Rear Sight Blades on 2nd & 3rd Gen adjustables ?

[357larry]

My favorite sight picture is with the red insert front/white outline rear sights. I was brought up with those sights and still prefer them today. My question is this: do the 2nd and 3rd gen autos with adjustable sights, use the same rear sight blades as the adjustable revolver sights? I have never taken one of these sights apart to find out for myself, thought somebody here would know. I have early versions of the 639 and 659 with the adjustable sights. I am considering having red inserts installed on the front sights. It would be great if I could just buy new sight blades for the rear sights with the white outline. Thanks in advance for any info.

Larry

 

[BLUEDOT37]

Adjustable rear sight assembly

Below is from a previous post of mine on the subject. Looking at the S&W parts catalog (18) different models used the same adjustable rear sight assembly so even though I reference my 1006 it's the same assembly on the M639 & M659.

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I recently worked on the adjustable rear sight of my "new to me" 1006 & will add some additional info that might be useful.

The rear sight blade & it's windage screw are not the same as on S&W revolver adjustable sights even though at first glance they might appear so. (Revolver screw head is .215" dia. & 3rd Gen screw head is .185" dia.). However, the windage screw's nut is the same as the ones used on S&W revolver adjustable sights.

I wanted to replace the 1006's rear blade as it had some minor damage. The new 1006 replacement 2-dot blade I purchased did not come with it's dots painted; weird. Because it's rear dots were slightly smaller than the front dot I decided to just go with a white outline rear blade (.146") used on the revolvers, which I had an assortment of on-hand.

The auto pistol's blade's threads are the same, diameter & pitch, as on the revolvers. The revolver's blade fits but is too wide (.530" vs .495") to allow it the full range of adjustment so each end to the blade needs to be filed down, contoured & blued to shorten it up.

Once reassembled the nut needs to be staked on the screw the same way you do on a revolver by slightly flaring the screw's hollow end where it pass thru the nut, so it won't come off when adjusting the sight's windage.

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[CALREB]

Finally had a few minutes, all above is good, you would need the shortest W/O rear you can find , so it doesnt bottom out and still shoot high, unless your auto has dovetail front and you can adjust there also.

 

[Walter Rego]

One thing I will add is disassembling the adjustable rear sight on a 3rd Generation auto like a Model 1006 is where the old trick of doing so inside of a large freezer bag really is recommended.

Those plungers and springs in the illustration are tiny and can launch in several different directions simultaneously !

 

[357larry]

Very helpful information Gentlemen. Thank You!