i've got a s.a. 1911-a1. just bought it used. my question is about the sights. i really want to change the sights. they are the "stock" white dot, and i want tritium(preferably meprolight or trijicon). the question is with the front sight. it is the stake-on type, and i need to know what size tenon, or what can be done to modify the slide for a different one.

any help is appreciated.

There are three tenon sizes: Original narrow, Cold Goldcup wide, and Springfield Armory, which, for some reason, uses an in-between size. You need to check that a sight you want to put on has the Springfield tenon size, if it is a stake-on sight.

That said, the tritium front sights I've seen require the original sight be removed and a dovetail be machined into the front of the slide. The tritium gas vials would be easy to crack or crush using a standard staking tool.

Trijicon makes an $$$ staking tool, so it's probably capable of staking tritium sights.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=13163&title=1911+AUTO+SIGHT+STAKING+TOOL

Brownells doesn't list a Springfield specific sight. A narrow tenon sight might be tight enough, or you could file the slot out for a wide tenon sight.

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=13165&title=TRITIUM+HANDGUN+SIGHTS

Bye
Jack

thanks guys.

Brownells doesn't list a Springfield specific sight. A narrow tenon sight might be tight enough, or you could file the slot out for a wide tenon sight.


Staking on the narrow tenon is not adequate. I found out the hard way. I staked a narrow tenon Novak sight onto a Springfield 1911-A1 to take to Gunsite in '92 (my first non-bullseye shooting training). As installed, it did fine for a 6:00 hold on a standard B1 target, and seemed to be firmly in place. I thought I would like that setup, but when we started shooting option targets in the class, the hold-under proved to be a distraction. So, I went to the Smithy to get them to take a little off the front sight. They told me that as soon as their mill touched the sight, it flew off. They had to mill a wide tenon replacement sight down for me.

I hadn't looked at tritium sights except the Express type (all dovetail) for awhile. Brownells now shows a number of brands with the wide (0.125") and narrow (0.055") tenons, including some that retail for under $90.

The Springfield tenon is 0.080" wide. In duplicating the A1’s external appearance, Springfield probably just didn't see a reason to make the tenon narrower than the blade is on top. It requires extra machining to do that. So, they just left those dimensions the same and didn't worry about compatibility with the original A1 modifications. That special sight tenon and the small diamter firing pin are the two "different" items on an S.A. 1911-A1 slide that cause part compatibility problems.

It might not hurt to call S.A. and check whether current production still uses front sights made that way? Also, it wouldn't hurt to ask if they have tritium sights available that fit the slide as it is? Investing $250 in the staking tool isn’t going to be attractive unless you are doing a bunch of these sights or can share the investment with others? If Springfield has a compatible tritium sight set available, it may be most economical just to send them your slide and let them put the sights on? If you do that, sandbag your gun with the load you intend to use at the range you intend to use it at most, and send them the target with an indication of where you were aiming when you fired it. That will let them choose or correct the sight height.

Note:

Smitty357's question was a bit off topic, so I split it out to a new thread here: http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=36795