I have a sporterized 1903A3 Springfield that has a loose rear sight. The sight holds in place when handling the gun but tends to come loose when the action is cycled hard. I am worried that it will slip when I take it out into �the field.� The sight is a standard military rear peep sight and the entire sight moves on the dovetail that is part of the receiver. I was wondering if a little lock-tight or perhaps some clear fingernail polish applied inside of the dovetail would help any? I guess drilling and tapping a hole in the sight and then putting in a screw would make the sight secure but I was hoping for a fix I could do myself. Thanks in advance.

Ben

Ben---

The arsenal drifted the sight off the receiver and upset one edge of the dovetail with a punch and hammer.

When doing this it's important to bend the edge down, towards the receiver, not up.

It takes a stout lick to do any good. You only have to bend it by .005 or so.

Degrease and epoxy to be sure.

I had the same problem on the 03A3 I just received from CMP. What I did was rocked the sight toward the front, made a shim out of a piece of 45/70 brass, and drove it tight in the gap, and filed off the excess. So far so good and you can't see it unless you know it's there.

Thanks for the suggestions! I ended up using some 90-minute epoxy to set the sight in place. The rifle is sporterized so I am not too worried about collector value. I also think the epoxy job looks pretty good. I haven't taken it shooting since then so I don't know if it will hold, but I am guessing it will be fine. I had thought of a shim but only had aluminum foil handy. When I tried that it only made the problem worse! Next time I need a shim I will find an old piece of brass (much better idea).

Ben