SW 41 rear sight

[KDZ]

My aging eyes are not loving the narrow notch of the rear sights on my model 41, especially under the lighting at my local range - which is good but not great. At home I shoot AP using FWB P44, which has adjustable rear sight width that I've opened enough to make the "light notches" easy to see.

I didn't find alternate sights for the 41 online and presumably they only make one size. I'm thinking about carefully filing the notch wider - with the angle opening forward so the sight blades form a sharp edge backing to the eye to avoid glare. Here is a pic:

https://postimg.cc/ftRNNPYG

Any suggestions / warnings / cursing before I do it?

Thanks

K

[40xguy]

I'm not a pistol shooter but this is a very interesting article ....
especially see the last entry about a "half moon" notch in rear sight....
http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... 6&p=290096

[Rover]

I have to laugh a bit over this. The half moon sight guy was me.

Some years back I started messing with my rear sights because I thought they were warped or crooked. I came around to using the half moon because it easily cleaned up the odd rear notches. It worked very well and still does on my Free pistol.

It wasn't until I got older and needed glasses, that I realized I had astigmatism and THAT was causing the odd (barely noticable) shape of rear notches. I would STILL use the half moon if I wanted to widen a rear notch.

[porkchop]

I read that article also and took Rovers advice and filed the notch on my S&W 14. It came out perfect for my eye and when I smoked the front sight I could really concentrate on it and line it in the rear notch so much better. Thank you for that Rover.
Stan

[KDZ]

So I opened the notch a bit and it definitely made the white bars more visible. I have a portable knife sharpening tool that has two diamond coated removable steel plates - one about 220 grit the other about 500. I used these as files to widen the notch and increase the angle away from the eye, and they worked well because they don't have abrasive on the edges to avoid deepening the notch. I opened incrementally from 0.12" to 0.14", and stopped there. I plan to re-assess at the range (you can take away material but not add..).

Darkened the shiny steel with magic marker because magic helps hitting the 10

https://postimg.cc/bZhbFPYp

[Rover]

After using the U notch for many years, I decided to put a Red Dot on my 41. I didn't realize the extractor was going bad and that was the reason I was getting frequent slow-to-clear "stovepipe" jams.

I hacksawed off the scope mount and sight extension at the breech and dressed it with a mill file (see Clark barrels). Between this and the new extractor, all is well.