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Dave Lauck is the proprietor of D&L Sports, Incorporated- a shop offering complete gunsmithing services. Dave’s a retired lawman and a patriot; he thrives on providing the highest quality firearms and gunsmithing work for those serving at the tip of the Military/L.E. spear. Dave now hangs his shingle in Chino Valley, AZ (just down the road from Gunsite) after spending several decades in Wyoming. He received the American Pistolsmith’s Guild “Pistolsmith of the Year” award in 2012. He does innovative work on rifles, semiautomatic handguns, and revolvers. Dave recently sent me a rear sight for S&W K, L, N, and X frame revolvers to review. It’s a fixed sight replacement for the factory adjustable sight.
The sight made an excellent first impression; it’s robust and built for serious work. It wore a uniform, matte finish with no visible tool marks. Three mounting holes match up with new (post-1993) S&W frames. It’ll work with older guns, but the top strap must be drilled and tapped. The exterior edges are subtly dehorned, leaving no sharp surfaces to abrade the skin. The rear face of the sight has a forward lean to it, with horizontal serrations running its entirety.
The sight is solidly affixed with 3 screws. The Torx heads prevent them from getting disfigured and ugly.
I mounted the sight on an N frame 625JM .45 ACP that featured the DX-style front sight. The D&L sight fit the gun’s sight channel snugly, taking a few raps from the handle of a Brownell’s screwdriver to fully seat it. The screw holes lined up perfectly with the threaded holes in the 625’s top strap. The included screws were short enough not to project into the cylinder window when tight. The sight’s dimensions and the screw length make for a perfect drop-in fit on this gun. The T-15 Torx head screws are a thoughtful touch to avoid marring the screw heads (as usually happens when standard screws are used for this application).
A .45ACP revolver built for hard use.
Once mounted, the sight lines flow gracefully with the S&W frame from all angles. It just looks right on the gun. Presenting the handgun for a sight picture made me smile. Dave cuts the notch on this sight .125” wide. The rear sight notch is deep and square. The sight picture it provides with the Patridge front sight is terrific. The matte finish, angle, and serrations combine to render the sight glare free. It almost makes the non-serrated front post look bad by comparison.
The sight went back home for a windage adjustment. Lauck further dehorned it before refinishing it and sending it back.
The fixed rear sight typically comes close to zeroing with the factory front sight using standard bullet weights. Dave designed it to be zeroed with a specific bullet weight; fine tuning can be accomplished by a gunsmith or by contacting D&L Sports. The sight has enough steel in it that material can be removed for windage and elevation adjustment if required. The notch can also be expanded to .150” if a wider, faster sight picture is desired. Once zeroed, Dave can also add tritium inserts to the sight(s).
D&L Sports S&W sight is tank tough and looks like it was born on this Model 625.
At the range, the 625 shot 2” high at 10 yards with 230 grain bullets with the factory front sight. 200 gr. +P Gold Dots struck close to point of aim, as did 185 gr. +P rounds fired. They were still impacting slightly high at 15 yards. The DX front sight is easy to change, so I replaced the factory sight with a slightly taller SDM Manufacturing Fiber Optic. The rear face of this sight is matte finished with serrations around the green F.O. rod. Combined with the D&L rear, it provides a sight picture you must see to truly appreciate. The new front sight brought 200 gr. bullets down to point of aim at 25 yards. All rounds impacted about 1” left at 10 yards, floating to about 3” at 25 yards.
I contacted Dave and advised him of the small windage deviation- he told me to send it back to him. Dave cut the adjustment, dehorned the sight even more and refinished it. It was back in my mailbox in just days. The sight picture now allowed more daylight and was quicker to acquire. His correction was spot on, the 625 hit right on at 25 yards. I didn’t remember this gun being a tack driver, but these sights make shooting small groups a normal and repeatable event.
Fine tuned with a specific load, The D&L Sports rear sight makes a S&W Revolver an exceptionally rugged rough country sidearm.
If you carry an adjustable sighted handgun in the field or on duty, Murphy will eventually intervene. It’ll be dropped and land on the sights and invariably damage the rear. The D&L sight is impervious to zero loss due to rough handling or droppage and removes this worry. This sight is a wise upgrade for S&W revolvers packed into dangerous places. Dave Lauck is a standup guy whose customer service matches his high-quality work. Check out the amazing things he’s doing at:
www.dlsports.com.
