Yesterday, I realized that it's been since May that I did anything on my own rifle projects in my shop.  Pretty much dropped everything when I pursued the Jamison Brass, and never got started again as too many other things interfering.

Yesterday, I decided to finish one of the Ballards I'd been working on.  I assembled it all.  Just the sights to go.

Tonight, I went through my sights.  I did not have a single suitable set.  Almost, but not quite.   

I've been standardizing on MVA, or at least meaning to.  I pulled all the other sights off my rifles, bought MVA buffalo soules for the ones we're using, and intend to buy more and convert all of them over when I get to it.  And, convert all to MVA windgauge fronts so I don't have to search through a half dozen different types of inserts.   

So, I found about 20 tang sights.  Many Axtell (what I used before I went to MVA), a few Baldwin (tried them, didn't like the backwards soule), and a fair assortment of MVA, some soule, some Sharps style windage, along with a bunch of bases.   

Several MVA windgauge fronts.  A few Axtel.  A few unknown.

Not a single short range MVA soule, suitable for the .22.  Do have a mid range, think I'll use it at least for now.   

Front sight, found a suitable MVA.  It slides through the dovetail with no resistance.  Found another, same problem.  How irritating; it's an original barrel that's lined; dovetail is too big and I've already blued the barrel, so hate to cut it for a Sharp size dovetail and have to mess with fixing the blue.   

I guess I'll put a bit of solder on the sight base, or maybe glue in a shim on the barrel.  If that doesn't work out, see if Jim will cut me a sight with oversize base, or resort to recutting the dovetail and retouching the blue.

I need to put some effort into selling about 15 sights that I wont' use, and order an assortment of MVA, so I don't have to re-learn that I don't have what I need on hand every time I want to do something.

Last couple weeks I acquired a Ballard 22 with a Lyman 77 globe sight and Ballard tang sight on it. Musta been used for gallery shooting where no windage adjustment is needed. My junk drawer has two Ballard globe sights but neither are complete. So while I'm thinking that mess over I acquire two Remingtom globe sights. One went on a Hepburn 45-70. So more thinking ensued and I started to wonder if I had another Hepburn that might need a Remington sight. Sure enough had a 38-55 Hepburn with a Winchester windgauge on it. Winchester is okay, all I want is traditional and windage. Turns out it fit the Ballard dovetail perfectly. After opening the dovetail on the Hepburn it now has the correct sight. 

So it all comes down to how big your junk pile is. The more junk you have the more swappin you can do. Think harder, look harder Dave. We know you have a lot of junk, there has to be a solution.

Lymanish or Lymanesk?  You didn't post a picture.

Did an expedient "repair" yesterday so could finish the rifle.  The front sight that slides through is almost a fit, so just peened the two edges of the dovetail till it was a tight tap in fit.  Looked through the sights again, one that in a box I had labeled Stevens was actually the new sight and base I had purchased for this rifle, along with a spare base to let me share the sight with the two Ballards.  So, I had an appropriate short range sight.  Put it together, shot 4 shots into the garage trap at 20 feet to know how much to move the front to zero the windage.  With the iron sights, it put 4 shots into less than 1/4", even though the front apperature is smaller than the round bull, so I can't see the aperature, just have to guess at the center.  

After I move it to zero and verify, I'll locktite the sight in place, should work fine.  

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Makes sense, Dennis,  I did the same, but with a punch and a hammer to bend down the edges.  I'd be nervous about grooving a mill vise, unless I padded the jaws with something hardened, like a pair of parallels.  But, it would give you excellent control.