awesome project
aesthetically i could absolutely envision a Colt Python type of rib/rail integrating elegantly on that platform

 

A rib to raise the rear sight would make it look a lot better.

 

Both front and rear sights, mounted on a rail, mounted to the scope dovetails. Coin slot screws. Swap them in the field, just because you can.

Extra points if it has a rib beneath that fits into the slot/notch left behind when you remove the original sight.

 

Yes, filling the remaining notch where the rear sight lowers is one reason I stopped looking at the full rib. The barrel is .900" in diameter, and, coincidentally, this is very close to, and flush with, the radius of the top strap sans the rear sight as well, so a 7/8" ball end mill to form the bottom of the rib is about perfect, but getting the rear end of that radius machined square, where it needs to terminate and form a square block to fill the notch, is a huge obstacle. If it were shorter, a 7/8" end mill could reach and do it, but a long rib will be difficult. The coin slot would work on the larger Talley rings, since there is an independent clamp that does not need to grip the scope, but the rimfire rings are just two halves split vertically and release the scope when loosened. Not insurmountable but less than ideal.
Actually, I'm now leaning toward milling the barrel and modifying the petite Talley peep sight. That Lyman looks pretty dang big out there.

 

Famous last words:
"I could simply replace the aperture hole with a post, and I would have that low, clamp-on front sight, with windage adjustment, to boot, I thought, but there were other issues. Namely, it fits the Talley base, which is .780" fore and aft, whereas the Talley rimfire rings are only .600". I could machine it shorter, but the peep sight base is not split vertically, so it will not open up to fit over the base then clamp on; the dovetail grooves must be machined to the end of the barrel to allow the fixed dovetail on the peep base to slide onto the barrel from the front. I didn't really want to re-machine the barrel, so I gave up on that."

After considerable congitatin', I decided I didn't like that large Lyman sight out there on the svelte 63, and that the required taller rear sight, or a block elevating the rear sight, would look equally massive. So, I chucked up the 63 bull barrel and just extended the 60-degree dovetail grooves out past the end of the muzzle. The fixed dovetail on Talley peep also required a slightly narrower flat, so I had to mill in as well as out to the end. I was able to get a nice, friction fit on the Talley peep.
Before:

After:

You can see here I still need to cut the rear leading corners of the Talley peep dovetail to allow the sight to slide all the way back up against the shoulder in the barrel and hide the dovetail groove as much as possible. You can also see the cross slide piece that holds the actual aperture and the set screws that secure it in place. What I plan to do is fabricate another separate cross-slide piece that has an integral patridge front sight blade. This way I get to customize the width and height of the front sight while having windage adjustment in the front sight, as well as in the rear. This approach gives a much lower profile than the Lyman, allowing use of the original rear sight, and will give me the easily detachable front sight option for non-scope field use that I initially envisioned:

This is a quick pic of the cross-slide dovetail in the Talley. Already confirmed it to be 60 degrees, so I need to make a patridge-type post with an integral male dovetail that slides into the female Talley peep base, although once I get the leading corners cut back, I may shoot it with the aperture in place, just to see how accurate it can be. It's kind of odd to have a square open notch in the rear and an aperture at the front, but who knows. Probably worth a try:

TBR

 

I admire your problem solving and innovation abilites.

 

Your machining skills are great Sir!

 

Things just never go like you think they should. I have probably made a dozen or so Talley ring bases that are machined to allow the rings to hide the leading and trailing edges of the dovetail groove. Talley doesn't bother doing this, but I think it's a nice touch. This has been a matter of simply making certain the dovetail groove is machined no wider than the base of the ring and then relieving all four corners of the ring dovetail claws. Here's an example from my Rem 37 sporter:

You can see the problem in this pic. In this case, the Talley sight is slid back as far as it can go without modifying the rear corners of the dovetail claws in the sight:

While I thought it would be a matter of simply cutting back the rear dovetail corners, as I had done in the past, I ended up needing to make 6 mill cuts, three per side, to finally get the sight to slide all the way back...kinda hard to see in this pic:

Other than the pain of having to do multiple milling cuts, though, it went well enough. One can see only the slightest corner of the dovetail groove here in the second pic. Going any farther would create a fragile knife edge:

But the Talley sight uses a knurled thumb set screw with a small nose to lock the sight in place. The nose is .110" diameter, and I guess Talley just meant for that nose to simply jam into the edge of the dovetail:

Seemed pretty inelegant to me, so, methinks, "Wouldn't a nicely machined notch in the barrel dovetail look and work better?" Easy enough, I just cut a notch with a 1/8" end mill and plunged down about .050". It was actually a bit tricky to get the position correct, fore, aft and height wise, but a little layout dye on the dovetail edge and screwing the set screw in tightly a few times gave me the right indication:

Not good enough. The threads on the thumb screw now bottom out in the threaded hole well before the nose contacts the bottom of my apparently too deep .050" notch. Fine, I cut the threads back a bit to extend the reach of the nose:

That finally did the trick, but what should have been a simple project has resisted every effort to be simple. I now need to make a cross-sliding dovetailed piece with a simple post to replace the aperture piece. As I mentioned before, though, the peep aperture might work as is. When I aim the sights at a distant object, my eye seems to naturally place the horizonal top of the original rear sight right at the centerline of the aperture, so I'm thinking a target bullseye that closely fits inside the aperture at 25 or 50 yards might be pretty precise, although it might be less than optimal in the field shooting off squirrel heads. I plan to get to the range this weekend a try it out.

Another labor of love.

TBR

 

Seeing the dovetails mesh and the overall finished product is very satisfying! I love the lower profile peep sight you went with. Great design choices throughout the process. How is the vertical alignment of the rear notch to the front peep sight? It looks a bit low but useable with some Kentucky windage(could also be the perspective of the photo as well).

 

As always your posts are informative and entertaining TBR!

...at first I was thinking, "What kind of 'Quigley Down Under' 1000 yard shots is this old boy planning on making with that 6 shooter?" but now I see the method to your madness

Keep up the good work, idle hands are the devil's workshop!

Frank

 

Quigley indeed. With the scope on the little 63, I can usually get 1/2" to 1" five-shot groups at 50 yards, so the accuracy is there, it's just that the scope and shade necessarily protrude so far forward, it's kind of impractical in the field, even though it's still lighter than any of the K-frame S&W .22s. The little 63, even with that bull barrel, will also fit in an El Paso Saddlery holster I have...could still be madness, however.

 

I got to the range Saturday evening to try the HB M63 with its new sights. The unusual aperture front sight experiment actually went pretty well. The only thing I think I will change is to scribe a white horizontal centerline on the front face of the front aperture to assist in consistent elevation hold. With the proper size bull, I felt almost as confident in my aiming precision as with the scope. I was also a bit surprised with the velocity out of the abbreviated barrel: just over 900 PFS, with a very low velocity spread. Even from a 22" rifle barrel, the RWS R-50 was averaging only 1030 FPS. Not much of a sacrifice in the little revolver.

 

Very nice work sir!

 

Ingenious solution the front sight issue! Well done!

 

Wow, and here I am all proud of myself because I took a glob of JB Weld and carved it into something a couple times. Man, I wish I had those tools and the expertise to use them!