Old sight system for pin guns

Springfield1911A1 · January 23, 2010, 03:20 PM

A friend of mine posed the following question to to me. I'd appreciate any help offered.

"In any case, what is the type of adjustable sight that they used to retrofit to pin guns in the early days of 1911 modification? I believe that the sight was actually made for a revolver of the era, and it was a common retrofit. It was quite long, and took up close to a third of the slide length. It was quite easy to use and very rugged by comparison to the other products on the market in that era. What was it called?"

Jim Watson · January 23, 2010, 06:26 PM

They used the standard Smith & Wesson revolver sight.

Installation was a bit tedious because to get the maximum sight radius with the sight at the rear of the slide, you not only had to cut for the sight blade, the sight leaf, and drill and tap for the elevation screw, a retaining screw, and maybe a shear pin. You had to fill the stock dovetail. I have one in the "protected position" which sets the blade at the stock dovetail location and saves filling the dovetail but loses some sight radius.

Sight picture is not as good as a Bomar and I can't see how it would be any sturdier than the Low Micro. I would not go for the S&W revolver sight unless specifically building a retro gun as plugged in the new American Handgunner.

Springfield1911A1 · January 23, 2010, 11:08 PM

Jim,

Thank you for the reply.

January 23, 2010, 03:20 PM	#1
Springfield1911A1 Junior Member Join Date: January 23, 2010 Posts: 2	Old sight system for pin guns A friend of mine posed the following question to to me. I'd appreciate any help offered. "In any case, what is the type of adjustable sight that they used to retrofit to pin guns in the early days of 1911 modification? I believe that the sight was actually made for a revolver of the era, and it was a common retrofit. It was quite long, and took up close to a third of the slide length. It was quite easy to use and very rugged by comparison to the other products on the market in that era. What was it called?"

January 23, 2010, 06:26 PM	#2
Jim Watson Senior Member Join Date: October 25, 2001 Location: Alabama Posts: 18,543	They used the standard Smith & Wesson revolver sight. Installation was a bit tedious because to get the maximum sight radius with the sight at the rear of the slide, you not only had to cut for the sight blade, the sight leaf, and drill and tap for the elevation screw, a retaining screw, and maybe a shear pin. You had to fill the stock dovetail. I have one in the "protected position" which sets the blade at the stock dovetail location and saves filling the dovetail but loses some sight radius. Sight picture is not as good as a Bomar and I can't see how it would be any sturdier than the Low Micro. I would not go for the S&W revolver sight unless specifically building a retro gun as plugged in the new American Handgunner.

January 23, 2010, 11:08 PM	#3
Springfield1911A1 Junior Member Join Date: January 23, 2010 Posts: 2	Jim, Thank you for the reply.