1911 Front sight popped off! New sight help.

**rxer311** · August 4th, 2012, 12:56 PM

I am sure some of you are familiar with my other thread about my feeding issues with my Citadel 1911 Compact after a Cerakote. Took it back to the range today to try and break it in. The good news is that with another 100 rounds through it, I only had 1 failure to feed at the beginning of the range session. I had about 90 failure free rounds after that. So hopefully it is breaking in.

Well, I was planning on putting more rounds through it but my front sight randomly popped off. I was able to find it, but the sight is now too loose to get staked back in. I am thinking of upgrading to some sort of night sight now, however I am not sure what I need to get. There seems to be different sizes available and such. Can anybody help point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

**Brian Ahearn** · August 4th, 2012, 03:03 PM

Did the whole front blade slide out of the dove tail, if so apply a thin coat of black rtv high temp silicone side it back in center it and let set 24 hours. If you want to change those sights on your citadel I don't believe that it is a true Novak style blade . You would have to mill the slide or modify the sights to fit the slide dove tails . You can also use loctite on the front sight blade. If you use high temp RTV make sure to wipe off excess and let cure 24 hours that works very well and handle vibration just fine.

**rxer311** · August 4th, 2012, 04:36 PM

Yep. The whole blade just slipped out. Now it is just too loose to put back in. I understand that this is somewhat common and since it had already been removed and reinstalled I would think it would increase the chance.

**rxer311** · August 4th, 2012, 05:22 PM

Trying the silicone now...

**abner13** · August 4th, 2012, 05:40 PM

Don't know about the imports , but prior to dovetail based front sights Colts had 2 tenon thicknesses, .058'' and .125''. I've had both pop off and prefer to silver solder them rather than conventional staking.

Good info here. http://www.realguns.com/archives/165.htm

**rxer311** · August 4th, 2012, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by abner13

Don't know about the imports , but prior to dovetail based front sights Colts had 2 tenon thicknesses, .058'' and .125''. I've had both pop off and prefer to silver solder them rather than conventional staking.

Good info here. http://www.realguns.com/archives/165.htm

Thanks for the info but my front sight is a Novak style so it is a bit different.

**rxer311** · August 5th, 2012, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by Brian Ahearn

Did the whole front blade slide out of the dove tail, if so apply a thin coat of black rtv high temp silicone side it back in center it and let set 24 hours. If you want to change those sights on your citadel I don't believe that it is a true Novak style blade . You would have to mill the slide or modify the sights to fit the slide dove tails . You can also use loctite on the front sight blade. If you use high temp RTV make sure to wipe off excess and let cure 24 hours that works very well and handle vibration just fine.

This seems to have worked! It is on nice and tight. Thanks again Brian. I'd give you some more rep but it "needs to be spread around". Somebody rep him for me.