Installing night sights on my glock.

[65k10]

I ordered as set of Ameriglo I-dots for my g17 and while I initially was going to have them installed by a gunsmith for $40, I'm tempted to just do it myself. I'm confused though because I'm hearing two different ways of installing them. The first is to just stick the slide in a padded vise and change the sights using hammer and brass punch. The other is to use a sight pusher. I'd be happy if I could just use a punch to install it, but I've also heard that pounding on night sights might damage the tritium vial. Can someone please offer some good advice on what I should do (even if that means using the gunsmith)?

[secondstoryguy]

$40 isn't bad if you are sure the guy fitting them knows his stuff. Fitting Glock sights is not hard to do and it's a good skill to have. I learned to do it myself so I know it's done right. Ive used the pushers but I prefer to tap them in with a brass/aluminum/delrin punch. If you have access to a good vice, and some basic hand tools fitting Glock sights is not that big of a deal. I say fitting because often the rear sight needs to have a very small amount of metal removed to fit properly. Dave Dawson has a few excellent videos on his website and I think Kyle Defoor has one floating around as well, I'll try and find the links in the morning. If you need any tips PM me, I've done a bunch.

[secondstoryguy]

Here's the link to Dave Dawson's video and Kyle Defoor's video. Besides the Dawson's Glock video there is a good video on installing dovetail front sights that gives a good starting point to those who want to do HKs and others with dovetail fronts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4maCQhEIjoA

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kyle-Defoor/303210778993?sk=videos

[65k10]

Thanks for the information and links. I think I might try it myself. Glad to hear the gunsmith isn't too expensive, but I don't know their method on fitting sights (they're one of the large gunsmithing places in the area, but I don't know if that means much). Plus I plan on putting night sights on another glock, so even if I did go with a sight pusher, it wouldn't cost me that much more to buy it over using the gunsmith twice and then I also have a sight pusher.

[Byron]

I only recently purchased a sight pusher for my Glock (the MGW309 (http://www.brownells.com/aspx/search/skudetailv2.aspx?sid=21912&pid=8846&tabid=0)), and am glad that I finally did. For what it's worth, the Ameriglos that I just installed on my G19 required no fitting.

My ability to work with my hands is above the average person on the street, but far below many members here. With that said, using the MGW and installing the sights was the easiest thing I did that day on the Glock. Heck, I had more difficulty changing out the mag release, and I've done that multiple times before.

[BWT]

Glock Armorers are prevalent enough that I didn't go down that road.

Also, I didn't want to damage the sights or the gun.

I also didn't want to spend close to what the sights cost in tools I'd only use once, because I do believe there is a Glock proprietary tool.

Lastly, if they screw it up, they pay to fix it.

That's why I just paid, go with a Glock Armorer.

[VolGrad]

Invest in the sight pusher. If you pay $40 each to have sights installed you'll pretty much pay for the tool on your next pistol. Seriously, invest in it.

Besides, the guy installing them prob won't test fire the gun. He'll put them in the dead center. This may or may not be where they need to be. You might have to adjust them on the range. If so, then what?

There's nothing magical about installing sights. One need not be an armorer to do it. Seriously, I am a GLOCK Certified Armorer and it's not a real high honor to achieve.

[Chuck Haggard]

$40 ???

I need to start charging for sight installations, I have done hundreds of them and never charged a dime.

[ToddG]

$40 ???

I need to start charging for sight installations, I have done hundreds of them and never charged a dime.

I feel the same way about reversing mag buttons. I always roll my eyes when I hear people are charging for it. On a Beretta, gen 4 Glock, or M&P it's a two minute job. Even with a SIG it's easy and quick as long as you don't screw up. :cool:

[VolGrad]

$40 ???

I need to start charging for sight installations, I have done hundreds of them and never charged a dime.

Same here.

[65k10]

Thanks for the replies. I think when I get some more money put together I'll just invest in a sight pusher. The mechanical aspect doesn't concern me too much since I'm used to that stuff. It'll take me a bit longer this way, but I'm in no real hurry and having it done the right way as well as having an extra tool like that never hurts.

[JeffJ]

I've bought several sets at GT dist. And they've never charged me to install. Might be different if I brought a set in, but $40 seems pretty steep for a 5 minute job

[JBP55]

$40 ???

I need to start charging for sight installations, I have done hundreds of them and never charged a dime.

Same here.

[secondstoryguy]

I've done a lot of installs too and now it's easy to me. Were some of the first installs I did a little wonky...of course...theres a learning curve. And I work with metal for a living and have been doing it literally since I was about 4 or 5. I know several smiths in the area that stay busy charging more than $40. It's only highway robbery IF everything goes right...most of the time it is. When the sight or dovetail is slightly out of spec the finesse required to properly fit them might be worth the $40 as opposed to ruining an expensive set of sights or even worse the slide itself. I've seen more than a few sights that were obviously installed by amateurs. The large dents, peen marks, and rolled edges are easy to spot.

[65k10]

I ended up installing the sights tonight. I got to reading the Q&A in the Dave Dawson video and he didn't have a problem with hammering the rear sight in, so that's what I ended up doing. I'll have to get some red loctite for the front sight tomorrow, but other than that I'm done. The only thing I'm a little nervous on is if I removed too much material from the sight's dovetail when fitting, but it still took a fair amount of force to tap in, so hopefully I'm fine.