Rear sight adjusted too high, replace front sight? (but more to the story...)

515 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Magnumite, 2 mo ago

hhsmiley

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

So, I decided to kind of rework an STI that I'd built a long time ago. Originally it had a plastic STI grip, STI frame (with rails for a light) and fixed sights. It was sort of double duty as a competition/defense gun. Now I have other guns for defense that I feel work better so I started to turn it into a pure competition gun.

I added a Phoenix Trinity grip, Cheely XWF frame, and had the fixed Novak fixed rear replaced with an adjustable sight.

I neglected to consider the height of the front sight when I replaced the rear. I have the gun sighted in and it shoots absolutely awesome. I'm not even good at shooting at extended distances but I put 5 rounds inside 3" at 25 yards just "messing around". One ragged hole at 10 yards. So it's sighted in right and shoots great but I've never had to adjust the elevation of an adjustable sight so much. It's not a "problem" except that it just looks weird to me I guess.

So do I leave well enough alone or go to a lower front sight? I wouldn't even ask and just get a new front, but I did make a second boo boo. I had the front sight set into the dovetail and was drilling a 1/16 hole through the top of it and into the slide so I could use a roll pin to hold it and the drill bit broke off in the sight/slide. My intention was for the broken drill bit to do the job of the roll pin, but that's before I found out the front sight is maybe a bit tall. If it was just a solid front sight, I'd just machine it down, but I can't do that with the fiber optic sight.

If the consensus is replace the front, how do I go about that with that drill bit in there?

Just wanted to see what you all think. Thanks!

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RickB

· #2 · 2 mo ago

I had about that much daylight showing under the adjustable on my Springfield RO, I was going to buy a replacement front sight anyway, so ordered one .015" shorter.
Sometimes the retaining pin hole is drilled all the way through the slide, it was on the RO, so you can just punch it out.

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jsb30

· #3 · 2 mo ago

I did the same thing putting a dovetail front on an old Government 45. I was able to drive the sight sideways and snap the bit off and remove sight, The bit had started to break thru the bottom of the slide and using a punch I was able to drive it out from the bottom.

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hhsmiley

Discussion Starter · #4 · 2 mo ago

Thanks, for the ideas. I think I'll roll with it for now and shoot it a while and see how it goes. Hopefully that little drill bit is brittle enough to break off if I decide to remove the front.

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1saxman

· #5 · 2 mo ago

Its a 'fool's errand'. To start with, the gun is shooting great, and nobody in the world would ever even notice how high the rear sight is, or care if they did. Considering the dimension you have available to lower the rear sight, and considering the minimum height of a plain front sight, you're only going to be able to reduce the rear sight height by about 1/2 of the available dimension - and, you'll be giving up your fiber optic sight that you probably really like.
In short, you would go through all that and its still going to look pretty much the same - the rear sight is what it is.

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ratwhacker

· #6 · 2 mo ago

Leave it alone, and just shoot it. It shoots where you want it to shoot, right? It ain't broke, don't "fix" whatever ain't broke.

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hhsmiley

Discussion Starter · #7 · 2 mo ago

I hear all the "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

The other thing I failed to mention is that since this is not a standard Bomar sight/cut, but a Novak cut with further machining and a custom sight base, I think the dovetail goes a little lower into the slide than a true Bomar cut. When I first installed the rear sight (and before I shot and sighted it in) I noticed that if the elevation screw was tightened all the way down, it impinged on the firing pin.

I trimmed it a little because of that. Of course this was not needed because of how high the sight needed to be adjusted once I shot it. Point is, that elevation screw might not be engaging the slide with very many threads.

I'm just going to put some lock tite on the screw and shoot it, and if it doesn't give me any trouble, leave well enough alone.

Thanks!

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BBBBill

· #8 · 2 mo ago

On the old Millett Series 100 adjustable sight you could get a taller rear sight blade that was direct fit. I wonder if anyone offers such for the BOMAR pattern sights.

The OP's complaint reminds me of several instances back in the 80s when putting BOMARs on IPSC guns was the hot ticket. I would install the sight with the rear blade elevated to give some range of up/down adjustment to compensate for loads and range changes. Got some complaints that the sight was too high. Lowered the sight and shortened the front to match. Customers happy with the rear bottomed out.... until they needed to lower it. 🤣

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Magnumite

· #9 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

I played with the Millett sights some. Years back I had a local smith melt a Millett rear sight into a slide for me. IIRC, the correct front was a tenon sight, the taller BoMar front.

The frame and slide were a new Foster pair I won in auction. I believe they were part of a over run for the old Mitchell Arms “Gold whatever” model it was. Just a guess. I built on the slide and frame…this was one of my earlier builds…1990’s or earlier 2000’s. Some unconventional lines but ‘works’. Very consistent and accurate pistol. Anyway, its my pin gun and one of my favorites.

Pics of the sights. You can see where the smith got a little heavy handed with the hammer on the rear sight. I tapered the front sight…had to try it.
Two of the pistol, too. Not exactly eye candy…more like a Hershey bar.

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BBBBill

· #10 · 2 mo ago

Magnumite said:
...The frame and slide were a new Foster pair... I believe they were part of a over run for the old Mitchell Arms “Gold whatever” model it was. Just a guess...

You remember correctly. I still have a half dozen or so of those somewhere around here.

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Fairbanks007

· #11 · 2 mo ago

1saxman said:
Its a 'fool's errand'. To start with, the gun is shooting great, and nobody in the world would ever even notice how high the rear sight is, or care if they did.

In short, you would go through all that and its still going to look pretty much the same - the rear sight is what it is.

^ This.

I'm kinda OCD about a lot of things. For example, on my mountain bike the valve stem has to be directly opposite the tire logo or it really bugs me.

This I wouldn't ever even think about. The rear sight is adjusted to where it needs to be to shoot well for you. It's not like you could drive a truck under it or anything.

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Magnumite

· #12 · 2 mo ago

FWIW, the rear sight up that high would bother me, for a few reasons…unless I was shooting light and very fast bullets. …but that’s me.
Nice pistol. Enjoy your blaster, OP.

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