1911 Rear Novak Sight Uneven

[TXHORNS]

I bought this 1911 a while ago and noticed the rear sight was not properly installed. It appears that the slide was not machined correctly, notice where the machining is different on each side, one side there is room between sight and serrations (maybe 1mm) and the other they are touching. This causes the sight to sit on top of the slide at a slight angle. Gun still shoots fine and accurate but its annoying as its a pretty nice gun otherwise.

So can this be fixed by a good gunsmith? I hate to pay to send it in just to hear that its not fixable.

 

[nicholst55]

Without having the gun in front of me so I can examine it, it's pretty hard to tell if it can be repaired. I'd suggest sending the slide to a GOOD gunsmith and asking him to make the determination.

 

[MattTheHat]

Anything can be fixed. It's just a matter of how much it's going to cost. I agree that it's hard to tell what's going on from just the pics, but it looks like the dovetail is simply cut off axis. It looks like the sight touches the serrations on the right side, but appear about 1mm higher on the left.


-Matt

 

[rcmodel]

Is that Colt a real Colt that came from the factory with Novac sights?

If so, I would call Colt and get a return tag for warrentee repair.

Any factory repair would involve a slide replacement.

Otherwise, you are looking at welding up the dovetail and recutting it, then refinishing the slide.

The only other option would be a custom made sight with an oversize dovetail so the slide could be re-cut right. That would leave the dovetail way too big for any standard sight dovetail, and the sight would have to be made & fitted to fit the oversize slide dovetail.

rc

 

[TXHORNS]

The Colt is a LW Officer MK IV Series 80. I am not sure if this gun came from Colt with Novak or blade sights but I know it has spent some time in different gunsmith shops throughout its life as the seller told me of a few. It has quite a few upgrades that I know for a fact are not from Colt and I would guess the sights are one of them but I am no Colt historian. I suppose a call to Colt could confirm that?

One side of the dovetail is definately cut lower than the other side. I just didn't know if it was possible to fix that. If the gun wasn't so nice or unique I wouldn't care much but this one isn't getting sold ever so if it is fixable I'm probably going to do it.

The finish is unique as well and I know the shop where the finish came from so I will probably send it to him in order to retain the same finish if it can be fixed.

 

[Oro]

I suppose a call to Colt could confirm that?

Calling Colt would tell you when it was made, then you could look up the features for that year and see. Not knowing when it was made, I would guess the gun probably came standard with tall three-dot combat sights, and the modification was third-party.

 

[BBBBill]

Here's your guy.
http://innovativecustomguns.com/
Jim Milks, formerly of EGW and highly recommended by them. He can weld up the dovetail and recut it to proper spec and on axis. None better.

 

[TXHORNS]

Thanks for all the help. I am confident it can be repaired now so I will get moving on it. I will post an after pic when its repaired.

 

[MattTheHat]

Here's your guy.
http://innovativecustomguns.com/

Thanks! :bookmarking


-Matt