[mes228]

I have a 1911 with a single lamp in the front blade. My gun smith tells me that the proper sight picture with this set up is the lamp above the notch. This results in practically a full blade sight picture. With much of the blade above the notch. With my normal sight picture (notch filled level with blade) the pistol shoots very low. I'm sure that taking a whole blade will raise the impact but it seem weird to me. Comments appreciated.

[shooter1]

If your pistol shoots low with the normal sight picture you described, then your gunsmith is correct. That's one reason I'm not fond of night sights or dots. I paint my front sights neon orange and file it down to shoot to the top of the front sight, or install a fiber optic of the correct height. I find dots, tritium, or painted, to be distracting. I sight all my guns where the POI is at the top of the front sight when the sights are aligned as you described. No sight picture confusion that way,
str1

[ChristopherG]

Sounds like you need a higher rear sight; did the night-sights come as a set? Unless it's an unorthodox style of sight (like a big-dot Xpress sight) I wouldn't be happy with a non-standard sight picture like that, and would doubt you could be very precise with it--you can't tell if the front post is exactly centered in the rear notch if it isn't actually IN the rear notch.

[mes228]

The rear sight is a MMC Adjustable Combat custom (Chip McCormick) sight. It is adjustable vertically by a cam/screw and just slides in the rear dovetail and is locked with a set screw. By the way, I love the rear sight and highly recommend it. Even for target/range shooting I much prefer it to the Bomar rear sight I've had on several pistols (Baer & Colt recently). It's a combat sight but a great range sight also.. I've decided to have the front sight replaced with a MMC white dot. Thanks for all comments.

[Lonestar49]

...

Give these folks a look, as I had a problem with my rear sights being too narrow, making it difficult to pick up the front sight, without mixing them, to easily, with the narrow rears, along with, they only glowed for 20mins on a good night.

They deliver within 10 days, prices are very reasonable, and they offer rear sight color options, which I went for 2 dot white/glow-orange, and front white/glow-green.

They recommend highly, along with everyone else I ever talked to, that you use Green front sight white/glow-green, as it is the best color for the eye to see the best at night.

Their sights are wider/rear, a bit taller than my original Beretta Px4 sights, and a much taller front. Which makes for separation of back and front far easier, along with, the front white/green-glow stands out far greater than the rear white/glow-orange, which makes finding the front sight fast at night.

And, with just normal light hitting them during the day, they glow strong at night, for 5 hours, as I have seen this for a fact with my sights from them.

IMHO, either go rear orange or yellow

And they have many different types/styles/sizes to choose from.


http://www.ptnightsights.com/



Good luck,



LS

[cheygriz]

Get XS express "Big Dots." The best low light fighting sights made.

[benEzra]

I'd personally set it up with a conventional sight picture (top of the blade at the top of the notch, and ignore the lamp in daytime shooting).

If you are shooting in low light, you won't be able to see the rear sight anyway (unless you get tritium rears), so you'll be looking over the rears and using a front-sight-only coarse index, which is sufficient for self-defense ranges. You won't be able to set the lamp in the rear notch for night shooting, so there is no need to set the front sight post high, IMHO.

I am planning on getting a tritium Novak front blade to replace my plain front blade on my 3913LS. I'm getting one that's exactly the same height as my current front sight.