Sight heights?

[Bruce P.]

I am wondering if, generally speaking, the govt' model and commander use the same height front sights. I have a series 80 commander with the old style nubbin sights. I replaced the front, and have put in three varying height rears, to(unsuccessfully) get it dead on. I also filed down the front sight, causing a mess. I have a colt narrow tenon front sight on hand that I was thinking about installing, but was wondering if there is a rule of thumb on front sight height's between the three different barrle lengths? I am just glad I have a MMC front sight tool, whoooeee. Bruce

[wichaka]

Yes, generally speaking Commanders & Gov. models take the same front sight. But that depends on the rear sight. You'll need to find out what height of front sight the rear sight requires.

What rear sight are you trying to match up?

Officers model is usually a shorter front sight.

[Hawkmoon]

After a problem with a new Para that shot WAY too high fresh out of the box, I have just discoveed that there are different length barrel links, and that the length of the barrel link affects where the gun shoots the same as sight height does. Poking around on the Brownells web site, I discovered that several of the "name" 1911 companies offer either individual links or kits of links ranging from .006 or .009 shorter than standard to the same amounts of extra length.

I will be playing with barrel links to try to get my problem corrected. You might want to consider doing the same.

I wish I could point you to an article explaining definitively how to know how much longer or shorter to make your link, but I haven't found that yet so I'll be doing it by trial-and-error.

[Bruce P.]

I have got the standard colt .323 rear sight on it now,and just checked the front wich is.140 (top of slide to top of sight.). It is shooting about 4 to5 inches high right now. I had a mgw rear sight on it that was taller, and overhangs the slide, but nothing in between. I am hopeing to end up with King Tappen sights on it. I have two others set up that way.

[wichaka]

The height of the front sight should be around .180"+ that should put your shots on target.

Is the front the stock sight?

[BGregory]

The 4 to 5 inches high sounds right for a sight which was shortened to .140".
Most rears work best with Wichaka's number of .180".
The only exception I can think of is some Millet sights which require a .200" front.
Looks like you'll be needing that MMC front sight tool...

[Bruce P.]

All right, I brought out my trusty calipers(dial, my el cheapo digital died.).
Current fnt height .136 originally a .195 tall MGW sight.
current rear sight height .323+or-.
a colt brand front sight,with dot is .183
a millet front sight with dot is .185
I would like to put in a tappen rear sight that mic's out at .308. Is this doable? Or will I need to use the king tappen front sight, at .168? Ithought the tappen front was a standard height, until I mic'ed it for the heck of it. So it must be meant to use that front right?

[BGregory]

I am assuming from the numbers, you are measuring the rear sight height from the dovetail cut, i.e. the total height of the rear sight.

It's not the most accurate way to do it, but Kuhnhausen says if you measure from the top surface of the slide you should end up with a rear sight height about .035 to .045 higher than the front sight.

I just measured 2 pistols that I know shoot POA @ 25 yards (~ .220 rear from top of slide & .185 front from top of slide - eyeballed). The difference between the rear and front falls into the above mentioned .035 to .045 range.
So, it appears that if you use the Tappen rear at .308 you'll probably need the .168 front sight from Kings.

[Bruce P.]

When I puul out the rear sight I should take a dovetail depth measurement, to see If I can figure out exposed height (on that paticular gun anyways.). .035-.045 does this difference change much between Gov't and commander? I am primed to put in the tappen sight set I guess. Just waiting to hear from You guys. The MMC tool helps alot, but it isnt something I care to do very often, after the newness wore off anyways. I really have my heart set on that rear sight, so that probably is the best way to go. The rear sight's that really confuse me are the ones that overhang the slide to increase sight radius. Thank You for the assistance, it is appreciated. Bruce

[wichaka]

Do not take the depth of the dovetail into your measurement, its what's above the surface of the slide is the proper measurement.

If the rear sight over hangs the slide, do not measure the over hange part. On the front sight you measure from the surface of the slide to the top of the sight, do the same for the rear sight. So if you take off the rear sight, mic just the portion that sits on the surface of the slide to the top of the notch, or the tallest part of the sight.

[Bruce P.]

If I measure from the top of slide, to the top of the rear sight,I get a measure meant at about .220 . I tried to edit my previous post to include this, but it didn't work.

[Bruce P.]

I guess the reason I did that is because of trying to measure how the rear sights campare to each other height wise without being on the gun, yet. I did get an exposed height of .220 wich would correlate with a .180 fnt sight. I wish I measured the original set better.

[BGregory]

Ok, so your last measurement for the rear is .220 above the slide, which sounds about right to me.

So, if you drop in the Tappan, you should be about .200 or there abouts, which means you thinking that you needed the Kings Tappan front would probably be correct.

Like I said before, this is the poor man's way of doing it. You really need to measure from the bore c/l. Millet makes a gizmo to do this, but I assuming as with all Millet products it is BIG $$$.

[BGregory]

As for your other question concerning government vs commander length slides and sights, you would think there would be a lot of difference, but looking at the numbers it appears not. My real world experience also suggests that the POI difference would be very small.

[wichaka]

Commanders & Gov. models are real close, of course each gun is a bit different.........but they both are in the .180"-.200" range, while the short Officers style are in the .150"-165" range.

[Bruce P.]

Thanks for all the help, folks. I will pobably put in the tappen set and see how on it is. I wish I could put bomars on everything. Im too much of a reloading junkie I guess, I dont like to change loads if it means monkeying with the sights. Bruce