Fiber Optic Sights for the Witness

[LESchwartz]

Finally reporting back . . .

I was extraordinarily happy with the LPA sights brightness in low light conditions, but I was just ok with the AmeriGlo tritium sight in low light conditions.

Unfortunately, I bumped the front sight on a recent trip to the range, and it's now MIA (my fault for not securing it better).  On the plus side, I can now see about an even brighter sight . . . so I'm thinking about another tritium front sight.

So what's the brightest tritium sight out there?  I've heard good things about the brightness of Meprolight and TruGlo TFO.

Larry

[LESchwartz]

I ordered up both Meprolight and TruGlo TFO . . . unfortunately, the TruGlo sight is NOT a Sig #8.  It's 0.020" too wide and 0.060" to high.  Maybe it works OK when used with their supposed #8 Sig rear sight, but it's not going to work for my application.  I'm not even 100% sure the sight would even work on a Sig, since the dovetail is about 0.035" thicker than it should be.  Bummer, cause it's visibly brighter in all lighting conditions.

The Meprolight looks to be about the same brightness as the AmeriGlo sight I lost.  Of course, I was unable to do a head-to-head comparison. 

After mounting the Meprolight, I notice that the dot sits ever so slightly lower in the front blade.  In the end, I expect that AmeriGlo was the perfect sight for my project.

Larry

[billthemarine2862]

Dawson Precision makes sights for the Tanfo. I run a .140 in my stock 3 but I plan on swapping it out for the
.120 so I can crank the rear sight all the way down.
They do not offer one with tritium though.

https://dawsonprecision.com/eaa-witness-match



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LESchwartz]

Dawson Precision makes sights for the Tanfo.

These are for the Witness Match.  The standard witness has a fixed front sight and need machining.

Larry

[bobclevenger]

Old thread, older quest.

Well, I ordered the TruGlo TFX Pro sight set for the CZ-75. I had encouraged them to add the CZ-75 to their TFO/TFX lineup, so I was kind of honour-bound to eventually buy a set.  I did this just a couple of days ago. Amazon has them at about the best price I could find.
 As nobody will recall, I have milled out the rear sight dovetail to CZ-75 dimensions and also milled off the front sight and milled in a dovetail slot for the CZ-75 front sight. I also drilled the front of the slide to accept the CZ-75 front sight pin.
I expect the TruGlo sights to arrive in about a week or less. I shall install them on my Witness Semi-Compact in .38 Super/9x23 Winchester and give a report after hitting the range. Just hoping that the elevation will be close to POA=POI.

[stagesmith]

I'd love a compact carry witness in 10mm, but the fixed sights are a no-go for me.
I have a Witness 10mm Elite Match that I love, but it is huge, and has lovely fiber-optic sights front and back.

Was your slide steel or stainless?

On my Elite Match Witness I used a Novak rear sight for a S&W M&P.
It works with a 0.025" shim under it, but the Elite Match and standard Witness pistols have different rear sight dovetails.

[bobclevenger]

I'd love a compact carry witness in 10mm, but the fixed sights are a no-go for me.

Fixed as opposed to adjustable?

I have a Witness 10mm Elite Match that I love, but it is huge, and has lovely fiber-optic sights front and back.

Was your slide steel or stainless?

My slide is the steel "Wonder" finish. I know of no Stainless Witness slides or frames, for that matter.

On my Elite Match Witness I used a Novak rear sight for a S&W M&P.
It works with a 0.025" shim under it, but the Elite Match and standard Witness pistols have different rear sight dovetails.

Yeah, the dovetails are a real problem. That's why I found out that the CZ-75 rear dovetail is a bit wider than the standard Witness's dovetail and I milled it out to CZ-75 width. Now rear sights for a CZ-75 will fit.

[LESchwartz]

I'd love a compact carry witness in 10mm, but the fixed sights are a no-go for me.

Bob's on a specific quest because he started down the "CZ-75 road".  Earlier in the thread I have a post on how to replace the Witness fixed front sight with one from a Sig.  It requires cutting a Sig dovetail, but it's a pretty easy machining operation.  Most gunsmiths should be able to perform it for a few tens of dollars.

That same post include a trick to get the fiber sights in the rear without re-cutting the dovetail.

Larry

[stagesmith]

OK That makes more sense.

My comment on fixed sights is because I have ever diminishing near vision so I need fiber sights to see anything.
I like the idea of cutting the SIG front sight dovetail.
I did that to a Kahr CM9 and a Bersa Thunder plus so I could use TFX-pro sights.

I have scoured the internet for an extensive collection of sight dovetail specs and cutters.

[bobclevenger]

Amen! Finding dovetail specs for gun sights is like searching for the Holy Grail.
I chose CZ sights because I own a CZ-75 Compact and I could measure the dovetails on them. I looked at SIG sights but found no info, and I don't own one that I could measure. At the time I used Hi-Viz fibre optic sights because they made a set for the CZ. I really wanted day/night sights like the TFX, but Tru-Glo was of no help at all and they didn't make them for the CZ.

Yes, my eyes are also old enough to benefit greatly from the fibre optic sights.

[stagesmith]

Well I am the nutjob who edited a set of TFX-Pro Kimber Compact sights to fit my RAMI.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129065511@N02/albums/72157678346024925

I am going to be creating a Flickr account to post the dovetail specs I have so far.
I hope that other people will add theirs.

[bobclevenger]

Well I am the nutjob who edited a set of TFX-Pro Kimber Compact sights to fit my RAMI.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129065511@N02/albums/72157678346024925

I am going to be creating a Flickr account to post the dovetail specs I have so far.
I hope that other people will add theirs.

Excellent! My measurements for CZ-75 and rear dovetail for Witness are earlier in this thread. They are dimensioned photos.

[stagesmith]

I had to figure out a technique for measuring any dovetail.
It's a combination of an angle gauge set from Germany, some precision ground pins and a smart phone app.

[bobclevenger]

I photographed the sights with the camera square to the face of the sight so as to avoid distortion and then loaded the image into a photo editor that has the ability to rotate the image any amount in very small increments. Step one was to position the base of the sight so that it is perfectly horizontal with respect to the image frame and save a working copy of the image. Then I rotated the working copy of image until the slanted face of the dovetail was parallel with the horizontal line (the "crop" feature gave me a reference line) and took the angle of rotation as the dovetail angle (for one side -- double it for the total angle). Much harder to describe than to actually do it.

[bobclevenger]

stagesmith, it appears that you milled off the original dovetail from the TFX sight and cut a new -- female -- dovetail into it to accept an adapter that you made. Is that correct? Good thinking and it also allows you to adjust the height of the finished sight which was a problem that I had. I didn't think of this way of doing it. Thank you for showing us. I could have avoided milling the rear dovetail into my slide, though that wasn't difficult.