Can't budge Beretta PX4 rear sight

Don't know if the gun is new to you or not. IF not, any signs of red loctite or loctite 620 having been applied ?

The old standby's of applying Kano Kroil for any given period of time then trying again. The commotion of putting the slide in the freezer always seemed a waste of time as with that methodology, what is not known is whether the differential for general volumetric thermal expansion coefficient between the slide dovetail than the sight itself, sufficient to allow for a easier removal.

As for brass punches, I find that if either the vise or the brass / aluminum punch with a properly shaped tip to match sight base are not sufficiently stout for the task at hand. Sometimes a best-fit steel starter punch is required. The angulation of the slide sides reduces the force contact with the vise.

IF available my first choice is using a high quality sight pusher e.g. MGW, with dedicated foot plates for the firearm. In my experience, so-called "universal" sight pushers , like the one the OP mentioned and B&J500 are worthless (requiring additional bracing to prevent flexing with force application) and risk more damage than success. There is a MGW Pro dedicated foot plate for the PX4 = Plan A.

Maybe Kimber showed then how to install sights?

A few more comments didn't have to time to post yesterday.
Sometimes even the classic proper brass punch is no match for a modern day sight installation performed by a hydraulic arbor press at the factory.

A friend asked me to put some AmeriGlo sights on this M&P Shield that also are notorious for having tight-fitted factory sights and the Sheild slide is relatively thin
in the rear so using a poor-quality sight pusher that creates flex stressing can and will crack the slide.

At the time MGW did not offer a dedicated footplate (footplates fit in the rail recesses to brace and secure the slide in a downward direction), so I started off using a shaped brass punch.
I also setup the slide height so that the top edge of the vise jaw surface will allow the punch to lay flush and impact the sight base as horizontally as possible and not
angled downward which can lead to punch slippage and marring. Always put some tape on the punch tips, its that much less brass / aluminum to remove from the
finished surface of the sights. When using the sight pusher also apply tape to the engagement surfaces to prevent sight marring.

Even with all the usual elements of correct setup, the tip of the punch was just being deformed with impact. So I switched to a steel starter punch for the front sight with a diameter
as close to the sight base that would fit. It finally moved and came off. The round punch face impacting the usually rectangular sight base target wastes impact energy
as only a portion of the punch face is making contact with the sight; whenever possible, shape the punch to match.

The M&P sights have ribs on the forward and rear surfaces, purportedly to assist the hydraulic arbor press in guiding the sight parallel into the dove tails and not snow-plowing
the leading edges into the walls of the dovetails. It is these extra ribs that make some modern sights much more difficult to remove.

I have the Shield foot plate now.

An easy solution is illustrated by the picture from Roger's Precision: kerf the original sight and let it collapse in the dovetail. Only costs you the sight.

An intermediate solution is heating the slide around the sight; that will weaken any glue/loctite/secret sauce. Personally, I might venture a short stint with a soldering iron or propane torch, and appropriate Tempilaq if you have it.

Unfortunately it is much easier to cool the sight before installing it than it is to heat the slide to remove the sight.

My boss had a M&P Shield that he could never get on target. He finally broke down and bought some replacement sites. He spent hours trying to get the old rear site out and gave up in frustration. He brought in the slide and asked if I would give it a try.

I couldn't budge the rear site for the life of me. I finally put the slide in my soft jaw vice and very carefully sawed the rear site in half with a hack saw... one gentle precision stroke at a time. Finally got deep enough to pop the site out. The site was already buggered so no great loss... but the slide didn't have a mark on it.

I copied a fixture made by Jerry Keefer. He used a machinist vice that has the 5 mounting holes on top. I made a fixture to bolt to these holes. The fixture uses 1/2-20tpi bolt on a ball bearing surfaces contact to the pusher end to prevent any torquing that may accouring. The pusher feet are machined to match the sight base with only a few thousandths clearances. I mount a dial gauge on the back side to measure the movement. The last one I had to use it on was on a Colt 1911. We though we were going to break something when it finally popped, started moving. I was up to around 90 ft/lbs of torque on the pusher bolt when it moved.

MikeInOr said:

My boss had a M&P Shield that he could never get on target. He finally broke down and bought some replacement sites. He spent hours trying to get the old rear site out and gave up in frustration. He brought in the slide and asked if I would give it a try.

I couldn't budge the rear site for the life of me. I finally put the slide in my soft jaw vice and very carefully sawed the rear site in half with a hack saw... one gentle precision stroke at a time. Finally got deep enough to pop the site out. The site was already buggered so no great loss... but the slide didn't have a mark on it.

Click to expand...

You followed the old rule--always go at the cheapest part first.

I had a horrible time with my early Kahr K40 covert. Rear sight was off 2mm, and I would assume the previous owner traded it because he could never get the sight to budge. I tried clamps, brass punches and a heavy hammer to no avail. Tried heating the metal and punching. Tried a universal sight press, and with multiple shims, tape and fails finally got it to budge. The sight press got buggered up but probably has a few more uses. My next step was to cut it out.

I've taken several good guns on trades with bad sight alignment. Makes me wonder how many get rid of guns because of this difficulty. The Kahr was the most difficult to fix.

Pretty sure PX4 rear sights install from the left to right. Remove them from the right to left. (I discovered this 'after the fact')

Unfortunately, due to the directional aspect, yours will be 'a job' to push your POI (and rear sight) further to the right.

The rest of the story:

I recently put a red dot on my PX4. Unaware of the direction issue, I tried to remove the rear sight with a sightpusher tool almost identical to yours. Pushed both ways,, no luck/wouldn't budge.

Wasn't worried about the rear sight itself. Grabbed a hammer/steel punch. Again, both ways. Nada.

Decided to use a 'Smith before I really messed something up.

Called a 'Smith,, Said I needed a rear pistol sight pressed out,,,, "No problem!,,,

I said "PX4" and then I heard a groan,,,,,

"Notoriously difficult"

$30 later it was removed. Looks like he took a small punch to it as well,,,,

When fitting the new base for the red dot, it was easy to tell the slide notch was directional. Further research online confirmed same.

I don't know if the PX4 sights are installed left to right by Beretta. However, other mfg.'s like Sig do install their sights routinely left to right. Sig puts a chamfer on the
right front corner of their sights in order for their hydraulic arbor press to start the sight into the dovetail easier and straight, for the same reason mentioned above in
my post regarding the use of integrated "ribs" on the M&P Shield sights. When installing new sights commonly some material is removed to get an initial light pressure interference fit into 20-25%
of the dovetail; the sight edge one chooses to remove the material is irrelevant.

Once the sights are in the dovetail it does not matter the direction they are removed, usually right to left just by convention.

IF the front / rear dovetail edges of the PX4 were truly not parallel, how would one ever adjust windage without ruining the sight or the dovetail ?

Quick net search:

yea see thats what i dont get. they look like everyday dovetail sights. but from the 15 threads on berettaforum i looked up they dont come off normally....ill copy over a post and put it on here. but they were old threads and they didnt explain why.

followed up with:

here are some posts from beretta forum on this subject. i cant figure out why tho

"Most gunsmiths do not know the Px4. Go with Trijicon and you won't end up with your slide in one hand, your front sight in the other and the gunsmith saying "I just don't feel comfortable going any further. Good luck!" like I did. "

"Beretta sights go on and off the opposite way of most guns.

As you're holding the gun to shoot, they come < Left OFF < and go > Right ON > "

and from another source:

The instruction that come /w the Beretta sight pusher clearly state: "Push the sight out of the right side of the slide, as the muzzle is pointed away from you."

I was looking at Beretta's website and the picture showed it pushing the other direction (out the left).

I called up Beretta and they confirm to push in out the left side. I informed them the instruction that come w/ their pusher are wrong.

So I tried again, pushing the sight out the left side and whadya know, it worked!

My own personal experience with my PX4 is in agreement with the above. As mentioned before, fitting the red dot mount (Burris) back into the dovetail was certainly a 'left to right' process. I apologize as I don't have an in depth explanation of "the why and the how", nor do I have any hard technical data, but it appears that a tapered dovetail or some other unique manufacturing process ~might~ be a possible explaination .

The Beretta slides have a bake on finish that will chip if the slide moves at all. You doscovered the wonders of doing sights on a Beretta. Welcome to the club. Those are fun.

I worked on a S&W shield one time that had a sight so tight that I had to mill it out of the dovetail before installing the new sight. That was the only one I ever had to do that to.