Question about Front Sight on an Old but Fabulous Marlin Model 75

[Kayaker]

Good afternoon, everybody,

I am new here - I haven't attended an Appleseed clinic yet but an signed up for one in April.  The only rifle I owned was an SKS, so I started looking for a Marlin 795 or Model 60.  Both of those (along with 10/22's) were sold out for miles around my location.  I finally found a pawn shop with an old Marlin Glenfield Model 75.  The guy at the pawn shop told me that the Model 75 was a shorter barreled version of the Model 60, which does seem to be largely true.  So I bought the rifle and ordered Tech Sights for it.

Well, there is a bit of a hitch, however - the rear tech sight fits just fine on the receiver, however the front sight on the Model 75 has a barrel band (around the barrel only, not around the magazine tube like the older model 60's do.

So my question is, if I remove the little pin that unscrews from the front ramp sight, can I take a block and a mallet and beat the front sight band off?  will the barrel be blued underneath?  Has anybody done this before?

By the way, I guess installing the front tech sight would also involve drilling a tapping a small hole too.

I know this sounds like a pain in the rump roast, however I have shot this rifle and it is really fun to shoot and seems to be pretty accurate considering I haven't really trained with it yet.

Has anybody done this before?

Thanks for any thoughts on this...