586 L-Comp or Carry-Comp S&W Sights

[westernrover]

The L-comp and Carry-Comp revolvers come from S&W Performance Center with a S&W black blade rear sight and a Trijicon front ramp sight of the pinned type as shown above.

I have a hard time seeing the black-on-black sights in anything but full daylight. The tritium vial in the front sight is very small and has no white outline.

Comparing the small tritium vial in this sight to the tritium sights in a 640 Pro-Series (3-dot Novak type sights), the tiny vial in the ramp sight seems very dim -- less than half the brightness in total darkness. The 640 was bought new in 2018 from a LGS and the Comp gun new in 2019 from Grab-a-gun. I doubt it was sitting in their inventory for as many years as it would take for the tritium to have decayed, but whether it was bright many years ago or not, it is now expired.

If I went to the expense to replace the Trijicon front ramp with another with a new Tritium vial as bright as those in the 640, it would be wonderful in low-light, but in daylight or an illuminated interior, it would still be black-on-black. As it is, it's an expensive part that's worthless and I'm reluctant to go to the expense of replacing it if it will never be satisfactory.

I know fiber-optic sights (LPA, SDM, HIVIZ) have good visibility, but I'm wary of their lack of durability for EDC. Besides the regular knocks, the port blasts the front of the sight pretty good on these guns. I'm considering the gold bead patridge front sight from SDM. The LPA rear sights might be good, or a C&S Extreme Duty. I've been shooting an SDO red dot since 2019, so I haven't figured out what else works. Prior to 2019, I was using the Novak style Trijicon sights on the 640. They work great. Now I need something for K, L, N-frame.

 

[Riomouse911]

Like my factory Pro-ported 629 .44 Mag, at least the gas is vented to the front of the sight on your revolver rather than the sides like mag-na-porting does. Mag na ports get soot all over the sight in short order.



Gold dot sights are even more difficult for me to see than squared black sights; the gold dot doesn’t pick up light like a fiber optic and they’re usually thinner in profile so they disappear against a dark background. I pulled one off my .41 Redhawk and replaced it with a Hi Viz for this reason.

Before you do anything I personally would get a vial of Testors white and blaze orange model paints. Paint the sight white with a toothpick or very fine hobbyist paintbrush, let it dry thoroughly, then paint it blaze orange. (Paint around the dot so it still lights up if you want .)

I did this to several revolvers and autos and it has made the front sights really stand out.



If you are set on a new sight don’t discount the Hi Viz or other brands (Like Tru Glo) of fiber optic sights. I have Tru Glo sights on almost all of my Glocks as well as Hi Viz on my Ruger GP 100’s. Redhawk, S&W 317, etc. Unless you are abusing your stuff during EDC they are plenty tough for almost and duty, carry or hunting use.



Stay safe.

 

[L-2]

I went with an SDM brass bead front sight for my 586 L-Comp.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1005958054?pid=540350
https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/model-586-0
I don't remember if I had to change out the rear sight blade for a different height or not. I currently have a .126" rear sight blade height (I don't know what the stock height was and couldn't find my spare rear sight blades before typing this.

On my 586L-Comp, I did have to adjust the rear sight's windage off to the right for me to hit. Perhaps my barrel was slightly canted, but I couldn't tell just by looking at the barrel.

I think part of the dim tritium front sight problem is the lamp is deeply inset into the stock front sight, too. Anyway, I didn't like the stock front sight either.

 

[Stephanie B]

Before you do anything I personally would get a vial of Testors white and blaze orange model paints. Paint the sight white with a toothpick or very fine hobbyist paintbrush, let it dry thoroughly, then paint it blaze orange. (Paint around the dot so it still lights up if you want .)

I do the same, except that I use white nail polish for the base and "traffic cone orange" for the top coat. It's almost as durable as paint, it's easy to touch up and, if you feel like trying a different color, some nail-polish remover will take it right off.

 

[Speedo66]

A quick kluge that actually works well is just to rub a bright red China marker into the front sight.

When it starts to rub off after a while, just take a second and do it agin. I used to keep one in my desk at work just for that purpose.