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Old February 16, 2012, 05:38 PM   #8
frumious
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 13, 2009
Location: Carrollton TX
Posts: 521
I bought a nice universal sight drifter from Midway and have used it maybe once. But I have TRIED to use it more times than that. My trouble is that some guns don't have "slab sides" like a 1911 so the part that holds the slide still while the sight pusher works, doesn't hold the slide still.

So I went back to using a punch. I actually have a steel "punch" that is not really a punch but is used to sink nails deeper into wood than you can with a hammer alone. It is about 5 inches long. I originally was trying to drift with about a 12" brass rod I have lying around...that didn't work at all. Shorter is better when it comes to punches (at least for me).

Also I think the sharp rap of using a punch works better for moving a tight sight than the gradual "sneaking up" of pressure imparted by a pusher. There were two pistols I had where I started to deform the sight and it would not move. (And I was pushing the sight at a point as near to the slide as I could get without scratching the slide.) But then it drifted with the punch just fine.

I hear what you are saying about "did it move after I whacked it?" For that I use a sharpie and put a witness mark right on the top of the slide, centered behind the sight I am drifting. If you don't like marking on your guns then use a piece of white electrical tape.

But the best thing I ever did is sell all my guns with fixed rear sights and buy guns with adjustable rear sights. Not the cheapest solution, but I was a much happier camper after that. The one time I tried to add an adjustable rear sight to a pistol that originally came with a fixed rear I was disappointed. I could not lower the sight far enough to make a difference. I think the back edge of the top of the slide has to be relieved to accept an adjustable sight before many of them can make much of a difference in the "move the group down" department.

-cls

Last edited by frumious; February 16, 2012 at 05:49 PM.
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