Seeing things clearer

So I was browsing through one of the CAS forum classified section when I ran across an ad from one of the local "gunsmiths" (in quotes because I don't think he has an FFL or is licensed in any way), he was selling a new line of front sights for rifles that he had some catchy name for that I can't remember right now. Anyway, he was selling them for $25 or some such nonsense like that, I mean a marbles sight is $10, what set his sights apart is that he a) installed a massive bead on it (#2 shotgun bead) and b) had marketed it with aforementioned catchy name. At the time I thought, "hell, I could do that!".

Fast forward to today when Judge and I set out on our second day of touring the Southern Indiana countryside looking for cowboy and gun stuff. We found ourselves over in Spencer at the local gun and knife show and I found myself staring at a vendor's selection of shotgun beads, for $4 I bought two #2 beads and tucked those in my pocket for later. After concluding today's trip with no real excitement or purchases, I headed into the garage with an old sight I pulled off of another rifle. I yanked the bead out of it and found that the hold the bead post fits in is 1/16", so I found some piano wire of 1/16" and a drill bit, dremel with griding wheel and a pair of pliers.

First I cut off the bead threads with side cut pliers, then used the dremel to flatten the cut. I mounted the 1/16" bit in my press and drilled the hole about1/16" deep. I then used some loctite gel super glue to attach the bead to the piano wire and cut the wire to length using the old bead post as a guide. I then checked the post for fit on the sight and glued it in place.

Fairly satisfied with the results, I repeated the process on my Marlin's sight and reinstalled the sight, the picture to the right shows the difference in the new "Gigante Sight" (bottom) and a 3/32" marbles bead sight on my '92. Sorry that the picture isn't too clear, lighting was bad and for some reason this didn't photograph well even with a tri-pod. The picture just doesn't do the new sight justice.

This is just an example of a cowboy saving a few bucks doing it himself. I had everything but the beads on hand in my house so the whole thing only cost $4 and those sights look HUGE! I really should solder the bead and piano wire together, but I just wanted to see if this would work, now that I've got proof, I'll try it at the range and if there's anyproblem with the bead coming off, I'll make some using solder.