Novak Xtreme Duty adj.?? Definitely not!!

[VaughnT]

Just in from Gabe Suarez's Close-range Gunfighting class. Had a great time and learned some very good tactics. I've give Gabe 8 out of 10 for content, but he gets a 10/10 for presentation. This guy has a great speaking ability, better than I think I've ever seen.

Well, as most of you know, I carry and shoot a Colt 1991 that was worked by our very own Ted Yost. Ted did a phenomenal job on the gun and I get a lot of compliments on how it looks and operates. Contrary to Ted's advice, I asked that a Novak Adj Sight (NAS) be installed as I thought it was a great idea......what was I thinking?

Long story short, a few weeks after Ted shipped me the final product, I was shooting an IDPA comp and the elevation screw snapped in half, rendering my pistol practically useless.

I sent the pistol back to Ted and he fixed the sight for me. Tee-totally Novak's fault for producing a sub-standard sight.

Can you guess what happened to me just a few hours ago when I fired the very last round in the Suarez course? That's right, folks, the blasted elevation screw snapped again and springs flew everwhere!!!

I'm not a happy fellow, right now, and have no intentions of ever dealing with Novak again. Some things you just can't make right!

Hopefully, Ted can come up with a solution to this problem....email has been sent.

Very embarassing. Gabe got a good laugh, though

 

[stans]

Just my personal opinion, but adjustable sights and carry guns frequently don't mix. I prefer a solid, fixed sight on my defensive weapons. Range guns are a different story.

 

[Grump]

I've never heard of a Bo-Mar doing that.

 

[VaughnT]

When I first saw the sight for sale, I thought it was a good thing. Novak has a good reputation and I didn't think they'd put out a bad product. Like everyone else, though, Novak seems to be more interested in making money than making good parts.

The screw is the one critical element in their design that you cannot afford to have fail. The hingepin is ten times stronger than the elevation screw, but if the hp fails, you still have a workable sight. If that screw fails, the entire sight blade flips up under spring pressure and accuracy is nil. Why wouldn't they make the screw as heavy-duty as possible? Where's the problem with that?

I see this as a good opportunity for Ted to come up with a custom one-off design that will fit my needs and the Novak adj cut. There's a silver lining in every dark cloud if you look for it.

 

[Old Fuff]

They are called adjustable TARGET sights for good reason. Most adjustable sights eventually break small pins or screws, and the blades get dented or break if the gun's dropped on a hard service. You would be much better off with solid fixed sights where the rear one was moved to compensate for windage and the front one was filed down to zero for elevation. Since the barrel may be at a slightly different angle when locked into battery in a 1911 style pistol I always mounted the front sight too high and zeroed the pistol with the ammunition-of-choice after the pistol was built but before it was finished (blued, Parkerized etc.). In use the sights sometimes did get banged around, but they (so far, knock on wood) never broke or got knocked out of alignment.

I wish you no bad luck, but I'm glad this happened at a range and not somewhere else. I would ask Ted to fix you up as described above, but he may have to use a Novak (fixed) rear sight because of the way the slide's milled.

 

[Kestrel]

This is the first one I've heard of failing, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. I wonder if the dovetail could have been cut a bit off and is causing some torque/stress on the sight? Just an idea.

I would get the Novak fixed rear sight to replace it. They are excellent sights.

Steve

 

[VaughnT]

Steve, you can't replace this sight with anything but another Novak adj sight, unless you want an ugly .125" gap between the front of the sight and the slide.

I'm looking at all of the options, but the only thing that seems promising is to have someone make me a one-off custom sight to fit the cut. It's a bit expensive, but there are a lot of things "wrong" with the novak fixed sight and this give me the chance to get a sight with the options and abilities that I want.

I've contacted Yost/Bonitz about helping, but I haven't heard back from them at this time.

PS- a lot of the adj sights have broken. The first time I had mine blow up, Ted said that they had heard of several others. Since then, I've heard of even more. To market this as a 'hard-use adjustable on-duty' sight was just plain wrong.

 

[VaughnT]

Update:

Just out of curiousity, I called Novak's to see if they had a fixed sight that would fit the same slide cut as their adj sight. They said they had some prototypes come in that would fit.

They have to send the sight off for tritium inserts, but I should have it by the end of next week or the week after.

$90 + s/h.

They never did apologize for the failure of their design.

 

[Old Fuff]

That is a solution of sorts I suppose, but I’d pursue your idea of designing what you want in a rear sight and see what it would cost to have it made up. It shouldn’t be a major project for someone with a milling machine. I have this thing about doing it “my way.â€