What happened to my night site?

D

Donna Barnas

Inactive
I have Novak low mount sites with a night sight in front. My night site has turned red. In the dark it still glows but the glow is the size of a pin. The only other time this happened is when I had my gun refinished and someone I knew took something and cleaned the site and brought it back to its original look.

This time I dont know what would have caused this. I had the gun in my luggage in an airplane. I wondered if my luggage was x-rayed or something and if this could have caused the red. Or is this what happens when a site starts to age. The sites are at the most 4 years old.

How do I get the site looking green again?
 
Donna, I don't know what to tell you except to contact Novak. I'd be interested in knowing what they think happened. This is a new one on me. George
 
Donna, 304-485-9295 is the number I have for Novak's.

By the way, If I did not welcome you to our group, I do so now.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Jim,
Thanks for the welcome and the no. although I did post some questions a while back when the forum first opened.

I spoke with Mr. Novak who told me that it was the refinishing by Colt that affected the front site, not the exray. Since I flew out of Newark and claimed the gun we came to the conclusion that the baggage was indeed xrayed but he told me it was the high heat of the bluing process that affected that front site.

Also it is nice to have been told that if Novak put on your sites, they will replace my site free of charge, even though Colt was responsible for the damaged site by not removing the site when the reblued the gun.
 
Aha! Initially the thought of gas leakage or crept in, but if that were the case, the sight shouldn't glow. It's the metal that turned red. Different metals will react differently when introduced to bluing salts. Some require a different type of salt to get the dark blue color. The lug on the barrel of the Rem 870 is a good example of this. Sounds like the boys (or girls) at West Hartford got lazy and didn't want to remove the sight prior to bluing. Opps.

If Mr. Novak is replacing your front sight blade, ask him to hit the dovetail slot with a neutralizer solution prior to installing the new sight. You don't want any old salts from that Colt bluing job to start leaching out from beneath your new sight.

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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
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