gr7070 Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Does anyone know the height and width of the factory front sight? Also, I was curious why they use a smaller rear sight on the 617 then on the 686? What's the perceived benefit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmoney Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 (edited) Edited -- Thanks Tom E for the correction. Edited May 24, 2011 by Carmoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 (edited) Stock is a .168 front (.125 wide) and a funky short rear blade, .136 or .146. If you go to a .200 front you can use a .160 rear for a much better sight picture. Edited May 24, 2011 by Tom E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevolverJockey Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Anyone know the P/N for a .200 front? I have a Apex rear blade and could stand to have a taller front sight as the rear is bottomed out and still lacking. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 (edited) There isn't a S&W .200 tall blade. I used to cut down the .228 patridges but now just get Toolguy's .200 tall, .100 wide blades. You can get FO or solid. Edited May 24, 2011 by Tom E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr7070 Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 Much thanks for the info! Anyone have any thoughts on the two different rear sights between the 686 (typical white outline, deeper notch) and the 617? Why? What benefits do either present? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) I like the deeper rear notch the .160 blade has. Shorter blades have a shorter (less deep) notch. With a .125 front with FO the notch gets widened and deepened. With Toolguy's .100 wide sight with .040 FO the notch just gets widened. I shot with a white outline rear blade saturday and hated it. It got changed to a plain black blade. Edited May 25, 2011 by Tom E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr7070 Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 I was thinking about someday going to the same sights for both my 686 and 617. Right now I have an SDM FO on the 686 front. The 686 rear and the 617 front and rear are factory. At the very least I need to go FO front on the 617, but I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to use the same rear on both and get as close to the same front for the 617 I can get. ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom E Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) I was thinking about someday going to the same sights for both my 686 and 617. I've done pretty much the same thing. On my centerfires I had SDM FO fronts with heights that allowed a .160 rear. My 5" 625 has a .160 rear .300 front. Plain black patridge front on the 617 because there were no .200 FO's. Then I saw Toolguy's .100 wide FO fronts and switched to them. .200 front /.160 rear seems to be the way to go on a 617 and you can set the 686 up to have the same sight picture. 617s use an odd combination of sight heights. A .160 rear needs a .200 front that few make. HI-Viz does make a (horrible) .168 front. I have one somewhere I tried and took off. A .196 rear doesn't offer any better options. For many years I used a S&W .228 patridge cut down to .200 on the front. Edited May 26, 2011 by Tom E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
granderojo Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Any body tried a Millet 360 rear and ? tall for the front sight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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