Does anyone have any experience using the dovetail adapter from Tech Sights?
I recently purchased a set of sights and a dovetail adapter for a .920 barrel from Tech Sights for my 10/22-T. I just moved and don't have a vice or work bench set up, so I took the sights to the shop where I purchased the rifle (Four Seasons) to have them installed (complimentary - good guys at FS). However, the rifle came back to me without the dovetail adapter installed. The gunsmith there told me the adapter was out of spec (too big). So I emailed Tech Sights, and they promptly sent me another adapter, but the replacement was exactly the same size.
The problem, per the gunsmith at Four Seasons, is that the adapter easily slides over the .920 barrel. According to him, the fit should be tight enough that it needs to be installed with a hammer. Tech Sights says it should be secured on the barrel with Lock Tight, but the gunsmith said that Lock Tight would be insufficient, and the recoil would quickly shake the sight out of alignment.
Does anyone had any experience with this, or want to weigh in on the matter?
Thanks!
-TD
Epoxy might do the job, it has exellent gap filling properties.
I would use one that was made for metal bonding and throughly degrease both parts.
If you go this route you will only have one shot at getting it right.
I would look into other options first.
Have you tried Rimfirecentral?
Thanks, just posted there this morning. I saw a couple people there had that adapter - if I don't get anything on my thread, I'll try to PM them.
I followed the directions and used locktight. The adapter slides on easily and you use the correct locktight. There are three grades. That adapter is soft metal. If you needed to hammer it on it would bend.
The whole thing is way easier than your gunshop is making it sound.
VAshooter
I'd be leary of either epoxy or any kind of Loc-tite holding the thing on long-term.
I used to have an M14 front sight held onto a stock 10/22 barrel by using J-B Weld, which is pretty tough stuff, filling the dovetails of both. This lasted a while and then sheared off (apparently there is a slight and short but very sharp recoil force that is the operant dynamic). I re-did it and the second time it sheared off even quicker. The third time, I even put a piece of reinforcing steel rod in there and it still sheared off.
Finally I made a metal adapter for the two dovetails and of course this is holding up just fine.
Why not have him cut a dovetail into the barrel itself? With the .920 barrel the height shouldn't be a concern, but that's just a theory as I haven't measured it myself.
Quote from: VAshooter on January 28, 2008, 10:32:48 AM
I followed the directions and used locktight. The adapter slides on easily and you use the correct locktight. There are three grades. That adapter is soft metal. If you needed to hammer it on it would bend.
The whole thing is way easier than your gunshop is making it sound.
VAshooter
I , too, followed the instructions and used the specified locktite. So far the sight has shown no movement through 1 Appleseed shoot, 1 Instructor Bootcamp and several range sessions with a little over 2K rounds this year.
I duct taped the rifle to a bench, used 2 torpedo levels (1 on the rifle barrel ,the other on the adapter ) to keep everything straight after putting on the Locktite and made sure to keep the excess blue goop cleaned up with Q-tips (cotton swabs ) till it set.
I am not a genius and just followed the manufacturers' design instructions....... for once ;D.
Big John
There are different grades of locktite. I've never used anything but the blue. There's red and black. Seems like the mechanics at work said if you use the black stuff you will most likely wring off any bolt heads you've used it on before they threads would actually come loose. I think the red is in between the blue (which can be taken apart again when necessary) and the black (which is advertised to be permanent).
Like I said, not having used the red or black all I have is hearsay on those types of locktite.
There is also purple which is "small screw locktite" and can be disassembled with normal hand tools.
VAshooter
Not thrilled about holding something on the muzzle with loctite. Yeah, it'll probably work, but you never know if the stuff will shift or give up entirely and send the adapter downrange. I'm going to dovetail the barrel and do it that way. Solid and I can pick whatever sight radius I want. I'll have it ready by the Feb. Davilla shoot, so I'll let everyone know how it worked out.
Check the elevation compared to a sight mounted in the adapter. I don't see how you can mount it without it being at least an 1/8th of an inch lower. That's a lot of sight adjustment. You might be able to dovetail an adapter with a corresponding dovetail for mounting the sight. That way you would have control of how high the sight is.
No reason why it wouldn't work. It's just that most of us don't have a milling machine in the garage.
VAshooter
Williams makes a dovetail "riser block" in a couple different heights. That's what I made my dovetail-to-dovetail M14 sight adapter out of.
Quote from: VAshooter on January 29, 2008, 02:27:29 PM
Check the elevation compared to a sight mounted in the adapter. I don't see how you can mount it without it being at least an 1/8th of an inch lower. That's a lot of sight adjustment. You might be able to dovetail an adapter with a corresponding dovetail for mounting the sight. That way you would have control of how high the sight is.
No reason why it wouldn't work. It's just that most of us don't have a milling machine in the garage.
VAshooter
Yeah. Thought of that. The adapter itself has a large flat spot in it to account for how tall the tech sight is that in turn has the dovetail milled into it, so I can duplicate the height of the adapter's dovetail, taking into account the thickness of the adapter sleeve that surrounds the barrel. I'll post when I've got it finished.
Used Blue LockTite - Been on there for a year, through lots of rounds and dragging in and out of the case/truck - No problem.
Then took it off to put on another barrel. Had to heat the the thing with a torch to soften/melt the locktite.
Cleaned out the residue and reinstalled...
QuoteAccording to him, the fit should be tight enough that it needs to be installed with a hammer.
Mine wasn't that tight, and it's been stable with only blue loc-tite for over a year. Just have to leave it alone to dry overnight, then use a punch to install the fron tight. So easy even I could do it.
Update....
Got the dovetail cut and the sight slides right in. Indexed off the flat spot on the bottom of the barrel where the barrel clamp goes and it lines up perfectly, then cut a relief in the barrel so the sight would be the same height as if installed in the adapted . Centered the barrel then drilled a small divot for the set screw and it's as solid as a rock. Now I've just gotta zero it and touch up the blue if I get time. Will post pics later.