Shield Plus Sight Removal & Upgrades

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gunsmith71

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New member...Saw some old threads regarding difficulty of sight removal and install. Currently working on my brand new Shield Plus, having previously worked on two Bodyguard 380s and the sights on them were super-tough.

I've used sight pushers in the past, and found that they aren't all they are cracked up to be, depending on the handgun involved.

So, after struggling with the Bodyguards, I tried something new - triangular brass punches (BROWNELLS DOVETAIL SIGHT PUNCH | Brownells for medium and large set, BROWNELLS SMALL DOVETAIL SIGHT PUNCH | Brownells for small front sight punch) and nylon punches (BROWNELLS NYLON FRONT-SIGHT DRIFT PUNCH | Brownells).

I used the medium sized punch for the rear sight, and the small for the front. After soaking the sights in CLP for about 8 hours, they were a breeze to knock off with these punches and a small armorers hammer, brass cleaned right off of the old sights and the dovetails, and no damage to the slide because the triangle base stayed in place - didn't even tape the slide or punch base!!! Best investment ever!!

Will post a comment with photos after install of the new sights.
 
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I m glad the triangular brass punches work. I use a sight pusher on all my pistols with great success. I use the MGW Armory Sight-Pro Universal Sight Installation Tool. It is expensive but it never fails and is easy to use.
 
Update

So, the new TruGlo Tritium Pro u-notch sights are on. The install was a little more time-consuming than the removal of the stock sights, but relatively easy nonetheless. I'm going to upload numerous photos in a PDF file, which will show both the old sights after removal and clean-up, and the new sights installed, to show the lack of damage (although I have not yet been able to get all of the brass rub off of the new sights).

I would HIGHLY recommend these punches to anyone who tinkers like I do or even the professionals out there.

I am doing some other changes/upgrades to my Shield Plus, to include shaving & shaping the grip tang/beavertail and attempting to install a Shield 1.0 trigger, which I prefer over the Plus trigger. I'll launch more threads on these.
 

Attachments

Good to know about those punches. I need to get some brass ones. The only sights I’ve removed were on a Ruger 10/22 so that I could install some Tech sights on it. All the advice I had read online was to gently tap them out. 15 minutes of tapping led me to pursue harder and harder strikes - all to no avail. With no vice available, I then wrapped some thick leather scraps around the rifle and tightened up a bunch of clamps as I clamped it to a table. I then proceeded to whack the steel punch using a 5 lb sledge, throwing caution to the wind and to heck with any scratches. After repeated heavy blows, I finally got it out, miraculously leaving the rifle unscathed, but the sight base was admittedly pretty scratched up. I’m guessing the factory sights were probably pressed in with Loc-tite from Ruger’s factory, but I got them out eventually!
 
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