I have an older Browning High Power that I got from my dad. He bought it back in 1980 or so. The guy he bought it from had a Bomar ramp sight installed. I would like to replace that with a separate front and rear night sights to reduce bulk and weight and get night sights.

When I remove the Bomar there is no rear sight in the existing dovetail and there is no front sight (the original was staked in place but must have been ground flush with the top of the slide). I talked today with a guy at Novak and he said that if I sent them my slide they could mill a larger dovetail in the rear and mill a dovetail in the front and then install their night sights. Cost would be $262 plus shipping. I am hoping to find other options that may not be as costly but still get me what I am after.

I just saw in another post that tooltechgunsite.com does similar work but I guess they do not have to enlarge the rear dovetail and instead of milling a dovetail in the front they would drill the existing front. Cost is $210 but it sounds like when they say drill the existing front that means that the actual front ramp must still be there, not that they drill the slide and install a new front.

Anyway looking for options. Any suggestions?

When you have a pistol with older stake on sights, choice are slim. Stake on tritium front sights are rare for the 1911, and to my knowledge non-existent for the Hi Power anymore. So you�re left with cutting a dovetail in the front of the slide. One rather less expensive way to get tritium sights is to go with the Meprolight�s. The rear is just a simple fixed rear sight that goes into the existing dovetail. The front will need a dovetail cut, but when you go this route, you save a good chunk of money when you don�t have to mill off major section of the rear of the slide.

I would do that. The price is fair.

If I decide to use the Meprolight who should I have mill the front dovetail? Can I install them myself easily or is that best done by a pro?

I am not exactly opposed to spending the money on the Novak but if I can get the job done for quite a bit less and still have a great night sight setup then I would be in favor of that.

Are the Meprolight sights as good as the Novak? If not what is better about the Novak?

Installation can be done with a pin punch once the front dovetail has been cut. As for who to cut the dovetail, that�s not a hard thing to do at all; most any gunsmith ought to be able to pull that one off.