Hey there. I'm looking for some basic gunsmithing advice. I have an old US gov't issue 1911A1 and it has some after market sites on it. The front site has come loose and I want to replace both front and rear with some original GI sites but I have never done this before. Do the sites just punch in and out? Are you supposed to use any kind of adhesive or do they just squeeze into place and stay there by virtue of being a tight fit? Is there any trick to getting the rear site started into the dovetail groove? Are there any differences between series 70 and 80 sites (like size of the dovetail cut?) If so how can you tell if the pistol is a series 70 or 80? Sorry to ask so many questions. i'd love to just take it into a gunsmith, but I am in Canada and there just aren't too many of them around up here. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Karlg;

The front sight on your gun is "staked" in place from below the slide with a punch and hammer (carefully!) or a special staking tool (recommended) then polished. There IS a difference between so called "Series 70 and Series 80" front sights as the newer ones use a thicker "tenon" (metal "leg" that goes inside the slide and is then staked or peened) than the older Series 70 and back guns...yours' included...you want the 70's type.

Rear sights for standard dovetails are the same size. Theoretically, you should always remove from left to right and insert from right to left so that if there IS a taper to the dovetail (as is the case with some earlier P35 FN's etc.) you will not widen the narrow end by driving the sight through it.

If you have a decent vise which can be padded with some leather or maybe heavy and not too hard plastic (I have used pieces of a thick leather belt) and some reasonable skill with hand tools, you should be able to accomplish this yourself if you are carteful.

Try Brownell's for sights. You can do a search for "1911 sights" and get several pages, but I think this is similar to what you are looking for:

www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=7637&title=FIXED+1911+HARDBALL+SIGHTS

Thanks very much. That is exactly the info I needed !