Good sight pusher

Yall I bought this sight pushing tool about 7 years ago and I ended up not actually needing it to change the sight on my G17 because I did end up getting them out with the brass punch but it seemed nice so I just kept it.

Flash forward to yesterday and my CZ P01 for which I finally bought some new sights for because the factory ones are horrible. I started with the rear sight. Wow, was that a mistake. I was really starting to think that thing was had to be lok tite'd with some new, permanent kind of lok-tite. I tried the brass punch, a few aluminum punches, some nylon punches; a little heat, some cold. Yes, by the way, I had loosened and removed the set screw. I could not get that thing to budge, at all.

Finally remembered, hey, I have a sight pusher!








I actually found this on fleabay for sale by a machinist guy who also likes firearms who couldnt find a pusher he liked I guess. It works.
You place your slide in the cutout and put on the plate and tighten it down. You can adjust it to position the sight and yout slide in the correct spot so as to not damage your slide but does contact the sight and snug up the two nylon capped grub screws to keep it in position and then tighten the plate. Select the necessary tube and put it on appropriate side of the steel slide inside that is making contact with the sight and begin to tighten it to begin moving the sight. Easy.
Takes more words to explain its use than it takes time to do it. Its really smooth and holds the slide rock solid. It moved the CZ reat sight right out.
Like I said Ive had this thing for years but from what I recall this thing, along with the very nice locking case it came in was about $80.
I know this isnt really "gunsmithing" per se and my example isnt a s&w so if this doesnt belong in this section I apologize and feel free to move or delete.

I didn't see that one when I was searched a few years ago, but I did get this one which looks fairly close. With a few mods here and there, it works on everything for me.

Sight-Tool.com

Sight pusher.......4oz hammer, padded vise, small piece of brass bar stock.

armorer951 said:

Sight pusher.......4oz hammer, padded vise, small piece of brass bar stock.

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Very much like the "sight pusher" I use.

Has never failed me.

John

Well, my hammer and assorted drifts are exactly why the thing sat unused for the past 7 years or so but I honestly got tired of beating on it. In this instance it was worth the money I guess. Remember, I said ater after trying ti drive it out with my hammer and brass, aluminum and even some nylon drifts THEN I remembered I had a sight pusher.

A hammer and punch does work many times and I have done just that on many sights. Up until very recently that was my standard method.

HOWEVER...... if your rear or front sight to be moved has an inserted vial that glows in the dark - DO NOT use a hammer and punch! It will very likely knock the vial loose.

For night sights that contain vials that glow, you need to use a real sight pusher. For more precise movement in small increments, use a real sight pusher tool.

chief38 said:

A hammer and punch does work many times and I have done just that on many sights. Up until very recently that was my standard method.

HOWEVER...... if your rear or front sight to be moved has an inserted vial that glows in the dark - DO NOT use a hammer and punch! It will very likely knock the vial loose.

For night sights that contain vials that glow, you need to use a real sight pusher. For more precise movement in small increments, use a real sight pusher tool.

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Sorry, chief but I must respectfully disagree.

I have removed and installed Trijicon and Meprolite sights on a number of slides with a hammer and drift and have never had a problem.

While it has never happened to me, I don't doubt that driving a sight up high, near the vials could cause some damage.

That is why the sight should always be driven at the base.

Much like the guns we possess, the improper use of tools should not be a disqualifier of their use.

(Except for those who chronically misuse them... )

Rather we should strive to be proficient in their use.

Not restrict them.

John

JohnHL said:

Sorry, chief but I must respectfully disagree.

I have removed and installed Trijicon and Meprolite sights on a number of slides with a hammer and drift and have never had a problem.

While it has never happened to me, I don't doubt that driving a sight up high, near the vials could cause some damage.

That is why the sight should always be driven at the base.

Much like the guns we possess, the improper use of tools should not be a disqualifier of their use.

(Except for those who chronically misuse them... )

Rather we should strive to be proficient in their use.

Not restrict them.

John

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John,
I used to use a drift and hammer as a standard method of changing and adjusting sights too - I have done plenty of them over 50 years, successfully and continue to do so on "non vile sights". That method came to a halt on sights with vials when a vial went flying out of a front sight on the first hit. Rare, maybe. Defectively glued vile, maybe. All I can say is it did happen to me. The manufacturer did replace the sight and all is well, however from that moment on I have used a dedicated sight pusher do remove, install and adjust sights containing vile's.

I would have agreed with your statement about always using a punch and hammer prior to this happening to me and I would have also told someone exactly what you stated as the method - until I had the above experience. Was this a fluke? Maybe, but that said, it could probably been avoided if a sight pusher tool was used. Now, I will not argue that the night sight vile could have fallen out under normal recoil later on because of a poor gluing job at the Factory, but I will never know that.

Respectfully,
Chief38

I've long used a brass punch and hammer and never had a problem, and a large percentage of the sights installed had Tritium vials.
Like JohnHL says, keep the punch at the base and you won't have a problem.
If Tritium sights can't take the shock of a punch and hammer hitting the base a few times, they won't be able to take the repeated shock of your Model 329 or .460 going off either.

I can tell you a sight pusher to avoid though.
I finally bought a sight pusher a few years ago from Brownell's, one from B&J Machine. It was around $130.

It would push sights that were pretty easy to push anyway, but for what I wanted it for, it was worthless.
Changing sights on a couple of M&P autos and a few Shields, the pusher's shaft would just start angling off to the side when the going got tough.

I ended up giving the pusher to someone and got the job done with the punch and hammer.

sandog said:

I've long used a brass punch and hammer and never had a problem, and a large percentage of the sights installed had Tritium vials.
Like JohnHL says, keep the punch at the base and you won't have a problem.
If Tritium sights can't take the shock of a punch and hammer hitting the base a few times, they won't be able to take the repeated shock of your Model 329 or .460 going off either.

I can tell you a sight pusher to avoid though.
I finally bought a sight pusher a few years ago from Brownell's, one from B&J Machine. It was around $130.

It would push sights that were pretty easy to push anyway, but for what I wanted it for, it was worthless.
Changing sights on a couple of M&P autos and a few Shields, the pusher's shaft would just start angling off to the side when the going got tough.

I ended up giving the pusher to someone and got the job done with the punch and hammer.

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While I do agree that a sight SHOULD be able to handle a hammer blow through a punch and I also agree that if it does not it might fall out under recoil anyway, I am just relating what had actually happened to me. Hey - it might have popped out eventually anyway.

I am not a Physicist but I do see that drifting a sight in and out is putting the force of the blows in a perpendicular direction rather than parallel direction as recoil would do. Could this have caused the vile's glue to prematurely fail?

Another good attribute of a sight pushing tool is that it is a bit easier to adjust sights at the Range. Instead of having to use a hammer and punch, a dedicated tool is easier to use in the field. I like adjusting the sights at the Range as they can be tested immediately. Yea, I've do this with a hammer and punch (at the Range) too, just not as convenient.

Once again, until a vile actually popped out on me while drifting, I would have been in your and John's corner.

The crucial sight replacement issue concerns the fitment of the new sight base to the existing dovetail. Most, if not all replacement sights are shipped oversized to accommodate tolerances.

Accordingly, the new sight usually needs to be slightly modified in order to fit the dovetail properly. Forcing an oversized sight base into a dovetail is not necessary, and can cause damage.

If the sight base is properly pre-fit to the space provided, and a little bit of quality lubricant is applied, an expensive sight pusher is not needed.

The Wyoming Sight Drifter is my only fixed sight drifting tool - had to use on both of my Shield front sights - both shot unacceptably left.

Home

I have borrowed armorer951's sight tool a few times over the years....

A Quality shop should have a threaded sight pusher, that will work and prevent
any damage to the sight or gun.

A hammer will work but there is always a chance that damage can happen, if not properly done
or the unit is not held securely or you had too much coffee.

use caution

use caution when removing the rear sight on a Ruger EC380 as there are springs and a pin under there that can go flying off in to the wild blue yonder, according to my gunsmithing books.

According to my AGI gunsmithing books, a lot of slides are destroyed because there is a pin in the front sight on the Ruger EC380, EC9 type pistol. It does not show on the part list. I would contact Ruger and sent the slide in before attempting to drift the front sight on these models. Even on the 9MM conversion slide on one of these models. Just quoting the AGI books....

When I bought my CZ-75 PCR a few years ago I noticed that the rear sight was just a hair off to the left from center. The factory test target showed the group center off to the left as well. Why they didn't adjust it at the factory I don't know, maybe it was within their accepted range.

I loosened the set screw on the sight and tried a few taps with a hammer and nylon punch. It wouldn't budge. I decided to just go ahead and buy a sight pusher instead of the bigger hammer method and associated risks. I bought this one on Amazon. It worked perfectly with no marring of the slide or sight. But I have to add that it did take a good amount of leverage on the T bar handle to get it to move which surprised me. I figured that a set screw meant that the sight wasn't installed super tight. Anyway, the gun now groups dead center, mission accomplished.

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/ATG-Universal-Pistol-Dovetailed-Pusher/dp/B07DMZDD6V/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2H70APVU2YYQC&keywords=sight+adjustment+tool&qid=1677371157&sprefix=sight+adjustment+tool%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-2[/ame]

Hinestly I bought the one I bought because the guy was a gun-guy who also happened to be a bigtime, serious machinist. May have been the other way around, either way he made this thing with super tight tolerances and really smooth action, in Michigan, the U S A!
Therr are still some fine craftsmen here and Ill support 'em every time.

I design and manufacture sight pushers. My line can be found in the classified section on this forum.
A few years ago I decided I was going to try the brass punch method just for giggles and grins. I had a 5906 slide with a factory sight installed. I placed it in my padded vise and whacked it a couple of times with a brass punch and hammer. No go. Hit it a bit harder and broke the punch. Got the next bigger size(probably 1/4”), and promptly broke it too. I pulled one of my Mk V sight pushers off the shelf and had the sight off in less than a minute. My brass punches probably weren’t the best quality available, but I had previously used them to remove bearings from a shaft without incident. Obviously, some of you guys are more talented than I am.

biku324 said:

The Wyoming Sight Drifter is my only fixed sight drifting tool - had to use on both of my Shield front sights - both shot unacceptably left.

Home

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I would bet it would work with many/most sights - a great idea! That said, I have personally drifted sights on a few new polymer guns that were so tight even a good sight pusher had trouble initially. My Sig P365 has the tightest sights I have yet to come across. Yea, I got them to move, but a good heavy duty sight pusher was required. Would this Wyoming tool have worked? Who knows.....