried to force them in which has pushed the dovetails back at both ends.......meaning that sights are now rediculously loose and fall out with the .44 Mag thunder.

Question is, can I fix this moronic mistake without a new barrel.

[saddler]

Tried Loctite Threadlock?

[redcat]

Cut a tiny square of brass from a case mouth, put it under the sight and tap them both into the dovetail together. You might have to experiment with the thickness of brass needed.

Redcat

[Alpha1]

How wide is the fore sight if its wide enough you could drill a hole through it and tap it for a grub screw. You could also try peening the sides of the fore sight with a punch. Or make a new fore sight of the right dimension.

[glevum]

Try using a pin punch rather than a centre punch.

The result will look a lot better.

[greenshoots]

pushed the dovetails back


push them back the other way with punch and hammer although it will take a bit of paitiance

greenshoots

[Livefast]

Thanks all, will try and push them back with the ol punch first and then will resort to the shimming and plastic metal if that doesn't work.

[FredB]

It depends how loose they are, but the standard gunsmiths trick for this situation is to place the sight in the correct position and then strike each side of the top of the dovetail slot with a small chisel.
Fred

[Dark Skies]

You could clean everything up and apply a small amount of JB Weld mix to pack it out.
Or, depending on the material on the sight, you could try tinning it with solder to take up the slack.
Banging the dovetail about sounds a bit risky. Don't need to be arsing things up further than they already are.