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View Full Version : Help installing glock sights.



nitwhit0921
01-24-2013, 03:19 PM
I have a G26 I'm trying to install a set of trijicon HD on. I have the factory glock sight pusher but it isn't working out. The rear will barely slide in the dovetail at all by hand and gets extremely hard with the pusher before it even gets halfway. I tried barely taking a file to one side of the dovetail on the sight hoping to make it fit better but Im afraid of taking too much. This is my first go at installing sights and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

JV_
01-24-2013, 03:21 PM
When fitting sights, you normally file from the bottom of the sight, not on the side/dovetail angles.

nitwhit0921
01-24-2013, 03:42 PM
When fitting sights, you normally file from the bottom of the sight, not on the side/dovetail angles.

How would that make the fit looser exactly?

JV_
01-24-2013, 04:17 PM
Dovetails flare out, when you trim the height you're reducing the maximum outward fare.


For example, the sight may be .250" wide when you're at the very bottom, but if you come UP from the bottom of the sight, just a little, it might be .245".

nitwhit0921
01-24-2013, 04:26 PM
Dovetails flare out, when you trim the height you're reducing the maximum outward fare.


For example, the sight may be .250" wide when you're at the very bottom, but if you come UP from the bottom of the sight, just a little, it might be .245".

Ok I see. How tight should the sight fit in the slide?

JV_
01-24-2013, 05:32 PM
You shouldn't be able to push it in with just your fingers, but if you were using a hammer and a punch - you shouldn't have to pound it in. So .... make it snug.

JBP55
01-24-2013, 06:21 PM
Clean and lube the dovetail, clean and lube the bottom of the sight and go slow. I have installed many and some like the Ameriglo's are very tight.

Up1911Fan
01-25-2013, 10:10 AM
I've had to file every rear sight i've ever installed. Ameriglo's are tight for sure. I file untill I can get 1/3 to 1/2 way in by hand.

JBP55
01-25-2013, 08:01 PM
I have installed or adjusted several hundred and can not remember the last time I put a file to one but I do keep a file in my gun box just in case.

philpac33
02-01-2013, 03:11 AM
I installed some HDs on a G19 recently. File a bit, check the fit, file a little more, check the fit, repeat till you can get it about halfway by hand. Should be a piece of cake with a sight pusher from there. I was able to tap mine in with a nylon punch, no problem. And I LOVE the HDs!

nitwhit0921
02-01-2013, 01:45 PM
I wimped out and took them to a local gunsmith I just found. I haven't got to shoot with it yet but as far as I can tell I like the sights.

texasaggie2005
02-07-2013, 04:55 PM
Along the same lines, is it normal to have a front sight mounted without a screw? The used NYPD G19 gen 3 I recently purchased appears to be a press fit or something. Looking in the inside of the slide, it looks as if I can see the bottom of the tritium vial thru the hollow, oblong post. I've never inspected the inside of a Glock slide in detail prior to this one, but it doesn't look like what I see online. Any ideas?

JV_
02-07-2013, 06:35 PM
Glock has a front sight that's a crimp-on, not a screw on.

texasaggie2005
02-07-2013, 06:46 PM
Thanks! Just punch it out, or is there an easier trick?

JV_
02-07-2013, 06:57 PM
Thanks! Just punch it out, or is there an easier trick?

A punch is what I would try, but I've never done it.

orionz06
02-07-2013, 07:32 PM
Glock has a front sight that's a crimp-on, not a screw on.


Thanks! Just punch it out, or is there an easier trick?

Not the technique I officially endorse but the last time I removed 2 fronts I just slide them along the side of my workbench and they popped off like a beer bottle cap would. Not sure of they are metal though.

jon volk
02-07-2013, 08:20 PM
Not the technique I officially endorse but the last time I removed 2 fronts I just slide them along the side of my workbench and they popped off like a beer bottle cap would. Not sure of they are metal though.

Sounds more elegant than my grip with pliers and twist method.

BigT
02-10-2013, 03:30 PM
Glock has a front sight that's a crimp-on, not a screw on.


Theyve been screw on for a good few years, well here at least. Both plastic and steel OEM sights.

JV_
02-10-2013, 03:43 PM
Theyve been screw on for a good few years, well here at least. Both plastic and steel OEM sights.I can't think of any reason where I would prefer a crimp-on to a screw on front sight. I don't consider it to be an improvement.

orionz06
02-12-2013, 11:15 PM
Interestingly enough, I bout a Gen4 G34 a couple of months ago and it's actually got a screw-in front sight just like the aftermarket sights, only with a much longer screw. A friend's recently purchased Gen4 G34 and Gen4 G19 were the same way.

All of my Gen4's had the longer screw. Still slid the slide along the edge of my workbench to remove it. Grab the old screw and use them to install real sights on SIRT pistols.

dkv
03-21-2019, 05:00 PM
When fitting sights, you normally file from the bottom of the sight, not on the side/dovetail angles.

Six years later, I thank you for this post.
I'm struggling here with a sight install and filing from the bottom is so obvious, and yet I couldn't figure it out on my own.
Further evidence that I'm just not as clever as I think I am.