Re: 1911 front sight loose.

2
You can tighten a dovetail with a hammer and center punch. You get the sight where you want it. Then about 3/4 of a mm from the seam of the dovetail, you put the punch there and whack it a good one. See if you can drift the sight. You can tighten it more by whacking at the same spot. To start, you might whack real gentle-like and make no change but a dot on the frame there. Tough to un-whack. Might start gentle. Works, though. Done it a few times.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: 1911 front sight loose.

4
With prices like that, you'd need to go into business to recoup. I suppose the advantage to having the tool is that you can adjust the tar out of that sight a couple times an hour if you were like totally bored or your wife asked you to do the dishes--"Can't sweetie. I'm adjusting my front sight."

on edit, I had to go into the safe to see how the Springer front sight was mounted ("Oh, please don't make me go into the safe and handle the 1911!"). Never having had to adjust mine, I actually did not know. Seems like it's molded in there. I can't see how it gets adjusted at all. Of course, it's the rear sight that adjusts on this one with a groovy dovetail. Turns out it was right on dead nuts at 50 feet out of the box, so my frame is as yet unblemished by punch marks.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: 1911 front sight loose.

5
A staked 1911 front sight isn't meant to move or adjust. Such a sight system is adjusted for windage by drifting the rear sight and for height by filing the front sight. No other adjustment should be necessary.

If a staked front sight comes loose, I've never been able to get it re-seated. I've always replaced the sight with a new sight with the same sized tenon, used a ball bit to create space for the new stake, and staked the new sight in. Done correctly and thoroughly, it will last a long, long time. I have one I staked in 1995. If you skip the ball bit step, it's hard to get a good, tight stake.

Note that it's the top of the new sight that has to be backed up during the staking process, not the slide.

Good luck.

Re: 1911 front sight loose.

6
I skipped the staking. Silver soldered, then fixed the bluing. I use Brownell's cold blue and the gun looks great (the slide is a South American Colt slide from the WWII era).

A bit more work, but totally permanent (that gun has the now unavailable Wilson Target Rear Sight that fit the standard mil spec dovetail), but is not adjustable. I soldered the front, drifted the rear, then filed it (or the front sight depending on the way you need to go, in old parlance 'regulated.'), and got it centered with a lollipop hold on a 50' NRA indoor target. It's a bulletproof setup and held point of aim for 35 years. I love the sight pic of a target sight, but prefer stuff that doesn't move.

Re: 1911 didn't want to start yet another thread.

8
my SA 1911a1 milspec had a problem at the range, and the RSO lost my Barrel Link Pin while clearing a squib. tonight i finally broke down and hunted up a link pin, two* actually. SA doesn't appear to sell small parts, and several of the usual suspects were Out-Of-Stock, so i ended up ordering from brownells, 4 bucks apiece, 7.50 each by the time they stuff them in an envelope and put it in the mail. it could be worse, some vendors ask $8 (some ask $2, but OOS) each before shipping. should take about a week if dejoy hasn't totally effed-up the USPS yet.

* ordered 2 because if i order 1, what could possibly go wrong that doesn't involve waiting another week or so?
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: 1911 front sight loose.

9
lurker wrote:my SA 1911a1 milspec had a problem at the range, and the RSO lost my Barrel Link Pin while clearing a squib. tonight i finally broke down and hunted up a link pin, two* actually.

That would piss me off. I would think 1911 link pins would be standard-sized and brand agnostic? Found Wilson combat ones on midwestgunworks for $2. I usually go with Wilson Combat parts for anything 1911.


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Re: 1911 front sight loose.

10
INVICTVS138 wrote: Sat Dec 25, 2021 6:14 pm
That would piss me off. I would think 1911 link pins would be standard-sized and brand agnostic?
oh, yeah, it did.
apparently they come in two sizes (guessing, from memory) 155mm and 157mm. nobody says what size they sell, so i'm just ordering potluck. if it's too big, i'll try sanding it down. if too small, i'll ... think of something.
i tried MWG but for some reason they kept saying my address was invalid, wtf?
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: 1911 front sight loose.

12
Staking a new front sight into a 1911 slide was the second thing I did, (because it was the second thing that broke).

1911s are not indestructible, but they are relatively easy to repair. When I was issued a 1911, they had 19 year old boys who repaired them. Since 19 year old boys are only good for two things, neither of which is repairing a 1911, that tells me it's easy to teach someone how to repair a 1911.

On a side note, in my experience, Wilson Combat is one of the worst offenders for trying to re-design the 1911. They're right up there with Kimber, of nylon parts fame. Some of the geometry in Wilson's fire controls bear little resemblance to, for instance, Colt's.

It's always a good idea to know exactly which system you're working on, and how that system varies from ordnance, which is the only real set of specs I trust.

These differences are why one must know which tenon on a staked front sight one is dealing with-- because people have been redesigning the 1911 since 1911. Those differences are also why there is more than one diameter for a simple link pin. (Side note to the side note: measure the diameter of the pin you have. Use the calipers you have for reloading, that should be close enough.)

Personally, I like bigger sights and the lowered and flared ejection port. I don't care about a higher grip or beavertails, and I have no use for the arched mainspring housing. Things like front cocking serrations make it hard for an instructor to teach a new shooter properly. (If your hands don't belong out there, why are there cocking serrations out there?) Over the years, things like slide buffers and the first glow-in-the-dark sights actually removed tactical options, without giving anything in return, but progress marches on.

Show a 1911 to 100 people, and 85 of them will just shoot it. Ten of them will immediately tear it apart to see how it works, five of them will break it, two will fix it, and three will instantly start trying to improve it.

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