Is it a sin to paint the front sight on a SA revolver?

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In addition tho my previous posting, I'd like to add that I tried some paints I bought at a gun store once for this.

They came in tiny vials and I picked out flourescent orange and yellow to try.

I was seriously disappointed.

The paints required several coats on my black sights to build up a significant enough coating to be plainly visible. And even so, it was disappointing.

I don't remember what I paid for them, but it wouldn't have been worth it if it was free. I'm sure I've still got them somewhere...if find them I'll post a pic.

Next time I do this I'll be using some bright nail polish instead.
 
If you use a gloss white base, the bright color on top is usually much "brighter" to the eye, and with just one coat of each.

I dont use them just for my handguns either, they work well on things like M1 carbines, and other things that have "ears". :)

enhance.jpg
 
A story:

Years ago when I had just gotten out of the Navy I bought a Colt “Combat Government” series 70 1911 style pistol to shoot in competitions with a friend. It came from the factory with a white outlined rear sight. The black front sight would disappear on me in some of the indoor ranges we shot at so I sat down with fine masking type, a dial caliper, some “White Out” and some patience and I made a perfectly centered white stripe up the center of my front sight. It looked like it was put there by the factory.

My friend and I went to shoot in an indoor 25 yard NRA match and I did much better. I also used the gun in “Combat shooting” competitions that popped up in SoCal back in the 80’s.

Anyway, we had just finished an indoor match and some old codger asked to see my pistol. He commented how much he like the white accents on my sights. I casually said that the rear was factory but that I painted the front sight myself.
I am pretty sure I heard that sound that is made when someone scratches a record on a stereo and the volume was way up there.
All these older guys were completely appalled that anyone would desecrate a sight that was deemed perfect and as it should be by the gods that actually work at the Colt’s Manufacturing facility...
It was actually kind of comical.
I heard comments like:
“What’s this world come to?”
“These young people today have no respect.”
“There’s a special place in hell for people that modify factory sights.”
...and so on.

Funny thing was I modified the front sights of 3 of those older fella’s guns for them later. :D

That was my first encounter with the unofficial “Gun Police” that seems to be pretty pervasive in our culture. :)
 
As we all know, the sights on a SAA clone leave much to be desired. I decided to try painting the back edge of my front sight on one of my HRRs and my Wrangler with neon orange nail polish. It worked great and made it easier to pick up the front sight through the rear sight groove.
It definitely looks out of place on these guns but it does help.
Am I committing an unforgettable sin in the SA community?

I did the same with my Bearcat and Single Six. I can wipe that paint off with some acetone if I ever need to. :)
 
This brings up an interesting question. At a time when there were no other types of sights other than fixed iron sights available to most, why didn't firearms have better sights? It isn't hard to make a front sight wider, and a rear notch deeper and wider. They did have peep sights on some target and hunting rifles. So why did handguns get such poor hard to see sights?
 
Not in my humble opinion and where it possible I’d replace the front sight with the red or green fiber optic sights Like tru glo. At my age i need all the help I can get.
 
This brings up an interesting question. At a time when there were no other types of sights other than fixed iron sights available to most, why didn't firearms have better sights? It isn't hard to make a front sight wider, and a rear notch deeper and wider. They did have peep sights on some target and hunting rifles. So why did handguns get such poor hard to see sights?

That's a mighty good question. I wonder if the lower life expectancy of 100+ years ago meant that most active gun shooters had younger eyes? General Custer was only 36 and Samuel Colt was 47 when they passed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
 
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I'll use a carbide lighter on the front sight to blacken it with soot, but I can't bring myself to draw paint on a classic SAA.
I do like looking at them as much as shooting them. Soot seems to look better for some unknown reason to me.
We used to "smoke" or "spray black" our rifle sights when shooting matches. Works great, for a 6 o'clock hold on a bullseye on a light background. Not so much, when you use a "zero" hold, and have the black sight on the black part of the target. You tend to lose the sight.

Thats seems to be even more of a problem for me these days, smoked or not when shooting against any kind of darker background.

The other thing with smoking/blacking them is the mess. Doesnt stay on the gun, and gets on everything.

I really don't see the big deal in painting any of them. Its not like youre dipping the front of the gun into a can of paint, and really only noticeable to the shooter. If it makes the sights easier to see and helps you shoot better, wheres the downside?
 
I have a pistol that I painted the front sight with Appliance Enamel Touch-Up Paint. It is gloss white and is made to touch up paint chips on kitchen stoves and refrigerators. It is very bright, hard and durable. So hard in fact that I don’t know if it can be removed with solvents.

The biggest downside is it’s cost. I did one gun and the paint in the bottle eventually got hard so I threw it away.
 
I have a pistol that I painted the front sight with Appliance Enamel Touch-Up Paint. It is gloss white and is made to touch up paint chips on kitchen stoves and refrigerators. It is very bright, hard and durable. So hard in fact that I don’t know if it can be removed with solvents.

The biggest downside is it’s cost. I did one gun and the paint in the bottle eventually got hard so I threw it away.
Great idea. I've never heard of that being used before.

Todd.
 
I used this company's product Daysiters on my 1911's front sight,really helps my old eyes. Been installed on the pistol for years now without falling off. I notice now they are doing a 1/16" dots and strips package. They can be removed with acetone. After reading this thread I dug around on my stuff,found the old package and put one on my Vaquero.
https://nitesiters.com/
 
This brings up an interesting question. At a time when there were no other types of sights other than fixed iron sights available to most, why didn't firearms have better sights? It isn't hard to make a front sight wider, and a rear notch deeper and wider. They did have peep sights on some target and hunting rifles. So why did handguns get such poor hard to see sights?

They're not really much of a problem under many conditions. However, many guns come with high visibility sights these days, and after market sights are common enough.
 
That's a mighty good question. I wonder if the lower life expectancy of 100+ years ago meant that most active gun shooters had younger eyes? General Custer was only 36 and Samuel Colt was 47 when they passed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

I've read numerous accounts of the Little Bighorn, but only recently did discover a noteworthy fact. The weather records in Salt Lake City record that the March April and May of 1876 was the all time wettest on record, so that by June 25 the grass was the highest ever.
Custer's men had single shot .45-70s that could reach out a half mile but the Indians had stealth and hundreds of repeaters (including the 80 that Crazy Horse had taken from Fetterman's Massacre) and were able to use the high grass to approach to a range that gave their repeaters an advantage.
But Custer had already screwed the pooch by dividing his forces with no intelligence, not to mention foregoing the Gatlings.
But his massacre put a wet blanket on the celebration of the country's Centennial, sort of like the 9-11 of the nineteenth century.
 
If nail polish is a sin I wonder what an RMR adds up to. I have bad vision and I need the help, and I think it looks cool! Stainless revolvers with black rails, rubber grips, and RMRs look extremely cool to me.
 
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