Cosmoline
Member
I've had the usual trouble with high shooting surplus rifles for years now. While some high sights are available for certain models, they're often difficult to obtain and expensive. With my Swiss 1911 I opted to try something new. I purchased a standard partridge sight here:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=198048&t=11082005
I then measured out the much smaller 1911 dovetail and used a series of files to hand-fit it into the slot. Leaving enough steel to make a tight fit of course. These are nice soft steel and easy to work with.
I ended up with a partridge sight fitted in "backwards" to try to ensure a clean crisp sight picture with the existing tangent groove:
At the range, I set the target up at 25 yards and fired just to the side of the target's center line. I was able to raise the front sight up above the level of the rear tanget (at its lowest notch), and then made a mark where the zero was.
I then took the target out to where I wanted my new zero. I chose 75 yards because the tanget gives ample room to move further out as needed, and real life game shots seem to be surprisingly close. I filed till I got near my line, then fired for effect, filed a little more, then fired two rounds, etc. until I got exactly on the bullseye with the tangent at "300" and the sight filed down.
All told it only took about 12 rounds of GP-11 to get to this point, then 12 more to make sure. I finished by cleaning up the sharp edges on the sight and making a little shiny spot at the top for sighting purposes.
The end result is a laser beam o' death for caribou. At least I hope so.
I realize there are high sights available probably for cheaper for the 1911, but I like being able to make it myself and I refuse to use paypal to buy the aftermarket ones. Plus there are dozens of other surplus rifles with no commercial high sights available where this method would work. Basically anything with a dovetail.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=198048&t=11082005
I then measured out the much smaller 1911 dovetail and used a series of files to hand-fit it into the slot. Leaving enough steel to make a tight fit of course. These are nice soft steel and easy to work with.
I ended up with a partridge sight fitted in "backwards" to try to ensure a clean crisp sight picture with the existing tangent groove:
At the range, I set the target up at 25 yards and fired just to the side of the target's center line. I was able to raise the front sight up above the level of the rear tanget (at its lowest notch), and then made a mark where the zero was.
I then took the target out to where I wanted my new zero. I chose 75 yards because the tanget gives ample room to move further out as needed, and real life game shots seem to be surprisingly close. I filed till I got near my line, then fired for effect, filed a little more, then fired two rounds, etc. until I got exactly on the bullseye with the tangent at "300" and the sight filed down.
All told it only took about 12 rounds of GP-11 to get to this point, then 12 more to make sure. I finished by cleaning up the sharp edges on the sight and making a little shiny spot at the top for sighting purposes.
The end result is a laser beam o' death for caribou. At least I hope so.
I realize there are high sights available probably for cheaper for the 1911, but I like being able to make it myself and I refuse to use paypal to buy the aftermarket ones. Plus there are dozens of other surplus rifles with no commercial high sights available where this method would work. Basically anything with a dovetail.