# Need help and suggestions for replacing the sights on my new S&W M&P40 M2.0



## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

Ok, I'm looking to hear from the DIY gunsmiths here on OFG. I purchased as a birthday/fathersday gift the new S&W M&P40 M2.0 4 inch compact. I also bought TRUGLO TFX PRO Tritium day/night sights for it, as this is my new carry gun. I got the sight pusher I ordered today and went down to my work bench to change the sights out. I was able to remove the stock rear sight with no problems. the problems began when I went to install the new rear sight. I looked up on youtube for help and followed what I learned for those videos. Here's the problem I'm having. I got the new sight in and is about half of the way in and it wont move anymore. I did do some filing on the bottom of the sight where it fits into the dovetail grove on the slide, fit the sight into the dovetail, and filed angain, and that seemed to be working, so I used the sight pusher and got half way and it wouldn't budge anymore. I tried to tap it out with a nylon punch tool and that didn't work. I don't want to take it in to a gunsmith to finish the install, so does anybody have some suggestions that would help. I'm letting it set over night with some penetrating oil in hopes it will help loosen it up to move tomorrow. open to ideas and suggestions.


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## Drm50 (Dec 26, 2014)

I've never done it on that model pistol. On others I have made a rig out of some flat stock. One side is nothing but a 3" x2" X 1/8" plate the other is same but has hole it top edge taped for 1/4" bolt. You use c clamps to sandwich slide between these plates , positioned so you can use the bolt
to push, in or out your sight. You put a non marring piece of brass or alumilum between end of bolt
and sight. Some dove tails have a slight taper from right to left. All go in from right and removed from left. If you get it out you may want to lightly file the sight on dovetail a slight angle. Be careful to only file the angle surface.


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## mas5588 (Apr 15, 2012)

Dunno that I can help, but interested to hear the outcome. I bought a Shield 2.0 from a buddy and he gave me a set of night sights, but I need to find a pusher to do the swap.


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## Muddy (May 7, 2017)

I used a sight pusher to remove and replace sights on my S&W Shield. The tolerances were very tight and it didn’t go easy. I do believe that from what I remember researching is that the bases are tapered and will only move one direction.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

May try putting the slide in the freezer for a bit before installing sights. Would suggest doing the same with the sights themselves but not sure how the cold would affect the Tru Glo reticles.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

I got the rear sight centered yesterday with some help from a buddy that came over to check out a plumbing problem I had. Now today I will be trying to remove the front sight. I put the slide in the freezer overnight and will be trying to remove the stock front sight and put the new one in today. I will post when I finish and share pics of what I did.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

Ok I have finished installing the new front sight and I think I did a pretty good job, considering this is the first time I did something like this my self. Youtube helped a bunch as well. So I got a universal sight pusher off of ebay after researching them. It arrived on Friday, and thats when this project started. I put the slide in the sight pusher after hitting it with some penetrating oil and let it set for 5 to 10 minutes. Do not forget to take the set screw out before you put the slide in to the sight pusher(on M&P's the set screw is 1/16" alan wrench) Once in the sight pusher, I started to crank down and the stock sight was moving every time I made a full turn. It took about 10 minutes to push out the stock sight with the sight pusher. You have to be careful of the trigger safety spring while pushing the sight out. If using a sight pusher tool, not so much, but if using taps, then pay attention to that detail. Once the rear sight was out, I cleaned out the dove tail with some gun cleaner and a smooth gun cloth. Do not use q-tips or a rag that will leave material behind because it will make it harder to fit your new sight in if there's any material left behind. Now before I fitted the new sight on the dove tail, I filed the bottom of the new sight, but do not take a lot of material off while filing and only do it across the bottom of the new sight. Once done filing, I then fitted the new sight into the rear dove tail to see how far it went in by hand. I did this a few times to get the new sight in the dove tail to a certain point before I put the slide back into the sight pusher. I know have the slide in the pusher. You can push from left to right or right to left, It does not matter. I called S&W to confirm this. I went right to left, the same way I pushed the old sight out. I also put some oil on each side of the dove tail and on the bottom of the new sight to help push the new sight in. Do Not forget to put the trigger safety spring back in before you push the new sight in place, and make sure you do not get a lot of oil in the hole where the trigger safety spring goes. it will fowl up and then you will have to remove the rear sight to clean it. Ok, now to push the new sight in, I learned a trick from my friend. we put the pusher on my vice, with the vice jaw opened so that the pusher was resting on top of the vice. We then took a steel punch and flipped it so the flat top of it was on the pusher. the push rod was cranked down to a snug fit to the sight using the flat side of the pusher. Now the hammering began, after tapping a few times, I cranked down the push rod so it was snug again and repeated the process, and this was done until it looked like the sight was centered. I pulled the slide out of the pusher and we took a measurement, did this step a few times until we got it to with in .02 of being centered. The rear sight was done, took the slide out and put the set screw in with some blue loctight 242(semi permanent). The front sight I did the same way as the rear sight, I hit it with some penetrating oil and let it set for 5 to 10 minutes after I took it out of the freezer. I do not know if that helped or not. I put the slide into the pusher and lined it up with the flat side of the pusher, locked the slide in the pusher and then set it on the vice with the vice jaw open and kept tension on the sight as I hit it with the steel tap and the stock sight was out in 8 minutes. Again I pulled the slide out of the pusher, cleaned the dove tail and oiled it. I filed the front sight bottom only, fit it in the dove tail, pulled it out, put some oil on the bottom, reinserted it back into the dove tail, secured it in the pusher,put the pusher on the vice, and started hammering away, keeping tension on the pusher after a couple of hits. Once it looked centered, I pulled it out of the pusher, measured and had to go one more round, and got it centered. I was done in about 2 hours with the front sight. Here's the pics so you can see what I did. I have none of me hammering as I was the only one at my work bench.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

more pics


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

more pics


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

Than you to those who shared their knowledge with me and I hope that what I have learned and shared here will help someone else who is having problems like I did.


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## shot1buck (Feb 23, 2011)

Wow seems like a heck of a lot of work! Hopefully they work great. I’ve looked at getting a set and learned a lot by what you mentioned


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

shot1buck said:


> Wow seems like a heck of a lot of work! Hopefully they work great. I’ve looked at getting a set and learned a lot by what you mentioned


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

shot1buck said:


> Wow seems like a heck of a lot of work! Hopefully they work great. I’ve looked at getting a set and learned a lot by what you mentioned


It was considering it was my first time doing it. Trial and error, you tube videos, and determination to do it without going to a gunsmith. It paid off and I'm very happy with the results. It should go quicker next time, now that I know what I'm doing. I'm going to put these sights on my M&P 9mm eventually. It's worth doing yourself to save some money going to a gunsmith and paying for the sights and instillation when you can take the time and do it yourself. Plus you get the sanctification of knowing you can do it yourself.


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## mas5588 (Apr 15, 2012)

mas5588 said:


> Dunno that I can help, but interested to hear the outcome. I bought a Shield 2.0 from a buddy and he gave me a set of night sights, but I need to find a pusher to do the swap.


OK, since this last post I've tried two different types of sight pushers with zero success, along with the hammer/punch/vise method. Also the combined as mentioned by the OP.

The dang thing will not move. Heard from another Shield owner that it took a 30-ton press to remove his stock sights (I'll hope the press wasn't at capacity).

I'm at a loss. I have decent night sights in hand, but I can't get the old ones off and I don't really want to drop $100+ on a gunsmith to do what should be a simple job. Frustrating.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

mas5588 said:


> OK, since this last post I've tried two different types of sight pushers with zero success, along with the hammer/punch/vise method. Also the combined as mentioned by the OP.
> 
> The dang thing will not move. Heard from another Shield owner that it took a 30-ton press to remove his stock sights (I'll hope the press wasn't at capacity).
> 
> I'm at a loss. I have decent night sights in hand, but I can't get the old ones off and I don't really want to drop $100+ on a gunsmith to do what should be a simple job. Frustrating.


This is the sight press I used. It's on ebay for about 65 bucks. The guy who makes and sells this sight pusher goes by 4x4machineshop. Goto his store and you'll find this sight pusher. You don't have yo use a 30 ton press to get the sight out. You have to use a little force and a lot of patience to get the sights out. Here is the pic of the sight pusher I used.







Do not go to the web sight you see on the sight tool. It doesn't exist. How far are you away from Parma? maybe I could come over and help you If you would like. Let me know


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

mike oehme said:


> This is the sight press I used. It's on ebay for about 65 bucks. The guy who makes and sells this sight pusher goes by 4x4machineshop. Goto his store and you'll find this sight pusher. You don't have yo use a 30 ton press to get the sight out. You have to use a little force and a lot of patience to get the sights out. Here is the pic of the sight pusher I used.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks like Streetsboro....Closer than Kansas LOL


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## wildlife53 (Jun 12, 2011)

mas5588 said:


> OK, since this last post I've tried two different types of sight pushers with zero success, along with the hammer/punch/vise method. Also the combined as mentioned by the OP.
> 
> The dang thing will not move. Heard from another Shield owner that it took a 30-ton press to remove his stock sights (I'll hope the press wasn't at capacity).
> 
> I'm at a loss. I have decent night sights in hand, but I can't get the old ones off and I don't really want to drop $100+ on a gunsmith to do what should be a simple job. Frustrating.





I just put a set of Trijicon night sights on a Shield 2.0 using a MGW Sight Pusher. PM me if you ever get around Berlin Lake and we can meet up and I can probably help you out getting those sights on your Shield.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

mas5588 said:


> OK, since this last post I've tried two different types of sight pushers with zero success, along with the hammer/punch/vise method. Also the combined as mentioned by the OP.
> 
> The dang thing will not move. Heard from another Shield owner that it took a 30-ton press to remove his stock sights (I'll hope the press wasn't at capacity).
> 
> I'm at a loss. I have decent night sights in hand, but I can't get the old ones off and I don't really want to drop $100+ on a gunsmith to do what should be a simple job. Frustrating.


Hey mass5588 did you ever get those sights changed out?


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## mas5588 (Apr 15, 2012)

Hey guys - haven't stopped by this thread in a minute. Appreciate the offers. 

I left the pistol with a semi-pro gunsmith  (buddy of mine's retired father who dabbles). Heard earlier in the week that he got the old sights off. Took 20 minutes of beating on them with brass punches. He lent me one of the sight tools I tried and that wouldn't work for him either.

I asked really nicely and gave him the new sights. Fingers-crossed he can get the new sights on.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

cool. keep us posted. I know the hardest sight to put in will be the front sight, but like I sad a lot of patience and a whole lot of muscle behind the gun vice.


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## wildlife53 (Jun 12, 2011)

Good luck with it. Let me know if I can help. I have a MGW Site Pusher that we can use to put them on if needed.


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

mas5588 said:


> Hey guys - haven't stopped by this thread in a minute. Appreciate the offers.
> 
> I left the pistol with a semi-pro gunsmith  (buddy of mine's retired father who dabbles). Heard earlier in the week that he got the old sights off. Took 20 minutes of beating on them with brass punches. He lent me one of the sight tools I tried and that wouldn't work for him either.
> 
> I asked really nicely and gave him the new sights. Fingers-crossed he can get the new sights on.


Hey mas5588, ya got an update on your sights getting changed?


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## mike oehme (Aug 17, 2014)

Update on my M&P M2.0 40 S&W. I went to Parma Armory about 2 weeks ago to shot my M&P M2.0 40 S&W and I spoke to the gun smith there. He looked at my sights I installed before I went shooting and said I did a great job of installing the sights. The rear sight was slightly off and he offered to correct that for no charge. I cant wait to go back and shoot there again. Those people are nice and friendly. I could not believe that he would do that for me, no charge. My M&P M2.0 40S&W shoots great, now all i need to do is get some more ammo and get back to the range.


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