Anyone know of a good three dot sight for the early Mod 59? Mine is late 70's. The original sights were fine back then, but the old eyes and glasses having a hard time now.

IIRC, the front sight is machined as part of the slide. The rear sight is unique to the 39/59 series- looks a little like a lollypop from above.

You could have the slide machined to take a dovetailed front sight from one of the 3 or 4 digit models.

However, about the only thing you're going to be able to do with the rear sight is to get someone to place dots on the sight blade. Unless a complete slide from a later generation pistol will work on that frame. I expect a slide from a 3 digit gun will work with the original barrel, but I'm not sure. I don't have my S&W parts book here.

MMC might have a rear sight that would work for you. You might also contact Wayne Novak in West Virginia to see if he could do anything for you.

Something else you might try is finding a pair of reading glasses that will bring your sights into focus. If you already wear corrective lenses, you might wish to visit the folks who make industrial safety glasses. There's a lens type known as the mechanics lens or grind. This has the distance vision in the center of the lens, with closer vision at top and bottom of the lens. I've got a 1.5 diopter at the top for arms length viewing and 2.25 (or so) at the bottom for reading up close. That way I can bring my sights or the computer screen into focus with a slight forward tilt of my head. Much less trouble than trying to do the same with conventional bifocals/trifocals.

Thanks for the info, gonna try that glasses trick. After my post I found a replacement rear sight blade at Midway USA for under $5 that has the dots stamped in but unpainted. Order is in.

I went digging through my S&W catalog and discovered there is a factory rear sight slide that does have dots. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the factory part number.

The factory front sights have too deep a dovetail to work on the slide of the 39. There are several aftermarket dovetail sights with a 0.060 deep dovetail that could be installed, then drilled for a dot. Obviously, that's gonna require machining. Some real bright nail polish on the current front sight might help too.

For the front sight, if you're just looking for a better sight picture with increased visability, have a colored insert put on it like what's on S&W revolvers. I did that myself with a 2nd gen 459 and was really pleased with the results

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222