Stripped Glock front sight nut, what should I do?

[aliasneo07]

Hey guys,

Made a stupid mistake on two of my glocks.

I was installing night sights and managed to overtighten the front sight nut to thr point of rounding the nut. I red loctited everything...torqued it down...and was just paranoid that I hadn't tightened it enough. So I kept on, like an idiot. Moral of the story is the nut on both front sight is pretty rounded.

Question is...what do I do now? I actually have two extra front sight screws but im assuming theres no reason to remove them since they are in there pretty tight, lol.

So...

1. Provided I trim the loose metal shavings off of the nut, should I just leave em in there and worry about it in 10 years when the tritium dies down?

2. If I cant turn the screws counterclockwise to remove them...what is the procedure? Cut the sight off with a dremel tool and then push the screw out?

3. How much heat can I apply to the front sight without ruining the sight/slide but enough to break the red loctite?


At least now I know the appropriate amount of torque to put on the screw next time. Really want to get these two out to the range but want to resolve this first.

Thanks much in advance for the help! Feel free to flame also, lol.

 

[AR15barrels]

What I have done to remove swaged on front sights is to completely grind the top of the sight off in the surface grinder.
Once you get down to only 0.003" or so of the sight left, one good hit with a punch will knock the swaged portion out through the hole in the slide.
Your stripped out screw is about the same as a swaged-in sight now.
I would leave it until the sight is worn out.
Then drill it out from the back side if you don't have access to a surface grinder to work from the top without catching the slide...

 

[rcmodel]

1. Yes.
2. Yes. Or just break it off.
3. None. If you use enough heat to burn out the red Lock-Tight, it will also burn out the epoxy holding the tritium vial in the sight. And probably blow up the glass tube too.

In the future?
Throw away the Red Lock-Tight and buy some Blue #242.
It is removable without heat.

There is no good use for red Lock-Tight on a gun you may ever need to take apart again.

rc

 

[nyresq]

Leave it in.

Then in 6 or 7 years (tritium sights never actually last 10 years) come back and ask this again.

 

[rcmodel]

The Meprolites on my Glock 23 are 17 years old now and still barely usable.

Meps & Trijicon are guaranteed to glow five (5) years for orange, and twelve (12) years in green and yellow.

rc

 

[Trent]

I've got tritium sights on my Glock 21 that are 15 years old.

If you are in a completely dark, unlit room, you can see them glow. Sort of.

I never bothered replacing them because they still work for daytime just fine. And if it's too dark to see my sights, it's too dark to see if that person is an intruder or my teenage boy sneaking in from a late night meeting in the woods with his girlfriend.

If you illuminate the target with a flashlight, or they are standing in light, and you are not, you can see your sights ANYWAY, tritium or no, because the sights are silhouetted against the illumination.