Any advice on highlighting the front sight of a Chief's Special?

I use automotive touch-up paint in a suitable color available at any Walmart...

i use birchwood casey's super bright touch up sight pen. they work much better than bright sights brand.

http://www.productwizard.com/birchwoodcasey-superbrighttouchupsightpens-15103.html

but i'm considering getting a gold bead front sight for durability.

Go to the Walmart craft section. Find some of the thick "paint" in the squeeze tubes used for making pictures and designs on clothes and fabric. The stuff comes in multiple bright colors, dries semiflexible, and can survive washing machines. It sticks pretty well to the serrated front sight surface. It doesn't chip easily. I don't know if it works any better or worse than touch up paint. Either way, it is easy to just redo every now and then.

even the wifes bright nail polish will work in a pinch too

I also use the wife's nail polish.
It is easy to put on.

SInce my old eyes are pretty much color blind to Red//orang/Green - I verified this by emailing the Hi-Viz guyz. They were nice enough to
send me a rod sample in each color - I had explained my sight thing
and had asked if they had ever tried bright blue - he rpelied yes but it
wasn't very visible to the normal population. I got the rods and
it might as well be a bblack post. That said, I have found
a bright flourescent Yellow paint on the ramp front works well in the
poor light of the indoor range I frequent. I think I read somewhere
the yllow front sight was an old gunfighter's mod.

What works for you is up to your sight.

Good Luck

Britght nail polish is good. Liquid paper and a hi-lighter marker work too.

Flat florescent orange construction marking paint.

A gold Bead.

I used the Birchwood Casey Super Bright set (one flat white, one fluorescent red) on my 640-1 for the same reason. Also used a touch of the flat black in the rear recess for better definition in bright lighting. Works pretty well for me, and holds up to solvents better than some stuff I've used. Much easier to pick up a usable sight picture quickly and much improved contrast.

I've used Testor's plastic model enamel with good results, too. FWIW, you have a good deal more choice of color with them, so experimenting to find what works best for your eyes is both easier and fairly inexpensive.

As soon as finances permit I'm going to take a hard look at both the Hamilton Bowen and D&L Sports high visibility J-Frame replacement outfits and have a set installed on it. If I can swing it, I'd like to see if I can't get mine in the old African Express sight configuration a la XS. That set-up works wonderfully on my Para C7.45 and strikes me as being just as fast and practical on a snubbie revolver.

Accidentally duplicated. Please delete.

Cheap nail polish on my 36.

A dab of yellow around the outline of the rear sight notch (who wears yellow nail polish?), and hot pink on the front sight.
The hot pink was $2 a bottle, and the color name was "Back Off".

Perfect.

brownells now carries a product by KG Gunkote called SiteKote-it comes in white, orange or red. it stays on longer/brighter than nail polish or automotive touch up paint.
good stuff
cheers
Derek

I bought the loudest red fingernail polish I could find at my local drugstore and filled the grooves on the front sight of my S&W 637 snubby with it three years ago. Although I fire fifty rounds in that handgun every two weeks or so, that nail polish is still there. And I still have the bottle.
Cordially, Jack

I did mine by locking it in the gun safe, and acquiring a Glock 26 with night sights.

Okay WEG, that picture threw me for a good 3 count before I started chuckling. Well done!

Enlarging the front sight? Why? I never thought I would shoot mine at a target more then about ten feet from me. Then, it would probably be an offhand shot rather than carefully aimed. Still, my Chief Special is surprisingly accurate at longer ranges. I tried 50 feet and was impressed. I am trying to change out the barrel to a 3 inch if my smith can ever get his hands on the correct "wrench" ( I forgot what that tool is called) to keep the frame from tweaking. This change has more to do with enabling the bullet to develop its full potential rather then accuracy. Three inch fits in my pocket as easily.

Then I would go flourescent if keeping the original is important. I put a fiber optic front turkey gun sight on a handgun with a somewhat longer barrel (11 inches). In the daylight it really jumps out. You could try a fiber optic bead front that is mounted on the curent blade but ground down some. Just a thought.

Rear sight. Obviously, you want something that will not snag. Does Bo-Mar make anything suitable for the J-Frame?

I paint the Front Sights on my Revolvers with a "luminous" glow in the dark paint that I paid about $5 for a pint at WalMart. All three of my main defensive revolvers have their front sights painted with this stuff.

In the "Old Days" I used to use White Out, but nobody types on a typewriter anymore, so I can't find the stuff. The luminous paint I use was designed for painting the address numbers on mailboxes and curbs. One pint will last me more than five lifetimes.

Biker

I also use the Birchwood Casey SUPER BRIGHT Touch-up Sight Pens.

Here's my 642 with the front sight painted, alongside a CS9 with the standard Novak Low Mount 3-dot sights taken in normal light from an incandescent desk lamp. Then another one alongside a subcompact Glock, although this one shows the light hitting the paint on the ramp serrations from another angle which doesn't reflect as brightly.

Granted, the 642 has a wider front ramp than the older J-frames, but I also use the same paint on my older 649 bodyguard to good effect. It's thinner, but the bright orange works for my middle 50's eyes in most normal & reduced light conditions. Sorry I don't have an image of the paint on the older, narrower front sight blade.

Probably be a good idea for each individual to try different colors for themselves. I once tried using some yellow night sights on a Wilson CQB and discovered I had a hard time picking up the yellow color compared to using the standard green color tritium sights.

Testors

A small bottle of Testors flourescent orange model paint will run you 99 cent at Wal-Mart and does the trick. I use it to touch up the front blades on both my Mak and my M85.

rainbowbob,
Please, please don't widen the rear sight notch using "a friend with a Dremel".

I doesn't need to be opened up much - just enough to let in a little more light around the front sight, and the sides need to be widened equally or you'll screw your windage up.
Keeping the vertical sides of the rear notch square is also important to a good sight picture.

If it were me, I'd use good needle files with one dead side, and just go slowly, taking a few, equal number of strokes off each side.

KitchenTable Gunsmithing 101: Metal comes off easier than it goes back on.

KTG 102: Always modify the cheapest of two interacting parts (and here, we're talking about the frame!).

KTG 103: Fear, uncertainty and doubt is God's way of telling you to use a real gunsmith...


Good luck!