I applied some heat with a butane pencil torch and was able to get the solder off.  drove out the blade, the pin was already gone.

So far it has resisted my attempts to remove.  I gave the seam a shot of liquid wrench and we will take another shot at it later tonight.  I am being pretty careful, I don't want to damage the finish more than the person who mounted the '03 sight already did.

I removed the action from the stock hoping that the carver left his name somewhere.  No such luck, unless it is under the butt plate.  There is a partial stamp under the magazine "perior"  Extrapolate to Superior maybe?  Anyone know old stock manufacturers?  Nothing exciting about the barrel just a "P" as you would expect and a smaller lightly struck "R" or "K".