| Precision CNC machined from Rc32 heat treated 4140 bar stock, this rear sight is designed to withstand the rigors of hard duty use. Unlike rear sights machined from soft, free machining alloys, the hardened bar stock construction allows this sight to better resist the nicking and denting that is typical with the wear and tear of daily carry. Designed to fit the popular Novak Low Mount dovetail cut. It features a .125" x .125" U notch for fast alignment with tritium dot or gold bead front sights. The rear face is serrated at 40 lpi to eliminate glare in varied lighting conditions. The sight blade is thick enough to allow setting tritium vials in lengthwise (ie. as dots) if one so chooses. It is contoured and dehorned for comfortable handling and carry. Available in plain black manganese phosphate finish for 1911s with Novak Low Mount dovetail.
Requires machining. All parts require installation by a qualified gunsmith.
10-8 Performance Rear Sight Explained (written by Hilton Yam)
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When I was a very active IPSC shooter, I noted that all of the best IPSC gunsmiths were also active and highly ranked shooters. Their pursuit of shooting excellence worked hand in hand with their smithing efforts, providing them constant and current feedback on the validity of their concepts. In the tactical market, there are relatively few smiths that have current street experience in which to test and evaluate their weapon design concepts. I am fortunate that in addition to shooting tens of thousands of rounds every year, I am able to constantly examine design concepts in real world application. In designing this sight, I compiled together my favorite features from the various sights that I have used over the years. None of the concepts are revolutionary in and of themselves, and I will not claim to have pioneered any single one of them. I simply drew up a design that had the capabilities that I thought would be useful, and I hope that other users will also find utility in it.
The sight is machined from hardened 4140 bar stock, and is much harder than sights manufactured from soft, free machining alloys. The softer alloys are easier to machine and less expensive to manufacture, but they also deform easily when subjected to daily wear. Some of the harder MIM sights that are OEM units on production 1911s are so hard that they can knock the teeth off a file. I felt this was too hard to work with for installations, so I split the difference.
The rear blade has a flat angular surface on the front which provides the user additional options for manipulations over sight designs with a smooth or ramped front. I first saw this concept on guns built by Chuck Rogers, and it was he who helped me refine the rear blade dimensions. The scooped rear blade area was originally beefed up in thickness for manipulations involving the lip of a ballistic shield, and in evaluating the design, it was determined that it could also accommodate tritium vials set in lengthwise as dots.
 The initial cosmetic design is what typically captures people’s attention about this sight, but the subtleties in the design are what sets it apart from being a mere copy of the gross concept. The top of the sight body and the front of the sight blade feature machined chamfers to improve comfort in handling. The most critical feature of the sight, the sight notch, has clearance in both the vertical and horizontal planes to provide the cleanest sight picture possible. You only need the rearmost surface for sighting, and to look at any additional material in front of that surface is to invite shadowing or the obscuring of the notch from incidental damage to the front of the sight body. The rear of the sight blade angles down away from the rear surface, and the front of the notch is relieved. Look at the leading sights on the market today and you’ll see the same clearances on the horizontal and vertical planes.
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 The rear U notch is something that has been around for quite some time, and none other than revolver great Ed McGivern cited the benefits of such a setup. I was originally turned on to the concepts of rounded rear notches by my buddies Ken Hackathorn and Scott Warren. After trying the concepts for a while, I was sold on it and decided to incorporate it into my sight design. On my standard model sight, the rear U notch is .125" wide by .125" deep, and actually provides the same net sight picture as many common sights. The notch is not an extra wide style, and with a .125" width front blade, it will provide a very familiar sight picture. As long as you are lining up the top corners of the blade with the top inside corners of the notch, it will appear no different. With a traditional square front post, it does not affect distance shooting. Twenty five yard head shots are no problem with this sight setup - you can see what you normally would expect to see for a hard shot at any distance. Where the setup really shines is shooting at speed. Without the bottom corners of the sight notch, visual clutter is reduced and your eye is less drawn to parts of the rear sight, thus speeding up overall sight picture acquisition. Contrast this with a rear sight where there may be various sharp edges or corners, some brightly colored inserts, or a white outline (the worst offender), and your eye must slow down to sort out what is important. Using a tritium insert or gold bead on the front sight makes for a super quick pickup. Centering the round insert inside a U notch is extremely intuitive and provides for both windage and elevation compensation at speed. It is a less cluttered sight picture than a traditional 3 dot system, and provides more accuracy at speed than some systems which incorporate some type of bar in the sight picture. Due to the traditional index points at the top corners of the notch and front post, transition between a U notch sight and a regular square notch sight are not problem.
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