1911 sight cut options

[Zach S]

My Para C745 will hopefully be getting hardchromed soon, and I'd like to look at sight cut options (and sights) before chroming.

For simplicity, I've been thinking about having it cut for a Novak LoMount out back with a Novak dovetail up front. This would give me the option of a LoMount or 10-8 (which I'm seriously thinking about) sight out back, or, if I'm not mistaken, an MMC adjustable if for some odd reason I decide against a fixed rear. I'm sure there are more options but those are the only ones that stick out in my mind. And it seems like just about every front sight is available in just about any height for a Novak dovetail.

Also, for simplicty, I was wondering if a Kimber slide could be re-cut for a Novak LoMount (since that's what the 10-8 rear uses).

The reason I'm considering Novak cuts is because they seem to be the most popular, any other reccomendations?

I prefer a mil-spec rear sight cut, but its not an option on my Kimbers and Para.

 

[Zach S]

Nobody knows if my Para Companion or Kimbers can be re-cut for novak dovetails, or has any other suggestions?

 

[Jim Watson]

I am not familiar with P-O model designations or sights. Some of them have what looks like a Novak rear sight, some have a different profile. Novak lists specific sights for P-O so it may not be the standard cut. Do you think they would tell you if you asked?

Kimbers are cleverly designed so that no other sight dovetail will clean up their factory installation. Best just to buy a sight cataloged to fit the Kimber cut. Heinie and Novak make them; and Kimber has their own line of "professional" sights that look a good deal like the 10-8. If you want a real 10-8, they had one specifically for Kimbers but say they are working on a new version. http://www.10-8performance.com/id14.html

 

[Zach S]

Kimbers are cleverly designed so that no other sight dovetail will clean up their factory installation.

Yeah, the dovetail looks too far forward, I reckon I was just hoping that the novak was a little deeper and wider...

I looked around online for the Novak deminsions and couldnt find them.

I reckon I'll email Novaks and ask about the Para. I tend to ask other people before I email a company because most of the time when I ask a company a question, they dont answer it very well and then try to sell me something...

If you want a real 10-8, they had one specifically for Kimbers but say they are working on a new version.

Ahh, okay. I looked at the webstore and didnt see them listed. The only ones I saw were for the Novak cut.

Thanks man.

 

[Canuck-IL]

If anyone has one stop shopping for all the possibilities you're considering, it would be Dawson's ... they have specific options for Kimber, Novak/Baer and PO. The sales guy I had last time quoted me the dimensions on all the sights I asked about.
http://www.dawsonprecision.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=SIGHTS+FRONT
/Bryan

 

[Jim Watson]

All the different proprietary sight cuts just bug the dickens out of me.

When I grumbled about the "Yo-Bo" cut, Ted Yost thought he was being reassuring when he said "It is just a Heinie with the front flat left off." Phooey.

At least the Novak was early enough that other sight companies like Heinie and Yo-Bo make sights to fit Novak's cut as well as their own. Except that a Novak adjustable does not fit the Novak fixed cut. And Novak is now announcing the "aggressive design" X-Model Sight. Who knows what that will take. Phooey again.

I have a couple of guns with Novak sights or imitations thereof, because that is the way they came from the factory; but I have never paid to have a slide machined for an oddball fixed sight. Although, as my Heinie fan gunsmith says, I have paid him for other stuff that might be considered oddball by some.

 

[Zach S]

Novak responded with a no about re-cutting my Para. No mention of dimensions.

Didnt try to sell me anything though.