Front Sight Painting?

[rWt]

Do any of you paint your front sights? If so, what have you found works best?

And, what do you use to remove the paint if you want to go back to the original sight without damaging the sight or the bluing?

Thanks!

[sixshot]

You will get 2 different views on this & many good reasons why.
For a target shooter a front sight that is black is usually best & it will be flat black, nothing shiney. These shooters are shooting in good light & the target is easy to see.
For a lot of us older guys with fading eye sight that might not be the best option. For a number of years I've used fiber optic front sights on my competition guns & painted the front sights on my hunting revolvers.
A black rear sight, along with a black front sight, aimed at an animal in the shadows on dark hair is a disaster for many & I'm one of them. Most hunting takes place in marginal light...early morning, late evening.
Try both, I'm betting that when you point that handgun into some dark timber, you'll know right away what works best for you.
A scope helps a lot if you wanted a scoped sixgun, I have a love, hate relationship with scoped revolvers so I only have a couple, iron sights & hunting revolvers go together like carmel & ice cream, at least for me, others will give a different view point.
When I paint my sights I first use white finger nail polish, then let it dry & go over it with whatever you choose. I use orange or red. If you don't use the white first you end up with a dark front sight that can show up almost black in low light.

Dick

[zac0419]

+1 What Dick said. My dad uses them, White first, then florescent orange. I would add that a clear polish over whatever color ends up being your favorite will help it last longer.

I love that it gives me a chance to jab at him for having a teenagers nail polish in his range bag.

[rWt]

Thank you!!

[paulg]

I use Kilz primer in white and leave it that way. To me nothing shows better in the dark than white. Make sure it's the oil based Kilz, clean the sight to make sure there's no dirt or oil on the sight. I use a tooth pick to apply. Let dry 24 hours and you're good to go and it stays put.

[Shakey]

I too like white. I use several thin coats of appliance repair enamel thinned with lacquer thinner.

Biggest problem is that it is often TOO bright. To overcome this I like to cut a vertical groove in the face of the sight and only paint/fill the groove (sorta' like the old Millet sights). This makes a bright vertical stripe but still leaves sharp black edges. Width of the grove is a personal preference but I like it pretty narrow.

Shakey

[rWt]

Great suggestions-thanks!!

[bagdadjoe]

Gold dot works good. Go by your local sign shop and see if they have any 24K gold vinyl like they do firetruck doors with and beg a square inch. That will do a lot of sights. You can cut it into thin slivers for vertical stripes or horizontal bars or into tiny squares. It's self adhesive and sticks good to a clean dry surface. You can calibrate the front sight with it by using horizontal bars and vary where you put them and when you find out what works, you could score the sight with a needle file and inlay a strip into the score for a more permanent solution.

[Markbo]

Black on black into black has not worked for me in years. I have white, gold, brass. I even played around with some flourescent paints from the hobby shop. The bright green works best for me in all light. It is also ugly as sin! So far I have only kept it on one sixgun - a .22 single six that I use for squirrel shooting typically in heavy woods where it looks dark all the time.

FWIW after play around with it I figured out how far to paint from the top of the front sight to use the bottom of it for holdover and can hit an 8" steel target at 100yds about 8 out of 10 times. With my eyesight and me behind the trigger that ain't bad for a .22 handgun!

Anyway, the HiViz sights certainly help see the front sight, but the round shape is not best for really accurate fire. I don't know why they can't make those inserts square. My all time favorite must remain the old Millet type white outline like these:


Unfortunately I belive they are no longer being made due to the preponderance of 3 dot sights but I am sure they can be found on the used market.

[Ranger499]

That's similar to the factory rear glock sight -



On my duty gun, Glock 21, some time back I switched to night sights and my groups during qualifications opened up. My eyes didn't like the 3 dots while running and gunnin'.

Switched back to the original factory sights, and groups tightened right back up. The white sure makes finding that front sight easier when you're shooting with speed.

[malamute]

Good thread, I've been wanting to brighten up some sights, I was wondering if I needed white under the orange.

Black on black doesn't work well in poor light for me either. The factory Vaquero sights get some holster wear on them and are even worse in poor light, they simpley disapear for me.

Funny how things change over time. Way back before the Vaqueros were made, I thought about what it would take to make a fixed sight Ruger. Now that I have a couple, I think about how nice it would be to have a Smith K frame rear sight and a nice serated, square edged front on them. Not as classy looking, but they sure are easier to use.

[shorty500]

black on black still works best for me on targets and most general plinking. The HiViz stuff turns into useless fireballs for me though. When sights get hard to see meaning hunting handguns i rely on the ghost paint from Brownells. Make sure its clean, do coat of white the 2nd coat in green. 3rd coat is the ghost glow tint. Stands out great in low lite against dark critters from a late evening deep woods Mississippi tree stand

[AxeHandle]

My 60 year old eyes still like black on black. When I need more I sure do like a 2X Leupold for close up stuff and the 4X Leupold for the rest. Showed up at a IPSC type club match with my 2X Burris scoped K frame S&W and NRA action type ammo some 25 years ago. They took my money and signed me up.. When the smoke cleared they chose to disqualify me for not being "Practical" instead of posting my scores as the match winner.

[Markbo]

Took your money, let you shoot, THEN DQ'd you.

Nice.

[tintype]

OK guys, everyone has put in their 2 cents worth. Now I am still waiting to see if anyone will give an answer for a matte black front sight that will hold up under wear. I shoot cowboy action so the HiViz and fancy stuff ain't legal. Matte black spray paint isn't so MATTE either. I like the idea of the Kilz. My wife painted our metal front door and the Kilz primer helped to hold the paint very well. Can the matte paint used on the interiors of camera lenses be had anywhere? It's VERY matte and doesn't reflect. Maybe some of the stuff used in solar collectors? Open to suggestions.