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Thread: Gold Cup National Match sight pin replacement

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    9th October 2004
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    Gold Cup National Match sight pin replacement

    After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back shooting again, and we've found that my wife likes shooting my Gold Cup, too (although she's eyeing a 1911 in 9mm for a present).

    When I was here last, I'd lost the pin in the Elliason sight. Colt doesn't send them out, probably because they don't use this anymore.

    I tried a drill shank, but that failed, too, on a league night. One of the counter jockey's found a roll pin that fit, although it was too long by a 1/8 or so, and stuck out the sides, adding yet another sharp edge. After that, I wasn't shooting it too much, until this February when my wife & I both bought the Sig ittybitty P938. When we did that, I had the LGS gunsmith put in a new roll pin.

    Tonight, that broke. Just a tiny bit of one side of one end, and that was enough to throw it all off.

    I've found Kensight's pins, and their shipping costs aren't bad; I might get 3 sets, and that will keep it under $30. Then I'll just need to find a brass drift punch to put a little bend in the pin.

    I'm also going to approach the LGS, tell them they cut the roll pin too short, and that's what caused it to break (I didn't lose the pin, and I can show them). They'd charged by $35 to put it in, and we've dropped a bunch of coin there on guns, ammo, and training ... I think I might be able to convince them to redo this job, once.

    I guess this is just a rant. The wife called me over to her lane where she was shooting the 45 (the larger grip makes it easier for her to shoot than the tiny Sig), and said "It's crooked!" Of course, it was near closing time, and there was no gunsmith.

    I'll keep you posted.

    If anyone has insomnia, here's the original, short, thread. http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...light=elliason

  2. #2
    Join Date
    4th February 2005
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    That pin has been an issue on many of my Gold Cups. Best wishes on getting it fixed correctly and it staying fixed.
    Lynnie, "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. "
    - Albert Camus

  3. #3
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    How come I keep hearing about this happening with known-brand adjustable rear sights, but I've never heard of it happening with cheap (eg. LPA) versions of the same or similar sights? I know they have their differences, but they all have the same [-ish] pin..!
    Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
    M. Setter

  4. #4
    Join Date
    9th June 2004
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    I scrounged lengths of welding wire for my 'smith to use for sight pins, etc. Stainless and Inconel.

    I wonder how a piece of spring wire the right diameter would hold up.

  5. #5
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    LGS found a solid pin, and replaced it this afternoon, gratis.
    Maybe spending a bunch of jingle there paid off :-)

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Watson View Post
    I wonder how a piece of spring wire the right diameter would hold up.
    I've a feeling spring wire (aka piano wire or music wire) would hold up best of all. Any good hobby shop with a stock of metals from K&S Metals... http://ksmetals.com/ ...should have some. Only question would be the size.

    Recommend cutting music with with either a Dremel emery wheel or #2193 hard wire cutters from Xuron: http://xuron.com/ Music wire is extraordinarily hard (RC41-60) and will turn most wire cutters into a wire stripper.
    When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. [Lord Kelvin]
    Last edited by niemi24s; 26th July 2017 at 11:19.


  7. #7
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    I've "heard" that it's the bouncing up and down that beats-up the Elliason, and that compressing a piece of shok-buf, or other resilient plastic, between the sight body and slide will help. I used a piece of drill rod on mine, it worked, but didn't put many rounds through it before the windage adjustment broke.
    To add insult to injury, I replaced the Elliason with a Wilson Combat sight designed specifically to fit the Gold Cup, after machining the slide, and broke two of those in short order, too.
    "A grip safety is just another excess moving part. I have never known one to prevent an accident, and moreover, it is difficult to postulate a circumstance in which it might." Jeff Cooper

  8. #8
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    I was just lucky. I had two Gold Cups and neither one of them broke a sight pin. The only sight pin ever broken on my watch was the one I broke myself while attempting to replace an Accro sight with an Elliason. On a Python. I think it still has the ugly roll pin, but then it is a revolver.

    The only sight I have ever had kick loose was the front sight on my Colt SM ACE .22. That was ok, an opportunity to put on a taller front blade to let me get it zeroed.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by RickB View Post
    I've "heard" that it's the bouncing up and down that beats-up the Elliason. . .
    If so, that makes it sound like the little spring that forces the elevation part upward might be too weak.
    When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. [Lord Kelvin]
    Last edited by niemi24s; 26th July 2017 at 16:22.


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