1917 sight replacement

[dot6]

My 1917 always shot low and to the left. I can't stand for anything to not hit where it looks, so years ago I filed down and bent the front sight to the left, thereby "sighting it in". It works, but the left-leaning front sight looks bad, and the shallow and rounded rear trough, combined with the narrow and leaning front, do little to enhance a good sight picture, especially in less than bright light. Aging eyeballs aren't helping, either.
I don't really want to have the topstrap hogged out for a full-blown S&W adjustable rear, but am considering having the rear of the frame dovetailed for a "fixed" 1911 rear sight, and having a the front blade milled off and the "base" grooved for a correspondingly taller ramp pinned in.
Has anyone on here had this done or have pictures of such a modification?

 

[Breakaway500]

How about a Wondersight? Evans Precision Tooling in Oregon sells them. I have one on my 1917 and it works..wonders...

 

[dot6]

Thanks for the suggestion. That looks like it would work pretty well for target shooting, but I actually carry this old gun, and the sight looks like it would be a bit susceptible to bumps and such, as well as being uncomfortable against my hide in an IWB holster.

 

[Breakaway500]

I carry my 1917 a lot and it doesn't bother me at all.As far as rugged..it's built very well..not wimpy at all and once set,mine never goes out of zero.I don't drive railroad spikes with it..but it has held up for many years.

 

[stu1ritter]

The sight modification that was done on my Commercial post war transitional was to allow for windage adjustment with "fixed sights". Some have suggested this was done by the Springfield Arsenal for some military fixed sight matches. It would not be too hard to replicate this sight setup.

Stu

 

[Wiregrassguy]

Talk to Bob Cogan at HTTP://APWCogan.com.

Guy

 

[dot6]

stu1ritter, thanks for those photos. That is a very valid idea there, being small, tough, and low profile. I have extra S&W sight blade kits on hand, and it sure makes me contemplate just having it milled out for one of those.....just kind of a windage adjustable sight, minus the sight body. Can you give a right-side view?

 

[Hondo44]

I installed a different barrel in this 1917.

Made a half penny front sight blade replacement (pinned into base). It's a full 1/10" wide like the target front sight. When I opened up the rear sight notch to target sight notch width of .124", I made the adjustment to zero the windage.

 

[andy52]

I have found with fixed sight guns of any kind that you may have to experiment with different kinds of ammo to get point of aim and point of impact to be the same. If you load your ammo it makes it a little easier to test different bullet weights and powders, if not it gets more costly to try factory loaded ammo. It's like testing a .22lr for accuracy, can't reload it so you just have to buy several different type of ammo until you find what it likes.

 

[dot6]

andy52,
Yes, I've been rolling my own for thirty years, and have on occasion custom tailored loads for POI correction, mainly with Colt Single Action Armys.....but I dislike doing so, seeing as how I have a powder measure dedicated to a standard load for my other five .45 A.C.P.s, all of which shoot the same load well and to point of aim. (Save one 1911, which hits low, but a taller rear blade will fix that.)

 

[stu1ritter]

Sorry for the delay, right side view;

Stu

 

[Kinman]

I installed a wondersight on this Brazilian model of 1917 and it works very well on the target range. I did for a time try carrying it holstered and did not find it uncomfortable, I did bend the upper sight bar and agree that a fully adjustable factory style sight would be much more stable. I do not carry the cut down 1917 anywhere in a holster, it goes to and from the range in a range bag.