fitting a tenon front sight

[vhince524]

hi guys, need your help on this one... im planning on replacing the front sight of my norinco govt model.. the cheapest one i could find here (philippines) is a set of kings target sight (around US$50 converted from phil pesos. cant find a set of hardballer sights). does the kings front sight have the wide tenon? i know that the norc has a narrow tenon. another question, will the wide tenon front sight fit on the norc with some modifications? which should i modify? the slide or the sight? my gunsmith said it can be done. need your inputs here. I cant seem to find any sight down here with the narrow tenon... most use the dovetail type.... im on a budget thats why im going for the kings.... tnx for the help

[Greywolf]

hi guys, need your help on this one... im planning on replacing the front sight of my norinco govt model.. the cheapest one i could find here (philippines) is a set of kings target sight (around US$50 converted from phil pesos. cant find a set of hardballer sights). does the kings front sight have the wide tenon? i know that the norc has a narrow tenon. another question, will the wide tenon front sight fit on the norc with some modifications? which should i modify? the slide or the sight? my gunsmith said it can be done. need your inputs here. I cant seem to find any sight down here with the narrow tenon... most use the dovetail type.... im on a budget thats why im going for the kings.... tnx for the help
Brownells sells some Ed Brown front sights that are available as either wide or narrow tenon, and would probably work well as target sights with a King's rear sight.

I did once manage to take a genuine Colt Series 80 wide tenon front sight and file down the tenon to go into an older slide with a narrow tenon. It would have been simple with a milling machine, but I don't have one so I did it with a file, by hand. It fit and had not come off last I heard, but even though I tried to be very careful, the sight was slightly crooked after it was installed. Didn't affect accuracy and most people wouldn't notice ... but I knew.

[Hunter]

If you do go with the narrow tenon be sure to use a touch of red Loctite on the tenon when you put it in the slide and stake it. I would also put a small drop on the end of the tenon inside the slide.
It would not be a bad idea to use Loctite on what ever tenon you go with (if you modify the slide)

[John]

The wide tenon sights can be filed down to fit the narrow slot on the Nork slide. Just make sure you take equal amount of metal from each side, so that the sight is still centered in the slot.

One more thing. Staking the sight on, requires a tool, a staking tool. You can make one for yourself if you know how, otherwise Brownells sells one.

Greywolf, you can always bring your crooked sight to be straight. Just grab the sight in a small vice whose jaws are smooth and move the slide a little until the sight is vertical. Go easy and you won't hurt a thing. Don't ask me how I know.

[1911Tuner]

Where am I...and who is this "Grey Wolf?"

You can order a wide front sight with a narrow tenon. More likely to shear off because of the inertial mass...but correctly staked, it should last a good while. The narrow tenon will probably light fitting to the hole, since the hole is cut to a metric dimension, and the sight tenons are standard...but it's not very involved.

You'll need to use a burr or a small round stone in a Dremel to grind a shallow well on the underside of the slide for the tenon material to flow into in order to let it rivet when you hit it with the staking tool. Otherwise, it will loosen up quickly and fall out. Loc-Tite won't hold it. JB Weld won't hold it. It has to be riveted.

[John]

Greywolf is our beloved Hawkmoon in disguise. We try to solve a problem he has with his computer and this site (his last visit time changes as soon as he comes to the site, which is not normal), so we gave him a new account to play with, to see if that fixes things.

You can now call him a ... dual personality without insulting him!

:lm:

[1911Tuner]

You can now call him a ... dual personality without insulting

Always had a suspicion that ol' Hawk was schitzo...