Have you ever read on "the internets, yo" that it's perfectly reasonable to mount your front sight, and/or front sight base to your barrel, using only high-strength epoxy??

 

I have. And being the DIY-er that I am, believing I can do anything in my garage that a master gunsmith can do... I tried it.

3500 lbs/square inch Epoxy. The strongest stuff I could find at the big-box stores.

May as well have been scotch tape.

 

About 16 shells of mixed 00 Buck, Slugs, and Birdshot later... I raised my gun up to the target, looked down the rear peep sight, only to see.... nothing.

 

Luckily for me the $80 front sight landed 3 feet behind me (somehow).

And I was at an indoor range, not outside in the woods or some such.

 

My next move? Walked straight out of my port, to the front counter, and got my shotgun signed into the gunsmith's book. Hopefully it won't take too long.

 

Details:

Firearm - Mossberg 500 (factory bead sight)

Aftermarket Sight - Mossberg Ghost Ring kit

Epoxy used - Typical "Metal" epoxy, 3500 lbs/square inch

Surface prep is huge for high-strength adhesives - are you confident you roughened up the mating surfaces appropriately, cleaned them thouroughly and allowed enough cure time?

Just curious did you rough up the metal with a grinder or sandpaper Allot of people overlook this step when useing epoxy and it ends up failing. no epoxy will bond well to smooth surfaces.

beat me to it dirty lol

Sometimes ill go further than sanding and take a dremel to the surface with a cutting wheel and zip some faint lines into it, or gouge a screwdriver into it to turn up some nice edges for it to bite into. I believe it could work just fine if you tried hard enough

You need to buy epoxy that specifically states that its for shotgun repair! That will keep it on forever!!

Ken

SILVER SOLDER easy to use and is commonly used for this application