Help removing Tanfoglio Front Sight

[Passarinho]

Hi Guys,

I recently bought a barely-used Tanfoglio P23L (38 super). I also bought the Henning iFiber front sight, but i'm facing some problems to remove the factory front sight.

After removing the screw. I tried to remove the front sight using a rubber-tip hammer, but it's stuck there. Tried some brute force and screwed up the front sight! =S

I believe that the previous owner stuck it there with something. But now i don't know how to remove it.

Do you guys have any idea of how can i remove it?

Thanks in advance

[Skydiver]

I'm assuming that you are using the technique shown in step 2 described in Hennings website: http://henningshoots...fiberfront.html

If the gunsmith who installed the sight was an old school 1911 gun smith, he would have put Red LockTite under the dove tail.

I learned this trick when I had the hardest time trying to remove a front sight on a 1911. I asked an old friend of mine about this since he was an active shooter and dabbler in gunsmithing during the heyday of many innovations happening on the 1911 platform:

One solution is to melt/burn off the LockTite. Aim a heat gun at the area until you see little wisps of smoke come up. You may have to repeat this a couple of times.

Oh, yeah: remember that most metals expand when heated. You may have to wait until the area has cooled before attempting to knock the sight out.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Skydiver

[Nealio]

I had to hit my factory fiber sight on my Limited so hard that it destroyed it.

On some of my guns the factory sight came out easy, on others they were stuck in there pretty good.

[sinnsyk]

The best way would be to put the slide in a vise that hold the slide tight. Use a blow torch to heat up the set screw and possibly breaking any other loctite added to the slide/sight. Little bit of smoke should appear if you break the loctite.

Instead of hitting the side directly with a gunsmith hammer, I'd suggest using a brass punch and tapping it out, beating on the punch with the hammer. If the sight doesn't start moving you've got something going on that I could just say... oh yeah it's...

On all the guns I've taken the sights off they've come off pretty easy. It's all about moving the sight horizontally, so if you're hitting the sight from an angle (typically if you're hitting it hard with a hammer...) you may not be moving it directly out.

Be mindful of what you're doing when trying to take it off. If you're paying attention it should come off.

;-)

Henning