My front sights are escaping!

[Arislan]

I've never had this happen before. It looks like my front sights are spontaneously trying to escape my Browning Hi Power.



Any idea of why this could be happening?

It's very odd that the sight is slipping unprovoked. Every day it moves farther to the right without me doing anything. I haven't shot it in a week due to an extra busy few days, so it's just randomly slipping out. And I know it's tight in place because I can't force it back to the middle.

[bountyhunter]

I have had sights walk on a Hi Power as well as other guns. You are just lucky they didn't fly downrange never to be seen again. Some red loctite will probably fix it.

[Domingo]

put a little of loctite and tap it back in place(clean off the surface first)

[Arislan]

Any idea what might be causing this to happen while sitting in the safe?

[Thanatos2203]

Tight being a relative term. Just because you can't finger tighten it doesn't mean its tight.

My recommendation would be to put a very conservative amount of red loctite in the channel and then use a non metallic punch to tap it back into place (if you don't own a sight tool).

[bountyhunter]

Any idea what might be causing this to happen while sitting in the safe?

The slot cut has a taper and the "squeeze" with a tapered application exerts a sideways force.

[rdtompki]

Use green loctite. That was Dawson's recommendation when my 1911 front sight wouldn't stay put - hasn't moved in 15K rounds.

[Fishslayer]

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/27/watch-death-valleys-rocks-walk-before-your-eyes/

Seriously... I'm with the Loctite guys. I would try the blue first though and see if that worked.

[MrOrange]

I have had sights walk on a Hi Power as well as other guns. You are just lucky they didn't fly downrange never to be seen again. Some red loctite will probably fix it.

Actually they tend to fly uprange.


Yep, it's a thing, at least you got a dovetailed sight that you can easily tighten up at home. Most older autos have a front sight with a tenon that goes through a hole in the slide and is hammered down. It's called staking, but I think riveting is a better description. I've lost one, and had the replacement aftermarket sight silver soldered in place.

[Carcassonne]

I've never had this happen before. It looks like my front sights are spontaneously trying to escape my Browning Hi Power.


Any idea of why this could be happening?

It's very odd that the sight is slipping unprovoked. Every day it moves farther to the right without me doing anything. I haven't shot it in a week due to an extra busy few days, so it's just randomly slipping out. And I know it's tight in place because I can't force it back to the middle.

Looks like a reaction to barrel torque and a loose front sight (if you have right-hand twist rifling). It is the same thing that causes bullets to pull out of their cases in magnum revolvers, but instead of being linear momentum it is angular momentum.

edit: I missed the part about not shooting it. The only way I can see it happening is if the front sight is very loose, and it is laying against something.




.

[Carcassonne]

Any idea what might be causing this to happen while sitting in the safe?

Here is a W.A.G.:
The slide and sight are made from two different types of materials that have different expansion and contraction rates. As your safe, and gun, goes through hot and cold cycles, the sight pops over a little bit each time.

[JTROKS]

If you tap the front sight into position with the plastic handle of a medium screwdriver does it move? If it does then it's too loose. You can use red Loctite or a shim to tighten up the tolerance. Make sure to degrease the dovetail and front sight before applying Loctite.