Adjustable night sight for a pistol

Abstract

An adjustable night sight for a pistol includes a sight base, a vertical tilt member and a horizontal windage slide. The three components form the adjustable night sight which can be mounted on a slide of a pistol. Sources of luminescence are used to define a rear sight notch. The adjustable night sight horizontal windage slide is supported very securely on the vertical tilt member so that it will not fail under high stress loads. The overall sight assembly is very smooth and compact. It provides much greater resistance to snagging than has been exhibited in prior sight assemblies.

1 . An adjustable night sight adapted to be secured to a slide of a pistol, said adjustable night sight comprising: 
 a sight base including a sight base bottom and spaced upstanding sight base side walls, said sight base bottom and said sight base side walls defining a sight base channel;    a vertical tilt member securable to said sight base, said vertical tilt member including a tilt member body with a transverse chamber and a tilt member tongue, said tilt member tongue being securable in said sight base channel;    a hinge pin receivable in aligned sight base hinge pin apertures in said spaced sight base side walls and in a transverse tongue hinge bore in said tilt member tongue;    means for varying an angle of inclination of said vertical tilt member with respect to said sight base body;    a horizontal windage slide including a slide body and a slide sleeve, said slide sleeve being movable in said transverse chamber in said vertical tilt member;    means for adjustably positioning said horizontal windage slide in said vertical tilt member;    a plurality of angled facet walls on said tilt member body;    a plurality of complementary angled facet surfaces on said horizontal windage slide, said angled facet walls and said angled facet surfaces cooperating to support said horizontal windage slide on said vertical tilt member for movement in a direction transverse to a longitudinal barrel direction of the pistol while preventing movement of said horizontal windage slide in the longitudinal barrel direction.    
   
   
       2 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  further including a rear sight notch in said horizontal windage slide and sources of luminescence in said horizontal slide member adjacent said rear sight notch.  
   
   
       3 . the adjustable night sight of  claim 2  where each said source of luminescence is a tritium vial.  
   
   
       4 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 3  further including vial receiving bores in said horizontal windage slide, each said vial receiving bore having an exhaust port, each said exhaust port extending from an interior portion of said vial receiving bore to an exterior surface of said horizontal windage slide.  
   
   
       5 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  further including an elongated slot in said vertical tilt member body and extending from said transverse chamber to said faceted walls.  
   
   
       6 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 5  wherein a first one of said faceted walls is on a first side of said elongated slot and a second one of said faceted walls is on a second side of said elongated slot.  
   
   
       7 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 6  further including a connecting web extending from said slide sleeve to said slide body, said plurality of angled facet surfaces on said horizontal windage slide including a first facet surface on a first side of said connecting web and a second facet surface on a second side of said connecting web.  
   
   
       8 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 7  wherein said angled facet walls and said complementary angled facet surfaces define non-planar supports for said horizontal windage slide on said vertical tilt member.  
   
   
       9 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 2  further including a plurality of reflection reducing serrations on one of said vertical tilt member and said horizontal windage slide.  
   
   
       10 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 9  wherein said serrations are generally parallel to said transverse chamber.  
   
   
       11 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 9  wherein said serrations are beneath said rear sight notch.  
   
   
       12 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  wherein said horizontal windage slide positioning means includes a windage adjustment screw receivable in a threaded bore in said slide sleeve.  
   
   
       13 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 12  wherein said windage adjustment screw has a screw head receivable in a shouldered bore in said vertical tilt member.  
   
   
       14 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 13  further including a positional detent in said shouldered bore and engageable with said windage adjustment screw head.  
   
   
       15 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  further including a rear sight notch in said horizontal windage slide and sources of illumination in said horizontal slide member adjacent said rear sight notch.  
   
   
       16 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 15  wherein said sources of illumination are fiber optic elements.  
   
   
       17 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  further including at least one bearing spring between said sight base bottom and said vertical tilt member and adapted to pivot said vertical tilt member about said hinge pin.  
   
   
       18 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 17  wherein said means for varying said angle of inclination is an elevation adjustment screw connecting said sight base and said vertical tilt member.  
   
   
       19 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 1  wherein said slide sleeve is receivable in said transverse chamber.  
   
   
       20 . The adjustable night sight of  claim 19  further including a horizontal windage slide biasing spring in said transverse chamber.