1911 Traditional front sight insert

[Leadfoot Luke]

I acquired a brand new Remington Centennial (2011) that appears to meet all traditional requirements except that it has a small brass bead insert on the front sight.

If I remove the bead to comply with traditional requirements, can I put something in the empty hole and still be legal for traditional?

[Garrison Joe]

You could do that. Even fill the hole  where the bead in mounted with epoxy and use a black sharpie marker to make it match the rest of the blade.

 

Or you could get another sight blade which fits the dovetail that is already there in the slide, and keep the factory blade/bead for replacing if you sell the piece.  This is what I would do.  There's about 3 designs of the front sight dovetail, and mostly likely yours is cut as a Novak dovetail.  (Most Remington 1911's are spec'd as a Novak dovetail on the front, but chatter on the internet says sometimes on some versions that Rem has made, they are a proprietary cut.)  A gunsmith of any repute should be able to supply you with a replacement front sight, or even recut the dovetail to accept a standard front sight.  Fast and mostly fairly cheap.

 

Or you can almost certainly use a marker or black paint on the brass bead itself.  Then the sight is "all black" and would be rules compliant (at least in my view).  This would be least attractive, but easiest.

 

Good luck, GJ