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Rock Ultra - front sights slid off, no tension

564 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  broadus123, 
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I'd been carrying my RIA Rock Ultra MS 9mm a few months and was cleaning it this past weekend - noticed that the front sight was sliding around freely. It's been holstered for weeks, so the holster has probably kept it from totally sliding off (I'm using a Tenicor Certum 3 kydex holster and carrying AIWB). Once I'd unholstered it, I was able to push it off the slide with my finger tips. There was NO metal to metal tension at ALL.

It looks as if they'd relied upon red thread locker to hold it in place. The last few range sessions had gotten the slide pretty hot and the heat may have loosened it.

I'll be attempting to reinstall the front sight but need a few tools first. I'm still mulling over just swapping to another set of sights (I've always been interested in brass bead front sights).

For now, I switched to my Tac Ultra MS 9mm for carry. I'm hoping it's front sight doesn't come off.
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Fairbanks007
If you think they were counting on using red thread locker to hold the sight in place it sounds like the dovetail on the sight is undersized. I'm not sure how to fix that without adding material. Possibly some JB Weld and reinstall the sight with some careful fitting, but I'm not sure.

If you decide to go the new sight route, I have a gold bead on my 1911 Colt Competition and brass beads on my Ruger Blackhawk and Single Six. Love 'em all. One caveat, they work great for me outdoors, inside is dependent on where the light source is to illuminate the bead. If it's too indirect, the front sight just looks like a black post to these late 50 something eyes. YMMV
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Fairbanks007 said:
you think they were counting on using red thread locker to hold the sight in place it sounds like the dovetail on the sight is undersized. I'm not sure how to fix that without adding material. Possibly some JB Weld and reinstall the sight with some careful fitting, but I'm not sure.
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Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, it appears that the sight's dovetail is undersized - I can see where they filed on the sight's dovetail, but they definitely filed too much and tried to remedy that with thread locker, as there was red thread locker on the sight and slide.

I was hoping peening would help (there's lots of videos of folks fixing undersized dovetails by peening). If not, I've also ordered a new RIA front sight.

If you decide to go the new sight route, I have a gold bead on my 1911 Colt Competition and brass beads on my Ruger Blackhawk and Single Six. Love 'em all. One caveat, they work great for me outdoors, inside is dependent on where the light source is to illuminate the bead. If it's too indirect, the front sight just looks like a black post to these late 50 something eyes. YMMV
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The front sight that came with my Rock Ultra was a fiber optic sight. Without a good light source, FO sights are pretty much useless. Beads will probably be worse in low light, but if I don't like them, I can always push them out and go back to FO. My nightstand gun is a Glock 19 with a large glowing XS Big Dot front sight, so the night aspect is covered.
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If peening doesn't work, dawson precision has sights for rock islands. The sights are close to a novak cut. It would cost you more to send the gun back than buying a new sight.
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