Norinco front sight fail

Leigh

Leigh

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So I picked up a Norinco 1911A1 police model two tone recently, got it out on the range today. It was pretty fun to shoot, I was loading 5 rounds in the magazine each time. After firing 30 rounds, I swapped back to my glock 17 for a few mags, then back to the norinco, when I raised it...... I couldn't see the front sight, looked up over the rear sight and the blade was missing.

So the blade has detached itself ( I found it near the rifle racks straight behind me), while the dovetail base is still in the slide...

not really sure what I should do... Since it happened so quick I'm very tempted to take it back to the store and see if they can replace it, if they replace it with another norinco sight, I'll probably be worrying that the blade is going to decide it wants to be a projectile too.


Any recommendations of what I should do? maybe some recommendations of good quality sights?
 
It would seem that the sight is on the small side. You can peen it by tapping the bottom of the sight with a punch.
That will raise some metal & should tighten it up. I would do the sight rather than the dovetail.
 
I've had an issue with my new sport model as I'm attempting to adjust the rear sight with a brass punch. I've warped the punch while attempting to move it with no luck thus far.

In my fear of causing some marring on the finish I've sought out some alternatives I'd like to share with you. A back up I found is: www.millettsights.com/

If anyone has tips on adjusting the rear sight with some other form of success I'd love to hear it, PM me with suggestions.

Thanks,

Jake
 
Colinjw, it snapped the blade off. He said the base was still in the dovetail of the slide.
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My mistake. Again I prove that it is best to read the entire post. When I saw the the sight was out I assumed it had come out of the dovetail. ( I know one should never assume ).

Plus I have never heard before of the blade coming off & leaving the base intact. I have now.
 
I don't mean to be a smart a$$ but you are going to have to buy a replacement and have it installed by a 'smith or do it yourself. Most front sights I have seen require some fitting of the sight to the dovetail.

Take Care

Bob
 
colinjw said:
My mistake. Again I prove that it is best to read the entire post. When I saw the the sight was out I assumed it had come out of the dovetail. ( I know one should never assume ).

Plus I have never heard before of the blade coming off & leaving the base intact. I have now.
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Haha, well if it just got knocked or resonated out of the dovetail I would just tap it back in. Its fractured, just kinda sucks I didn't even get a box of ammo through it before it happened.:(
 
Leigh said:
not really sure what I should do... Since it happened so quick I'm very tempted to take it back to the store and see if they can replace it, if they replace it with another norinco sight, I'll probably be worrying that the blade is going to decide it wants to be a projectile too.


Any recommendations of what I should do? maybe some recommendations of good quality sights?
Click to expand...

Before you do anything I'd definitely make a trip to the store to see what they will do for you. If they can't/won't do anything then look at alternative sights otherwise let them replace the sights/slide/gun. I've seen people comment about the sights being too small, the internals and triggers being a tad rough but this is the first time I've read or heard about the front sight breaking off, so if the store replaces it I don't think you'd have trouble with the replacement. FWIW, I own a blued Police model. It's actually a very good gun for the money....but is it worthwhile to put in half the cost of the pistol (or more) on a set of sights? Your call, not mine.....
 
Mine sheared off on about the 4th shot.....I asked Can Am if they new of any easy to fit aftermarket sights or what the dimensions were but they did not know of any.

They were nice enough to send me a replacement sight so that I could fix it myself....but I'm leaning towards opening up the dovetails to a more standard measurment.

Ive been away and have not gotten to it yet but hopefully the stuck dovetail will hammer out easy enough and the new one will not need to much fitting.

On mine it looks like maybe the dovetail was cut a little to deep and the flat part of the sight cut out on top cut into the sight blade and weakend it when it was installed.
 
misfire said:
Before you do anything I'd definitely make a trip to the store to see what they will do for you. If they can't/won't do anything then look at alternative sights otherwise let them replace the sights/slide/gun. I've seen people comment about the sights being too small, the internals and triggers being a tad rough but this is the first time I've read or heard about the front sight breaking off, so if the store replaces it I don't think you'd have trouble with the replacement. FWIW, I own a blued Police model. It's actually a very good gun for the money....but is it worthwhile to put in half the cost of the pistol (or more) on a set of sights? Your call, not mine.....
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Theres the problem eh, for a good front and rear sight and installation its going to be nearly half the cost of the gun...

I agree, for the price its a good gun (other then the sight taking a trip to the rifle racks), the trigger was alright.. its a tad rough but nothing to cry about or put money into, I was fine with the sights until you know what happened, I didn't find them too small. The magazines were my only real problem with it... they're rather crappy. So I was planning to find some good 10 round replacements for them, but in the event I need to put money into sights I'll live with the norinco ones.

Well, if nothing else happens maybe I'll phone Canada ammo and see if they've got some sights lying around and put it in myself.
 
If you bought it from a dealer, contact them.

All guns can have issues, I know of brand new Sigs, Glocks, XD and other high end guns that have issues.
 
Colin said:
If you bought it from a dealer, contact them.

All guns can have issues, I know of brand new Sigs, Glocks, XD and other high end guns that have issues.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm going to take it back and see what they can do this week.

And yes, very true, people are often quick to blame the Chinese for being incompetent when a norc takes the piss.... push comes to shove, any product can have defective parts; its less likely with more sophisticated manufacturing and higher quality control (especially external quality control from a good standing third party) but it happens.
 
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