Hey guys,

I want to thread a .22LR Zastava (pics of the barrel unit are below) I have sitting around, as I have plans for a 22 can. I also want to cut it down to ~16.5". The front sight appears to be silver soldered on, so that will be unusable trash of course. My questions begin in adding a new front iron sight.

When I cut it back to the desired length and begin to cut the dovetail for a sight like THIS ONE, do I need to worry about any stresses in the barrel being released and causing the barrel to warp/bend? I would hate to start cutting and have the end of the barrel point towards the sky.

Secondly, how do I pick the correct height of a sight like this? What reference points/surfaces should I take into account when choosing a sight height?

Do you reccommend any other tacticts to doing something like this? Any hints or tips? Any help will be appreciated.

Instead of dovetailing the new front sight into the barrel I would add a sight ramp similar to this which is held on with screws, then put a sight into the ramp. You might even find a one piece ramp/sight like this one that is the correct height.

The overall height of the new front sight + ramp should be the same height above the center line of the bore as the old sight. If the barrel taper is larger at the area you've cut the barrel you need to take that measurement into account when selecting the new front sight and ramp. Both the ramps and sights come in a variety of heights.

Old thread resurrection but that sight is not silver soldered on, it's attached via a threaded dovetail blank with a screw pulling against it. There's some type of glue to "bed" it to the barrel that's a little of a pain to remove. I just pulled them off one that's identical as the rear sight was in the way of the scope bell and removed the front sight as well.

OP, I have a Remington model Five, same gun as yours. Drift the front sight blade out. There will be a screw, similar to marlin front sights. That screws into a blank slid into a dovetail on the barrel. Mine wasn't soldered but there was some kind of adhesive between sight and barrel. Be careful, the bottom edges of the sights are sharp as hell.

ETA-I see I was beaten.

Hey guys, sorry for the late bump.

I've got the front and rear sights removed, they were just like yall said they would be.

So now my PLAN 1 is the following:

1. Measure elevation distance between the dovetail cut on the front sight and the rear sight. I will probably do this will a digital readout on a mill, I wish I had a CMM arm at work.
2. Cut/thread barrel to ~16.5".
3. Cut new dovetail for the front sight at the EXACT SAME height as the original sight.
4. Reattach sights
5. Go shoot and re-sight in elevation via the rear sight leaf.
6. If the rear sight cannot rise enough to meet the new front sight elevation, I will remake the rear sigh via a waterjet machine.





PLAN 2 is below:

1. Measure how deep the front dovetail cut is below the top of the barrel.
2. Cut/thread the barrel to ~16.5"
3. Cut new dovetail for front sight to the same depth as it was on the end of the barrel.
5. Go shoot and re-sight in elevation via the rear sight leaf.
6. If the rear sight cannot rise enough to meet the new front sight elevation, I will remake the rear sigh via a waterjet machine. Picture of the part I am mentioning is below.


What say you? Is there a standard 'gun stuff' dovetail width/angle I will need?