Filling Dovetail.

[Curiousgb]

I have a 16inch Puma stainless 44mag. It came drilled and tapped for their scout mount. I want to have the holes and the dovetail filled. Can this be done without ruining the barrel?

[Tycer]

I'm not one to mess with welding on a barrel, and I'm not sure how flux reacts color-wise with the type of stainless used on barrels. If it were me, I'd use pure lead and tap it into place with a brass hammer.

See this post:
http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... il#p191210

[Tycer]

Btt

[Cosmoline]

What about a dovetail blank?

[Rusty]

You can get dovetail blanks right off the shelf from Brownells.

[adirondakjack]

Yeah you can BUY dovetail blank, but to quote my kid "they ain't cool like that"

[marlinman93]

Brownells sells them in stainless steel, and also SS screws too. I would go that route, not blued filler and screws. You can't weld the barrel without having to reline it, so I'd pass on that idea.

[AJMD429]

With careful filing, you could form a stainless dovetail blank to be pretty well contoured with the barrel (if you were really patient with buffing, you could make it barely noticeable). OTOH I saw a post where someone filled the slot with BRASS and of course it was much easier to file perfect with the contour of the barrel. End result was a little golden bow-tie and not bad.

Out of laziness, I've left most of my dovetails empty (I usually replace factory barrel-mounted open sights with receiver-mounted apertures), and the only problem is that although the edges aren't sharp, they look sharp.

[Curiousgb]

I think I will go with the filling method. Maybe brass. I just wish the dovetails on the Puma's were a standard size. It is butt ugly with an empty dovetail and screw holes. Not to mention it looks like they hammered the original sight in with a maul.

[3leggedturtle]

Read a thread about using a "nickel" to fill it. They file down easily to .

[Shasta]

Midway sells inexpensive Marble's dovetail filler blanks. They come on sale several times a year for about $3 each. A nickel plated one is about $6.

If you have some time, a very suitable dovetail filler can be filed out of a piece of ordinary steel and polished to match the barrel. Here's one I did for my Taurus Model 62LA:




SHASTA

[3leggedturtle]

[quote="Shasta"]Midway sells inexpensive Marble's dovetail filler blanks. They come on sale several times a year for about $3 each. A nickel plated one is about $6.

If you have some time, a very suitable dovetail filler can be filed out of a piece of ordinary steel and polished to match the barrel. Here's one I did for my Taurus Model 62LA:




SHASTA[/quote Did you put on a tang sight? What sight arrangement do you have? Can we see pictures?

[Shasta]

3leggedturtle- Yes, I installed a tang signt. I usually use Marble's, but got tempted by the $30 price of the Taurus tang sight. It works well, but it's no where near the quality of a Marble's.



My apologies to Curiousgb, I do not mean to hijack your thread.

SHASTA

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I have a 16inch Puma stainless 44mag. It came drilled and tapped for their scout mount. I want to have the holes and the dovetail filled. Can this be done without ruining the barrel?

You can viturally rud the screw holes and the dovetail out if you take the time to to do it. Here is my flush safety plug.





The old safety switch is removed, the hole is slightly tapered and the tight fitting plug is flared slightly at the top. It's slightly forged into the the taper. Then the bolt and plug are ground and polished flush. The plug is barely visiable.

You can do the same thing for the barrel dovetail. You will need a piece of stainless material shaped to fit tight into the dovetail. Tap it in tight then file it flush. Harder to do in the screw hole. IIRC those holes are 6-48's and finding 6-48 stainless screws will be tough. If you can find one, screw it into the hole and cut it off just slightly long then flare it out some with your hammer then file it flush and polish.

[marlinman93]

If it's Stainless Steel, why not just use a piece of aluminum to make the filler? It's easier than brass to work, and it can be polished with Flitz to make it shine up purty!