TargetTalk

Hi Folks,

Posting here because of stunning lack of response on Olympic Pistol forum...

Can someone please tell me how to remove the rear sight blade on the DES69? I have no instructions, just a fuzzy exploded diagram. I am loath to try what I think is the right method, in case it isn't!

Thanks in hope...

Hi,
First, why do you need to take it apart?
OK
You see the skrew for adjusting, this is the one to screw out just like an ordinary screw. You must put the "nut" in the other end in a wise or use a plier. Be careful there is two extra parts coming loose, one spring and a "thing" in the end of the spring. When putting things together just do it in the opposit order and you must use a pointed tool to secure the "nut" again.
Are you trying to do some welding on the blade? Tell me how it turned out!
Avoid taking apart the screw for hight adjustment!!!
(It contains a small ball, 1 mm in size and a spring)

Good luck

Kent

Thanks.

Need to take apart to adjust notch in existing blade (it's a little damaged and asymmetric) and to experiment with different blade widths. I will have to make new blades (eventually).

The 'nut' on the other end of the adjusting screw is slotted and recessed in the sight mounting, therefore it can't be held in a vice. I can, however, make a tool to hold it. However, there seems to be a slotted part lying centrally within the 'nut'. This looks like it may have been spread apart or peened over to lock the 'nut'.

The remaining question is - is the nut right- or left-hand thread? The adjuster screw is left-hand thread.

Shooting Kiwi wrote: This looks like it may have been spread apart or peened over to lock the 'nut'.

Yes it has, and you do the same when you put it together.
I do not think it is possible to do this many times though.
Come to think of it, I used 2 screwdrivers and one was in a vice.

I do not remember if it was right or left thred, I suppose it is a try and error thing, if it tightens up, try the other way.
I suppose you have shooting season now so it would maybe be better to have a spare sight blade before you take the sight apart. Is it possible to use a TIG/MIG to fill the gap in the sight blade? Personally I like to have a higher blade.

Kent

Well, perhaps few know or care how the rear sight blade of the Unique DES-69 is removed. Faced with no explicit instructions after my plea for help, I decided to get adventurous. Here's what I found. Perhaps it might help someone. I know that one person in this forum is interested in DES-96 rear sights. I suspect all DES variants will be similar. I don't know the history of my pistol, so it's possible that some components are not original, but I doubt it.

The right-hand end of the windage screw is counterbored. A collar, with transverse screwdriver slot is threaded over the end of the windage screw. This screw is left-hand-threaded throughout, so the collar must be undone clockwise! The end of the windage screw is peened into the collar's slot, by peening out from the counterbore, so this peening must be knocked back before the collar is unscrewed. This is easier said than done. If the sight blade is moved almost as far to the left as it will go, the right-hand end of the transverse slot in the sight carrier, in which the sight blade moves, is revealed. When the slot in the collar and the slot in the sight block are aligned, a small punch (a hardened screw-driver blade) can be tapped vertically downwards, knocking back the peening at the end of the windage screw. The collar may now be unscrewed (clockwise!), but there will still be some reidual deformation of the end threads of the windage screw: it's just not possible to undo the peening and return the screw to 'un-peened' condition. The deformation of the end of the screw makes unscrewing the collar feel horrible. I suspect that the collar is deliberately hardened, in the hope that it will re-form the windage screw threads as it it undone, but mine split, even though I was being gentle with it!

The collar located the right end of the windage screw, so the screw and sight blade can now be withdrawn to the left. The click detent is a tiny pin, with even tinier spring behind it, lying in a radial hole in the large-diameter, left-hand end of the windage screw. Be careful, but I think there is no real risk of it going flying.

Now you have the unpleasant prospect of trying to recover the threads on the end of the windage screw, so that it can be unscrewed from the sight blade, without damaging the internal threads, thereby causing excessive backlash, or worse.

Altogether, a really stupid design that doesn't lend itself to changing sight blades. Getting the adjustment of the collar just right so that there was neither backlash nor excessive tightness, and hoping the adjustment was not disturbed by peening must have been trying. Perhaps the design could be excused if the execution were impeccable, but my components are crudely made, with much hand-work in evidence.

Since I want a wider rear sight aperture, since the collar is split and since the end of the windage screw will never be the same again, I suppose I'll have to make new ones, but this time with an extended screw and some removable locking arrangement, to facilitate sight changing. Also, it would be a good idea to put in a spring to bias the sight blade, as an anti-backlash measure.

Having seen the stupidity of the design and the crude manufacture, enthusiasm for the pistol is at a low ebb, so I won't be making the replacement parts in the near future. I still hanker after a DES-96 though, for some reason. Not much chance of finding one here in NZ.

So sorry that you did not find my answer being to your satisfaction but it sure is easier to explain things in ones one native language.

I have a DES96 and working on sight once again, I have an idea for rear sight but it will take time. I except you are going towards "winter" now so you may have time to wait?

Kent

Reinhamre / Kent

Thank you for your previous posts - very helpful indeed. I wanted to add detail and tidy up a couple of loose ends, in case others were having the same problems. I accept that my last post appears to devalue your contribution - my apologies, no criticism intended.