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Thread: 1911 sight height question

  1. #1
    Member MVS's Avatar
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    1911 sight height question

    A little backstory may help. (or not) A few years ago being cheap I bought a Ruger SR1911. It didn't work correctly from the get go giving failures to feed quite frequently. Add to that the local gun butcher who poorly installed a Wilson Ambi safety and I had a gun that fired about 400 frequently interrupted rounds and then sat.

    Fast forward to recently and I took the gun to a well respected gunsmith. He found the problems with the functioning and has corrected them. I decided I wanted some new sights as I didn't care for the stock ones. Since the gun was shooting high, the gunsmith just installed the Wilson Combat rear Battlesight and then figured out how tall of a front sight it needed. The final result is not something he is happy with. He finds the front sight to be unattractive in its height. Not being a 1911 purist, I don't really care. After looking at Wilson's site it does appear that the rear Battlesight is manufactured taller than the stock sight. So adding that to the gun already shooting high, and you get a .250 tall front sight.

    Is this something I should care about?

  2. #2
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    I am not an armorer.

    If the gun shoots to point of aim at the distances you care about and you are happy with the sights then that is what matters. If the gun is to be carried, it's important the sights work with your holster.

    I guess one other (less important IMO) thing to consider is if the sights are really unattractive it could lower the resale value of the gun.

  3. #3
    Site Supporter JohnO's Avatar
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    The typical starting point for a 1911 front sight height is .185". .007" of sight height equates to roughly 1" of elevation change at 25 yards.

  4. #4
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by MVS View Post
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    Two thoughts: if the gun is shooting where you want it to shoot, I wouldn't worry about the front sight height. However, and please don't take this the wrong way, that front sight is ugly as fuck and I would ditch it for cosmetic reasons if I could find one that worked better and still gave me solid performance.

    But I'm also a douchebag, so YMMV.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by caleb View Post
    Two thoughts: if the gun is shooting where you want it to shoot, I wouldn't worry about the front sight height. However, and please don't take this the wrong way, that front sight is ugly as fuck and I would ditch it for cosmetic reasons if I could find one that worked better and still gave me solid performance.

    But I'm also a douchebag, so YMMV.
    Too funny. My gunsmith felt the same way and informed me that after some more thought he could not send the abomination back to me looking that way and have his name attached to it.

  7. #7
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    Hahahaha with Caleb...if you're ok with how it shoots, I'd leave it. It's a might ugly, but if you think that's ugly though you should see my 1911s.

    Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

  8. #8
    I don't think the front sight height is necessarily a problem if it's shooting where you want it, it's the build of the front sight. Perhaps a Dawson instead?

  9. #9
    The purpose of the sights is to enable you to hit your target.
    If the gunsmith didn't like the looks of the front sight required to zero, he should not have used such a tall rear sight.
    If you want a lower and prettier front sight, you will have to replace the rear sight, too.
    A waste of money to me.

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