A dovetail notch is typically cut into the front or rear of your firearm barrel, receiver, or slide. First we measure the sight to determine the depth of the dovetail we will need. Measure the total height of the sight from the bottom of the dovetail to the top of the blade. Recently I had to send a sight to the maker to have the dovetail cut down to fit a new (to me) rifle. A fellow shooter who runs a machine shop told me that dovetails are mighty hard to measure accurately. Includes fixture for measuring sights and two steel gauge pins for measuring existing sight dovetails. Our sights usually fit with some hand filing of the sight base. Picatinny, Weaver, and Dovetail MountsYour rail or mounting system is the crucial link between your firearm and your accessories. A recent example is a front sight I removed from a Browning BPCR. If new sight is loose, then someone may have filed the dovetail already. model with nicely rounded corners and a wide notch. Follow the instructions below to accurately measure all the dimensions needed to calculate your sight height change. Unmodified GI dovetail slides will need to be machined. New sights cheaper than new barrels. 1 Make Sure Your Gun Is Unloaded! The bullet begins below the line of sight, crosses it once on the upward side of its arc, and then again on the downward side. Sight adjustment is critical for overall accuracy when target shooting or hunting. I then called Brownell's and they said the industry standard is to measure from the bottom of the dovetail to the top of the bead. Over the last couple years, I've been installing an increasing number of rear sights from Harrison Design out of Kennesaw, Ga. Their HD-003 Retro rear sight looks somewhat like a bloated G.I. I know they are 3/8" dovetails on ramps. The 2 common heights for rear sights is .325" and .375". Since I install a lot of sights, I bought a dovetail measuring fixture made by XS Sights and available from Brownells as p/n 006-101-000. rounded on the edges, resulting in a narrower dimension than the female dovetail slot. No matter the weapon you use, test-fire it first, then adjust your sight. The Kimber and Magnum Research 1911s take Kimber Front and Rear Sights… Learn the secrets to creating your joinery with the appropriate I would measure it myself but I don't have the necessary tools to do so. 3/8" (9.5mm) dovetail, "tip off" rail 3/8" dovetail rails, sometimes call tip off rails, consist of two thin parallel grooves and are used almost exclusively on rimfire rifles and air rifles. If you try to measure the top you will get an inaccurate size as the edges will usually have been deburred. We used an MGW GLOCK rear sight tool by simply securing the slide in the tool, aligning the sight within the press, then rotating the press ram to push the sight out of the dovetail. In this case it is .259". If the fit is tight, don't file the dovetail, file the sight. Subtract the height of the blade itself (.185") for a dovetail depth of .074". Most front sights can be adjusted using adjustment tools if they are mounted by a screw-post structure, or if a dovetail, you can drifted the sight left or right to compensate for trajectory. 3/8" dovetail rails are a common, standardized style within the rimfire industry and are inexpensive to … Most custom guns will have a front dovetail cut with one of the following two dimensions: 0.300 x 60 degree x 0.060 or 0.330 x 65 degree x 0.075. My research online says that the "standard Novak" is .495 x 65 degree dovetail cut but in my search for a better rear sight for my SR1911 I have been told that the Ruger version of the "standard Novak" dovetail cut is different and shallower than the "standard Novak". Although some factory guns have staked on sights, the norm for custom guns is sights that fit in a dovetail cut in the slide. Thanks. An abosolute neccessity when ordering sights to fit an existing dovetail. They are either trying to measure the rear sight face or the bottom of the dovetail to the top of the sight blade. There are several common types of rail systems available to easily attach accessories. The notch sits perpendicular to the gun's bore, and secures a dovetail sight to the firearm. It is designed to fit the standard rear dovetail found on many older 1911 slides with fixed sights. The most accurate way is to measure the narrow point at the base but if you want a measurement to 0.001 you will need exact size bars to put against the sides to get a measurement with a vernier or micrometer. I waxed up the dovetail on the rifle and made a casting of epoxy and sent it along with the sight. It costs $50. I'm trying to replace the front sights on a 9422 and a 9417 with fiber optic sights. The notch is wider at the base, than the top and this is commonly referred to as the dovetail degrees. Follow the tool manufacturer's guidelines for this procedure. Sights allow us to measure that elevation. **The 02 series sights DO NOT fit: Kimber, ParaOrdnance, Taurus, Magnum Research, or S&W 1911s. I've received PM's from people telling me that they have something other than those 2 height's. Got the job done; a perfect fit. Custom sights are available at an additional charge. This fixture will let you measure the sight's dovetail. A rear sight adjustment tool is designed to push dovetail-style sights on and off a pistol slide. Using my preferred technique, detailed below, to measure the female dovetail, I found the width was 0.385”, but the width of the male dovetail base of the sight was 0.376”. 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