Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Interesting thing found under the rear site of a Baer

Then not a big deal if both you and the original buyer can prove it. I have known those who would lie and others who would swear to it..

But as long as you have the proof you're golden


Geo

The owner of the gun stated this:



He bought it new, they are the original sights, draw your own conclusions.

….I guess I don't get the complaint……it was done to give the locktite something to adhere to……by your admission, it worked…….it doesn't effect the esthetics of the gun whatsoever……would you have been happier if:
1. The grooves weren't cut, increasing the possibility of the sights coming off, or
2. The grooves had been machine-cut with some symmetry, even tho it wouldn't be more effective, still wouldn't show and would have probably increased the cost of production??????

Not trying to be confrontational, but I just don't get the complaint. If the modification was ineffective (i.e. the sights fell off)---if the sights were indexed incorrectly/crooked/etc. or if any of the modification were visible, detracting from the appearance, I'd get it. Sorry, I guess I'm more slow witted than normal.

JMO--of course, I could be wrong.

Finding a way to salvage either a bad sight or a bad sight cut is something that a gunsmith has to do from time to time. Tooling wears, dovetails sometimes come out undersized, or even oversized...only takes .001 or less to make a good dovetail into a bad dovetail. When a cutter wears, it will cut under-sized. So you have to run it through again to make up the difference, and it's not hard for that second pass to take off just the slightest amount too much off, leaving you with an oversized dovetail and a problem. This happens WAY more than most will ever know.

So from the outside it appears they did salvage it quite well, the OP was unaware of anything amiss at all. To me it's not the fact that they had to make something work, I'd expect that when you turn out as many guns as Baer does. But to find someone's initials shabbily carved into the slide, well that's surprising.

The S&W that I carry daily has a botched rear sight dovetail, they chose to put a shim under the sight. I'm betting the OP's Baer looked a whole lot better on that sight/dovetail mating than my S&W does. So what Baer did worked and it looked right. And any other time I'd say who cares what it looks like UNDER the sight, but this is the one time I'd say...wow, I wouldn't expect to see that under the sight.

But who knows why people do the things that people do.

Loctite does not need grooves to 'adhere to'. if using Steelbed or epoxy, maybe, but Loctite does best with minimal gaps.

second, I'd be disappointed seeing that on a $500 handgun, let alone a Les Baer

Loctite doesn't adhere to coatings, hard chrome, etc. Baer uses Loctite to prevent the sight from moving around, so they expose some metal. The dovetail cut can be perfect and Baer will still use Loctite as do lots of other gunsmiths.

Yeah if anything he lessened what it had to adhere to. The deep gouges would have helped with some form of epoxy, but not with Locktite.

ok, my bad…..I just mentioned locktite because it was mentioned in the original thread….I still don't get it tho.

It was just an observation. As mentioned, the gouges defeat the purpose of the Loctite, removing too much material.

People keep thinking I am pissed. This is the best 1911 I have shot. I was just making an observation. Proper sight cuts are not as common as we would like but the job of correcting the fit looks like crap. Not what you expect in a (I believe I paid) $1600 hand fitted 1911.

Yeah I wouldn't lose any sleep over it if it was my pistol, but the initials are what make me snicker, kinda odd. But from both a functional and aesthetic standpoint, the gun is still good to go, and it sounds to me like you got your money's worth.

I have never used any adhesives with sights, I always rely on the set screw. There should be a good friction fit, but even when the friction fit isn't as tight as you like it, proper tightening of the set screw will lock the sight in there real good. If one were wanting to take it a touch further, you could mill a small dimple where the set screw goes into the dovetail to give it a mechanical lock into place.

Your mileage may vary, but I expect better workmanship than that in a $1600 pistol, not to mention I expect them to own up to it.

Is the pistol coated?

Blued.

Bummer - even less reason for it. Without the Loctite is there a gap between the sight and slide when the set-screw is tightened?

No, etchings are not in the location of the set screw. new sight seems pretty secure, of course I'll let you all know in 17 more years!