I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the front sights on Trappers were soldered until around serial no. 6,000,000, but I'm looking at some pics of Trappers in the mid-5 million range (5.3-5.6 million) that sure look like they're dovetailed. Am I mis-remembering, or wrong, or is there no real rule of thumb here (as is so often the case with firearms manufacturing)?
Dovetail vs Soldered Front Sights on Trappers
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Except the earliest AE Models in .45 Colt and maybe other calibers that were soldered on. My 85 vintage .45 Colt Trapper is that way. Serial # 53556xx . The info I have says they went to the larger bull barrels in 91. Those I have seen with the bull barrel do have the dovetailed front sights.
Joe
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Interesting. I have an '83 Wrangler .38-55 16" and a '94 .45LC 16". I took a careful look at them this afternoon again and I am 99% sure they are both dovetailed. The catalog for 1984 did specify a dovetailed front sight for the Wrangler II (though we all know catalog copy does not necessarily reflect actual product delivery).
I'll try to post some pics this weekend so you all can agree (or disagree) based on your own visual observation of my two barrels.
John
I'll try to post some pics this weekend so you all can agree (or disagree) based on your own visual observation of my two barrels.
John
John,
You are correct. The smaller original rifle calibers, 30-30, 38-55, 32WS used dovetailed front sights. Then about 92 Winchester introduced the heavier bull barrel for the .45 Colt and probably the 44 Mag and went back to the dovetailed sights. The 85 to 92 .45 Colt barrels were so thin at the muzzle they couldn't put a proper dovetail in them so they soldered or braised the front sight on.
Joe
Thanks, Joe! I'll still post pics just in case anyone's interested. The OD of the two barrels in question are the same.
Slightly off-topic, I just want to say that I really like a short tube with a large bore. The muzzle blast can get a little extreme
but I like 'em anyway.
Slightly off-topic, I just want to say that I really like a short tube with a large bore. The muzzle blast can get a little extreme
but I like 'em anyway.
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I have a Winchester 94AE that someone --- perhaps even the gun from this thread...
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=28661
Had removed the original front sight and they tried replacing the front band with a Rossi 92 band with the sight mounted on the band. I have been searching for a somewhat correct front sight for a while now and I am starting to think I need to find a gunsmith that can just make me a new front sight (or modify something) so it can work with this 94AE.
Anybody know a gunsmith that might do this type of work? I would like to get the gun up and running so I can shoot it late summer and perhaps take it hunting this fall. I also need to get some idea if the cost to put it back is just going to be way more money then it is worth but right now that front sight setup is pretty darned poor.
I'll try to get some pics as I have had the gun for over half a year but didn't really have time to start dealing with the issue until now.
EDIT:
Perhaps this is another option: http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31588
Certainly as long as the front sight can't rotate on the pin I would be much better then I am now...
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=28661
Had removed the original front sight and they tried replacing the front band with a Rossi 92 band with the sight mounted on the band. I have been searching for a somewhat correct front sight for a while now and I am starting to think I need to find a gunsmith that can just make me a new front sight (or modify something) so it can work with this 94AE.
Anybody know a gunsmith that might do this type of work? I would like to get the gun up and running so I can shoot it late summer and perhaps take it hunting this fall. I also need to get some idea if the cost to put it back is just going to be way more money then it is worth but right now that front sight setup is pretty darned poor.
I'll try to get some pics as I have had the gun for over half a year but didn't really have time to start dealing with the issue until now.
EDIT:
Perhaps this is another option: http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31588
Certainly as long as the front sight can't rotate on the pin I would be much better then I am now...
I ordered a soldered sight from winchester for a 44mag trapper a couple years ago. Google winchester parts, I think it comes up winchestergunparts or something like that. Follow the links for customer service to the parts catalog. It will be several steps but they probably have the sight you need. I actually installed mine with JB Weld and it worked ok. The sight may be too high and require filing but don't take off too much.
You are correct. I looked at one of mine, serial number 5372601, and it has the sweat on front sight.
JB
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THANK YOU!!!
I actually printed this out back when you posted and finally had the time to do some searching and found the Winchester Parts center and they had the parts numbers and the parts in stock!
See: http://www.winchesterguns.com/customerservice/index.asp
Front Sight - Solder Type - 44 Mag & 45 Colt - Part Number - U345303500
Front Band (BB) Trapper 44 Mag 45 Colt - Part Number U349995270
There were two different front band screws so I ordered one of each to be safe (shipping far more expensive then the screw) (U344912390 and U344911760).
Parts show up in a week and then I can find a gunsmith to install this and try to fix the bluing on my 94AE where the original sight was removed and bluing clearly is less dark then the factory finish. Just glad to finally have found the correct front sight to get this back to original form!
Thanks Again!
Now I just need to get the parts
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