Installing dovetail sights yourself

Guns & Gear DIY
#1

I recently had Night Fision sights installed on my Springfield XD. Before long, the front sight stopped glowing. I contacted Night Fision, sent them photos of the sight, and they said the gunsmith used a tool on the sight post causing it to break the tritium vial. They were kind enough to send me a new front sight free of charge. However, because of more than one negative experience with gunsmiths including this one, I’m reluctant to take the pistol to anyone again.

The company provides clear instructions to install their sights, and even sells a toolkit for the job. Is installing a front sight something a person could just do themselves? Is it so complicated that it requires experience and expertise? Would the experienced gunsmiths here recommend it or not?

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#2

Dovetail front sight is super easy to replace. The only question is how the last one was installed. If no Loctite was used there shouldn’t be any problem to remove old sight.
If Loctite was in place - use some kind of heat source and apply it to sight base.

To remove old sight, you can ether use sight pusher (if you have it) or bench block (new electrical tape or duct tape roll will work), piece of hard wood stick and hammer. I do not recommend pin metal punch, because it can easily scratch the slide.
Try to adjust the stick to push the bottom part of the sight (not the top with tritium rod).
With new sight it is possible you will have to sand it a little to have perfect fit - but this should be described in details in the instruction.

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#3

I have a gunsmith who does it for me. He is good at what he does and he installed night fissions on 2 of my pistols. I am sure I can learn how to do it myself but brother armorer equipment is expensive. My guy does not do any banging to install sights he uses a sight pusher. But yes if I had the cash I would buy them.

#4

https://www.lymanproducts.com/accusight

Great kit for sight installation and adjustment. Also, made in America.

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#5

@Jeff-A1 -> :ok_hand: This tool looks better than Wheeler (which was my favorite) and costs twice less :slightly_smiling_face:

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#6

This looks like a good tool and the price is right. Thanks for the heads up @Jeff-A1 and carry on. God bless you.

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#7

I’ve installed sights on 5 of my pistols. And I have broken the tritium vial on the front sight of one of them. Installing is not a difficult process. If you feel the sight is not sliding into the groove, STOP! Try to see if the resistance is due to the width or the thickness of the sight base. Lightly sandpaper the edge if the width is the problem. Sand the bottom of the base if the thickness is too much. You want some resistance, but not so much that you have to really push on the device you are using to mount the sight. Before removing your existing sight, mark your frame exactly behind the post with a pencil so you have a reference to set the new sight. It makes the sighting in much faster if you start close to the correct position.

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#8

I’ve done a dozen or so using a cheap eBay sight pusher. It’s a pain to setup, but easy work with a ratcheting wrench once it’s setup. Haven’t broken any sights, but have removed the trijicon branding a couple times. Also have had to adjust after shooting a couple times.

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