When I got this Bersa pistol I was really excited to put some night sights on it. It is a Bersa 380 Thunder Combat Plus that holds 15 rounds. Meprolight makes a sight set to sell for this gun I could see online, advertised for this specific gun. But also from online discussions and reviews, I could see that it was likely that the front sight would fit my gun nicely but the rear sight would not. I decided to order a set from Meprolight, directly from their main office in the US so I was not buying through any third party distributor, so the chances of me getting sent a wrong ill fitting set should be minimized. But sure enough, the front sight fit perfect but the rear wasn't even close to similar. The rear sent to me from Meprolight looked like it was made for a completely different gun. I was not going to give up so easy. The front sight was perfectly fine, but there was still no rear night sight. I started looking around at different rear sights on other guns. Visually I compared the Bersa with the rear sight of a modern Browning High Power MK III. Bingo! The appearance was identical! It appeared there was some chance that the Browning Hi Power rear sight would be a drop in fit. I was so certain it was close to the same that I ordered a Meprolight Browning Hi Power from optics planet dot com website. So now on to the next part of the story of installing it
First thing I did was remove the rear sight of the Bersa with professional sight tool, a professional tool for installing and removing gun sights. This was done very carefully so as to not damage the gun slide or the factory rear sight. I measured the factory Bersa rear sight from front to back and the measurement was somewhat variable (not surprising since it is made of a soft plastic) and the measurement range was from 8.72mm to 8.9mm. Next I measured the front to back distance of the Meprolight Browning Hi Power rear night sight, which is all metal, and it measured to be an even 9.25mm. On the one hand, this was bad since it was not correct size. On the other hand though it was good that the Browning sight was slightly larger. The shape and contour of the front and rear of both rear sights was the same, the only difference really between these two sights was the thickness of the front to the rear of each sight. I carefully removed material off of the front of the Browning sight so it was down from 9.25mm down to 8.9mm and then it fit good. It went right on the slide with the sight pushing tool. It is very nice fit, mildly tight, just what you want it to be so it's not loose. Visual appearance of the new installed rear sight is that It looks like it was made for the gun now as you can see from the pictures it looks perfect. I am not a gunsmith and it only took me one hour, some patience and simple hand tools to fit it. Any gun smith should be able to replicate this. The problem of not having a rear night sight option for this gun is solved now. Any gun smith could do this. I am an amateur at this. The best part about this is that there are oodles of browning hi power rear sights made so now there are endless amounts of rear sight options instead of none.
Here is a complete list of all tools to complete this: metal table vise, masking tape, scotch tape, small triangular shaped file with fine teeth, small flat file with fine teeth, small sandpaper with fine grit, electronic micrometer, one hour, patience, and a bright overhead light, and of course a Meprolight rear night sight for Browning Hi Power MKIII. The surface that had material removed was the front bottom section of the Meprolight Browning Hi Power rear sight. No tool touched the slide of the gun. There was no alteration of the slide.
First thing I did was remove the rear sight of the Bersa with professional sight tool, a professional tool for installing and removing gun sights. This was done very carefully so as to not damage the gun slide or the factory rear sight. I measured the factory Bersa rear sight from front to back and the measurement was somewhat variable (not surprising since it is made of a soft plastic) and the measurement range was from 8.72mm to 8.9mm. Next I measured the front to back distance of the Meprolight Browning Hi Power rear night sight, which is all metal, and it measured to be an even 9.25mm. On the one hand, this was bad since it was not correct size. On the other hand though it was good that the Browning sight was slightly larger. The shape and contour of the front and rear of both rear sights was the same, the only difference really between these two sights was the thickness of the front to the rear of each sight. I carefully removed material off of the front of the Browning sight so it was down from 9.25mm down to 8.9mm and then it fit good. It went right on the slide with the sight pushing tool. It is very nice fit, mildly tight, just what you want it to be so it's not loose. Visual appearance of the new installed rear sight is that It looks like it was made for the gun now as you can see from the pictures it looks perfect. I am not a gunsmith and it only took me one hour, some patience and simple hand tools to fit it. Any gun smith should be able to replicate this. The problem of not having a rear night sight option for this gun is solved now. Any gun smith could do this. I am an amateur at this. The best part about this is that there are oodles of browning hi power rear sights made so now there are endless amounts of rear sight options instead of none.
Here is a complete list of all tools to complete this: metal table vise, masking tape, scotch tape, small triangular shaped file with fine teeth, small flat file with fine teeth, small sandpaper with fine grit, electronic micrometer, one hour, patience, and a bright overhead light, and of course a Meprolight rear night sight for Browning Hi Power MKIII. The surface that had material removed was the front bottom section of the Meprolight Browning Hi Power rear sight. No tool touched the slide of the gun. There was no alteration of the slide.
