Loose trijicon front sight on colt commander 1911.

[Forgotten]

Just wondering if this is fixable. Went shooting today and noticed that my front sight has a little bit of rocker play up and down. It seems to not be able to be twisted side to side though. Unfortunately my gun was butchered brand new out of the box by an incompetent gunsmith who did not use the right tools to install the night sights. He preferred to hammer it in and then handfile the heck out of it. I had a second gunsmith fix the damage by realigning, tapering down the awful hand file gouge marks and then soldering into place the front sight. When I look in the slide I can see the fractures all around where the sight was installed. I am pretty certain that you cannot reinstall the sights as I have heard it's a one time deal, but would I have to get a new slide as well. If so does anyone know if Colt sells those and what that would run. I don't want to spend another $135 on trijicon sights just to find out the slide is an issue now as well. expensive lesson learned so far when trusting your gun to a gunsmith.

[1saxman]

Super Glue or Loctite.

[BBBBill]

Why do you think that you need a new slide? Were the hammer and file marks on the slide, the sight, or both? How bad? Can you post pics? I've soldered on many sights over the years and never ruined a slide from that. You could also have a dovetail cut for a Novak style front sight. More information will help us help you.

[skylerbone]

I like Bill's suggestion of a dovetail cut. You might contact Chuck Rogers and see if his tax time special is still available: http://rogersprecision.com/. I think any number of members here can and will vouch for his work.

[pistolwrench]

Smith #2 silver-soldered a tritium sight into place?
How'd that work out for the lamp?

[Forgotten]

I will try and post pics by this weekend. The slide. Was in really bad shape when I got it back from the butcher. Gunsmith#2 did his best to clean it up by dremeling down the mess and polishing it but was afraid to go to far as he was worried about weakening the slide. The butcher actually hammered it into place, forcing it in and by miracle he never broke the tritium sight. I will try and show pics of the sight where he actually squashed the outside edges of the frontsight and this now makes me wonder if the sight itself is no longer level to sit all contact flush on the slide. The butcher actually just solder globbed a mess on the slide and never filed it properly flush. I really wish I still had those pics as it was pretty piss poor. Since I don't have any one I trust out here in Las Vegas I am thinking of just sending it to Colt and get there opinion on it. I just figure the more you mess with the sight the more problems it's going to create, and that can get expensive. Appreciate the advice and I will try and post those pics

[Edward74]

You could also have a dovetail cut for a Novak style front sight.

[Forgotten]

if anyone knows how to post pictures in here, please let me know. I do not have the options in my user cp to create an album and list photos as of yet.

[Rick McC.]

Open a PhotoBucket account (free), and upload your pictures there.

Then copy and paste the "IMG" code into your forum post.

It sounds much more complicated than it is.

I believe the max picture size for good viewing is 800 X 600.

Rick

[Jolly Rogers]

Originally Posted by Forgotten

When I look in the slide I can see the fractures all around where the sight was installed.

This is concerning to me. Can you decide what is fractured?? Slide or sight post?
Joe

[Forgotten]

I hope to be home in 2 days and will try again to post the pictures. That will help alot more than me trying to explain.

[Forgotten]

http://forums.1911forum.com/attachme...1&d=1332982414

[Forgotten]

Hope you guys can see what I am talking about now. The sight did not turn out so good, but if you look halfway down it you can tell where it is depressed. As far as the front sight, you can see where the post is set and what is going on with that. All the "shiny" on the in side of the slide is from having to be dremelled down to remove the scarring that ocurred from the butcher and his handfiling.

[Forgotten]

thanks to those who helped in getting the info needed to post these pictures.

[skylerbone]

If I might:







I skipped photo 2 as it was very similar to #1.

[tarfu64]

In my experience, once the front sight becomes loose the subsequent fixes almost never work, and usually require the sight to be removed and a new one correctly installed, this is especially true of night sights. Not so sure I'd solder a Trijicon...methinks the Tritium tube wouldn't like that too well. Either my eyesight is poor, or my monitor doesn't show it well, but I don't see any cracks inside the slide.

[Forgotten]

There are no cracks or fractures to the slide itself. My concern is the post where the sight is installed. Could the gaps there be causing the loose sight or is it due to being installed twice now. I will not be surprised if I will need a new sight to have everything tight again. Trijicon states there sights are meant for one time use install in their warranty.

[tarfu64]

I have had only one Trijicon front sight that had an issue, that being the tenon broke in the slide probably from my client dropping the 1911 on concrete. I tried to salvage what I could of the tenon and re-stake, but within 40 to 50 rounds the sight departed the slide rather ungracefully. As Trijicon states, it's a one-time install.

[rod727]

I know what I would do and it requires a mill and some shop time...

[stovlar]

Originally Posted by 1saxman

Super Glue or Loctite.

fixed many weapons lately?

[MStarmer]

Basically you have loose "tenon" style front sight. Easy fix, either replace with a properly installed tenon sight or move to a dovetailed front sight (recommended). Bottom line is you are out the money for that sight and work, lesson learned and I wouldn't try to salvage it at this point (the sight) but don't let a loose front sight, and a loose plunger tube sour you on a fine gun otherwise. 1911's are about customizing and tweaking, that's half the fun. Ask some of these guys how many pairs of grips they have . I too would suggest Pistolwrench or Novak's for sight work.

[Forgotten]

Why would a loose front sight cause my plunger tube to become loose, or was that a typo?

[MStarmer]

It wouldn't. My point was don't let minor issues sour you on your gun. Even glocks and sigs can have minor problems. If you like the gun get them fixed and enjoy.

[1saxman]

Originally Posted by stovlar

fixed many weapons lately?

Yes, I have. I'm always working on my guns, and I'll use Super Glue when I think its the right thing for the job. I actually only scanned the OP before posting - I thought he just had the typical scenario where the sight was very slightly 'over-fitted' and shot a little loose. I am still sort of confused about what is wrong with his pistol other than the sight tenon being visible - looks like it needs to be staked. I didn't see a pic with all the horrible damage he alluded to.

[1saxman]

Originally Posted by Forgotten

Why would a loose front sight cause my plunger tube to become loose, or was that a typo?

There is no connection. Just shoot the gun as far as the plunger tube is concerned. If it starts to be an operational problem you have to get it replaced. Re-staking sometimes works.