Tenons on 1911 staked sights

[dsb1829]

Does Narrow and Wide have anything to do with the actual width of the front sight? Looking at pichers in the midway catalogs the narrow looks shorter front to back. I assumed narrow vs. wide had to do with the tenon length, not the actual width.

I have a Colt M80. I thought it was by virtue of being a M80 a wide tenon. Gunsmith put a set of calipers across the width of the front sight and said it was a narrow. Is this smith off his meds?

 

[orionengnr]

Looking at pichers in the midway catalogs

Really?

 

[dsb1829]

Really?

Just a bit of levity... (it was an intentional typo)

 

[Drail]

There's actually three sizes, old Colt, new Colt, and Springfield Armory.

 

[Chindo18Z]

Does Narrow and Wide have anything to do with the actual width of the front sight?

No, although sights can be bought in varying blade widths. The Narrow, Wide, Medium descriptions refer to the width of the tenon itself and (more importantly) the width of the front sight slot cut into the top of the slide.

NARROW tenons are .058” thick (Colts until late 1980s)

WIDE tenons are .125” thick (Colts after late 1980s)

MEDIUM tenons are .088” thick (Springfield Armory Proprietary)