I’m thinking about buying a 1911 with Bo-Mar adjustable sights. Has anybody ever actually damaged a set of Bo-Mars? I guess my real question is just how fragile are they really? I’m not going to be jumping out of airplanes or bungee jumping with them, just everyday carry, HD, range practice, and the occasional training class.
I would also like to get them mounted so they are at least flush with the back of the slide. I’ve seen some guys that have them hanging off 3/8” or more. That’s not for me.
Mine are not true bo mars, but quite similar. The blade was QUITE sharp and I drew blood performing stoppage drills on more than one occasion as well as consistently scratched my forearm on them at every range session.
I’ve not broken mine yet, but I’ve heard many folks talk about breaking the main pin on this style of sight. Seems like a fairly common situation.
If I recall correctly, gotm4 has broken two and will be transitioning that particular gun to fixed sights. Hopefully, he’ll chime in with his experience.
Are you dissatisfied with fixed sights? If it’s the POA/POI relationship you’re unhappy with, the gun can be sent off for regulation (though I would understand any reluctance to ship guns :D).
Bomars on a fighting pistol are as useless at t**s on a bull. I have broken 2 this year. First one lasted just over 10K rounds, second lasted 3K rounds. I’ll be replacing it with a fixed Scott Warren sight next year.
How were they mounted? I would assume having them hang off the back of the slide would seriously compromise their durability. I want mine to sit more forward on the slide to protect them
Pic of my Bo-Mar sight flush with the slide on my Wilson Combat-Colt .45, the slide have a milled groove at the rear so that the moving part of the sight is in the groove
+1 what gotm4 said except change bull to nun (joke - what my co-workers always say)
I got mine a long time ago and I used mine mostly in the mid 80’s only for USPSA-IPSC combat shooting with my company’s pistol club team.
I replaced my pistol with a .38 super Caspian with compensator in the late 80’s also with Bo-Mar but I would never use it for defense, I have different guns for defense like my Glock, HK USP and Sig Sauer.
In my opinion they’re the best adjustable sight for target competition but they’re not for duty or hard use, some of the guys from my team and other teams had broken them.
I believe Novak is making a really burly adjustable sight that looks almost the same as their fixed sights. IMO, what’s the point of adjustable sights on something that’s only good out to 25 yards with any sort of knockdown power.
If you’re going to do bowling pin matches that’s one thing, but on a Combat gun they don’t belong…
Some of the Bomars that you’ve seen “hanging” off the back end of the slide were probably mounted on Colt Series 80 pistols. Due to the firing pin safety plunger in the slide, the sight could not be installed forward flush with the rear of the slide.
The rear blade is sharp as it comes from the factory but a pistolsmith can dehorn the corners.
The adjustable portion or “body” of the Bomar sight is held in position by the elevation springs (which push it upwards) and the elevation screw (which limits the upward movement). The sight body is still free to move downwards because the elevation springs will compress - you can easily push it down with your finger. As the slide moves fore and aft the sight body moves up and down in this manner, which stresses the pivot pin and the elevation screw. It’s a big sight with a lot of mass plus higher slide velocities on competition pistols all contribute to the failure of the pivot pin and elevation screw. The Bomar (and copies of it) can also break at the point where the body widens for the windage and blade portion. Remember, the Bomar was designed for Bullseye pistols not IPSC.
To some degree you can increase the life of the sight by preventing the movement of the sight body every time the slide cycles by placing something firm between the body and the base. I’ve seen guys use a piece of a Shok Buff, neoprene or other foam rubber, silicone caulk or even epoxy underneath the sight body. Some of these methods also hinder or prevent you from changing your elevation setting so make sure you’ve found your favorite load and have settled on an elevation setting. Some sights still break anyways but this does seem to help prolong their life. YMMV.
BTW, I would think that adding more weight to the sight blade, such as the night sights in the top two photos posted by VA Dinger, would tend to cause failure sooner.
Dave,
Thanks for the tips on improving the Bomar. The first time mine broke this year was the pin that the elevation portion hinges on. I’m just going to tweak my Major load and then sight it in really well and send the slide to Scott Warren, he makes the fixed rears one at a time and fits them well.
This Limited gun is like a race car or boat…constant money pit! :eek:
This year so far I’ve went through 2 Bomars, 4 recoil springs, I had hammer follow so I bought a C&S trigger kit (hammer, hammer spring, sear, disconnector, sear spring), 2 AFTEC extractor springs and cap, 1 firing pin and spring.
Do to my tennis elbow and this being a heavy gun I’m going to now shoot Production for a year or so. In the meantime I’m going to have the slide lightened a lot and the frame cut down making it a short dust cover and my SVI Scott grip fitted. I’ve already removed my tungsen guide rod and heavy Dawson ICE magwell to lighten it a little.
Yes, that’s what I referred to as the “pivot pin.” I wonder if the top of sight body could be drilled and tapped for a set screw. Once you get your elevation dialed in, you turn the set screw in to bear against the sight base and prevent the body from moving downwards. A little blue loctite on the threads would keep it from coming loose yet you could easily unscrew it if you needed to change your elevation. Of course this might just create another location where the sight could break! (I’ll have to get back to you on that one )
Scott could probably do a pretty good business making fixed sight replacements for the Bomar. It seems to be a common request on some of the other gun forums.
I’m familiar with lottsa guns with lottsa rounds downrange that were wearing Bomars. I’ve only seen a VERY small percentage fail.
I agree though, that they are far from ideal for a fighting gun.
A fixed replacement is something I might consider manufacturing. What do you think a fair price would be? And if the original installation was a hidden leaf or box cut style, some fitting would still be necessary.
Anyone know what the diameter of the Bomar pivot pin is? (I don’t have one in the shop to measure) Brownells sells punches with replaceable pins. The pins are available separately in .039, .060 and .091 diameters (look at part number 080-509-660). I’ve got one of these .060 punches and the pins are made from some tough steel! If one of these diameters fits or you could enlarge the holes in the sight, I’d be tempted to cut one of these replacement pins to the correct length and try that in the sight.
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(joke - what my co-workers always say)![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/va_dinger/860-095y.jpg[/IMG]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/va_dinger/860-095y.jpg%5B/IMG%5D){kind=link}