A few years back I picked up a S&W 22-4 thunder ranch. Nice gun, and I like it a lot. A couple years after a got a smoking deal on a 325PD, changed out the sights and had a pre-nightguard.

Now I'd like to make the 22 a little more similar to the 325. It already has an SDM gold bead front sight, but it doest work well with the existing groove sight. Would be used mostly for idpa and range use, 325 is my carry piece.
Now for a couple questions.

Is it possible to mill out the topstrap so I can get the whole bead visible? Right now I get about 1/2 and it throws off my sight picture.
Possible to mill the topstrap to fit a S&W adj rear or cylinder & slide fixed rear sight?
Rebarreling with a M25 bull barrel? 4-5" would be about perfect.

Thanks in advance

By the time you pay to have all the work done to convert it you will have spent more than just buying another model 25. I think they made some M25 Mountain guns in 45 ACP. I would think as Minimum you could have a rear sight put on and just get a higher front sight blade.

Check out Bowen Classic arms. I think they used to do that kind of work.

Dan

David Clements does a slick conversion adding a low profile pre-war S & W adjustable sight to fixed sight revolvers.  His website used to have pics of a converted S & W Model 58 that looked really really nice.

I own a Model 22 TR and I had thought about putting an SDM gold bead on it.  Does it fit the standard pinned sight slot ?  And what height blade did you goi with––with half of the bead showing is POI comparable to an unmodified 'half moon' sight ?

If you know a machinist you can dovetail any rear sight you like on there. Something like a Bowen rough Country rear would be slick on that gun

I picked up the .250 SDM sight, but milled it down to approximately .210, seems pretty close if I have the bead resting at the bottom of the rear sight notch. Makes for an od sight picture tho as the front sight is to tall (or rear notch is too shallow) and has the front sight sticking up.

Milling the rear for the Smith sight looks to be a PITA, since the N frames use a small T slot on the frame to pull the sight down under tension.
I found a Wondersight tho, so I"m trying that for now. At least I don't need to mill or make any permanent changes right away.