Diamond front sights for guns

[mehulkamdar]

Nitro Express Forum discussion link.

Cheers!

[Mack The Knife]

Thanks for the link, Mehul.

I did not know something like this existed. Now you will have Asif wanting one for his Jeffery.

Mack The Knife

[badshah0522]

Thanks Mehul ,,
See i said ,everyday i am learning a new thing on this forum. Nice idea ,soon i ll impliment on any of my gun.

[eljefe]

Working mans working rifle.I will allow a dash of platinum or gold wire in the back sights and a gold dot on the front sight.
But gold plating the triggers sounds very tempting
When do we start??

[Mack The Knife]

When do we start??

Not in the mood. Plus SWMBO's isn't too chuffed that I have turned the balcony into a workshop for over a month. Just cleared the table and put a new table cloth on it yesterday and I'll be asking for trouble if I mess it up again.

Tell you what, she is off to the U.S. sometime in May. I'll start on it then.

Mack The Knife

[eljefe]

Grumpy,
new table cloth and doilies ! looks like I wont get char on that table :)
Mack The Knife-can imagine the mess that must have happened the last month and more in the 'balcony armourers shop'...Think its too hot to work there by now? But then again, cant have blueing solutions and other stuff floating around near kids.Me? like I said, I lock myself in the spare loo!
Hey, managed to 'scale' the brass spoons and give them a decidedly fishy 'curve' in about 20 min in the loo-major hammering and banging, around 5pm, so no ones disturbed, all tiles and walls intact and nothing fell into the pot...
Best
Axx

[mehulkamdar]

Gentlemen,

In addition to sights made with diamond or rubies, there was also old world high tech of a kind - Purdey made "electric sights" with a tiny bulb in the front sight blade though these are extremely rare and valuable guns as just a handful were ever made. I'll try and locate some pictures if I can though the best place would be the Nitro Express forums as they have the most dedicated double rifle collectors in the world. These days, if someone wanted to do something similar, they could use LEDs, I guess, but the diamonds do look like a more classy option.

The trend was recently revived by French custom gunsmith Christian Ducros who started using rubies and diamonds on gun sights and I guess it had to lead to double rifles gaining these sights very shortly sfterwards. After it was an old tradition and the only thing that keeps double rifles alive is tradition.

Cheers!

[eljefe]

Mehul, I too have seen pics of old doubles with electric bulb front sights-cant for the life of me remember where.Will search!

[mehulkamdar]

Asif,

If you know the owner, if he/she is willing to sell you the rifle, just buy it. If the rifle is in a good shape, especially if it is in a Purdey calibre like the 369, it could end up being frightfully valuable. I don't know the actual numbers that Purdey made but they were very, very small. These were pre WW-1 rifles, and imagine the amount of work that must have been put into designing them, custom making the various components and into making them reliable. No wonder that was the golden age of British gunmaking and that peak has never, since been reached by British gunmakers.

I'd be very grateful if you could take pictures of the rifle in question and post them here as well as on the Nitroexpress forums.

Thanks in advance and good shooting!