Pistol is a P229R-DAK in .40 - S/N AAU025xx. Issued new to me in about 2006(?).

Factory night sights were just about dead, and in August I got a good deal on a set of NIP Trijicon HD Night Sights P/N SG1030 thru the Classifieds here.

Brought them with me to the range today and asked one of the Dept Armorers to swap them out for me before I qualified.

Using what I believe was a MGW sight tool, the rear sight swap went off without a hitch, although he remarked that the force required to install the new sights was perhaps slightly higher than what he was used to.

On to the front sight - this is where I had my first issue. Using the sight tool to remove the factory sight resulted in the trailing end tab separating from the body of the sight. He reversed direction to push out the broken tab, and the other side did the same thing. With both tabs broken, he pushed out the sight and one of the tabs with the tool, and used a brass drift punch and hammer to easily pop the other one out. We both looked at the front sight dovetail under a magnifier and didn't see anything obviously deformed or wrong with it. Gun has not been abused and I don't recall ever dropping it.
He then installed the new front sight and remarked that it was going in way easier than the rear one did. We stopped and checked, and the trailing tab was lifting out of the dovetail. The armorer futzed with it for more than half an hour with limited success. In the end. I ended up with a front sight that has a one sheet (but not two sheets) of paper gap between the bottom of the blade and the top of the slide, and a visible gap under the slide within the dovetail. I was told that if the gap bothers me they can apply a couple dabs of epoxy to lock it in; if the sight falls out, I'll get a different weapon. Don't really want that.

So then I qualified. Didn't lose the front sight, and after a tweak of the rear sight to the left, was having no issue hitting where I wanted to, However, I did have two failure to feed instances, both with the same magazine. (Issue #2)
Both times, the magazine was nearly full, and it appeared that the round was wedged into the top rear part of the locking insert, where it mates with the barrel feed ramp. Because we're required to apply the appropriate IAD on any malfunction during quals, I really couldn't study the problem. I did mark up the mag with a sharpie so I can look it over/attempt to reproduce the issue later.

Any thoughts/comments from the hive on either problem?

Thanks!

Almost sounds like he was pushing the wrong direction. To remove sights, they are driven from right to left as observed from the rear of the pistol. To install, they are driven left to right.

I purchased a sight set from a reputable sight manufacturer for a P229 Sport. When installing the front sight, I had a similar issue. Measuring the sight base, after giving up on installing it, the base was wider than it should have been. Your sight's base might not be the correct dimensions.

Have you tried to reproduce the mag issue since your qual? I would look at the feed lips for damage and make sure the spring is installed correctly.

Very common for the trailing edge of the front sight to lift up when using a sight pusher. I place a thin screwdriver between the tool and the sight to prevent the sight from moving up.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Orndorff:
Very common for the trailing edge of the front sight to lift up when using a sight pusher. I place a thin screwdriver between the tool and the sight to prevent the sight from moving up.

^^^

This is especially so if the "pusher" block part of the sight tool is not adjusted down as close to the top of the slide as possible, while still maintaining a few thousandths clearance.

MGW pushers (especially the "Sight Pro" model) are rigid and work well. Many cheaper pushers are not rigid enough and this can cause the pusher to apply more force against the top of the front sight blade, this too can cause your symptoms.

If the front sight is now canted off to the side, best remove it, dress any burrs, straighten if bent and install again or replace w/ new.