Is there a solution to the Old vs New Dovetail quandary?

[Sailfish9]

I'm finally getting around to replacing the extinguished night sights of my MK9 Elite '98 and my PM9. The MK9 currently has Trijicon sights and the PM9 has Mepro Tru-Dots. What I thought would be an easy search for new tritium sights, because of the change in dovetail cut in 2004, is turning into frustration. Seems my only options are to modify (shave/file) sights for another make/model or purchase new slides from Kahr. Dawson is the only supplier I've found that has "Old Style" on its website, so I ordered a set of FO for the MK9, and the front sight provided passes entirely through the MK9 front dovetail with the push of a finger. Called Dawson and they didn't have any additional insight for a 25-year old MK9, just offered to refund the FO sights.

Has anyone solved this issue of Old vs New dovetails and successfully replaced extinguished night sights? Any modifications of a different make/model sights, or to the old Kahr MK9 / PM9 slides?

TIA!!

[dao]

A couple of years back I replaced the night sights on my Elite 2000 MK9, yes they exist also. I was made in December of 2000 and uses the old dovetail cut. I used the Meprolight ML15109G. Not sure if they're still making them.

Earlier this year Kahr must have released a slew of these frames, coupled with brushed stainless slides that were ported (barrels were not). And the factory description of those newly released made no mention of them being Elite 2000's. Strange that. I saw dozens of them on Gunbroker though I never saw a single one that showed anything but a stock photo, so I couldn't see any serial numbers. Back when mine was made they only released 89 of them to the public (as per Kahr). Like mine they were all black with the finish done by Robar, who have since gotten out of the business of finishing guns.

[Old No7]

The old-dovetail sights set that I had bought from Dawson for my old-style T9 required the front sight to be lightly filed in order for it to start to slip in. I believe that most aftermarket sights are made slightly oversize due to variations in production.

Not to scare you, but you'd better hope a prior owner didn't mess with and enlarge the gun's original dovetail -- or no set of old-style dovetail sights will ever fit...

* Are there any file marks or indications that the dovetail was modified?

* Look close with a magnifying glass in good lighting.

If that's the issue, you can lightly peen down the tops of the barrel's dovetail where they ride over the front sight base; another trick is to use a sharp punch at a slight angle and peen the metal of the bottom of the dovetail creating little dimples/humps that increase the friction fit of the sight into the dovetail. Worse case, use those 2 prior tricks first, sight it in, then add some JB weld on each side of the front sight base's (after sighting it in) to prevent it from shifting L or R.

I had to use those tricks on an old rifle where the prior owner had filed on the gun -- and not on the replacement sight...

Old No7

[Sailfish9]

Not to scare you, but you'd better hope a prior owner didn't mess with and enlarge the gun's original dovetail -- or no set of old-style dovetail sights will ever fit...

* Are there any file marks or indications that the dovetail was modified?

* Look close with a magnifying glass in good lighting.

If that's the issue, you can lightly peen down the tops of the barrel's dovetail where they ride over the front sight base; another trick is to use a sharp punch at a slight angle and peen the metal of the bottom of the dovetail creating little dimples/humps that increase the friction fit of the sight into the dovetail. Worse case, use those 2 prior tricks first, sight it in, then add some JB weld on each side of the front sight base's (after sighting it in) to prevent it from shifting L or R.

I had to use those tricks on an old rifle where the prior owner had filed on the gun -- and not on the replacement sight...

Old No7

I purchased the gun new with tritium sights already installed. Not sure who did that install; Kahr, a distributor, or the shop, as there's no labeling on the original box (which I still have) that indicates M9096 with night sights. There are no file marks evident on the slide or the old Trijicon sights that I removed. The shapes of the old sights look exact to the old dovetail angles so they look like they were made for that Kahr, although Trijicon told me they never produced tritium sights for Kahr despite the sights clearly marked Trijicon.

The Dawson FO rear sight seems to fit fine, its only the front sight at issue. The foot seems to be about .5 mm too thin, the air gap is visible when I push the sight in place then pull upward on it. It would be a lot to peen, but since my options are rapidly narrowing down to replacing the slide I might as well hammer away...

Thanks for the input!