About to paint my "night sight"

[Guitargod1985]

I've decided to go ahead and paint the front sight on my Taurus 605 to give it better visibility in low-light conditions. I picked up some luminous paint and white primer at the hardware store. I also bought some toothpicks, as someone had suggested, with which to apply both the primer and the lime green luminous paint. I'm going to do a few test runs on a similar metal to see what works best before I apply the paint to the gun.

Here are some pics of the revolver before the job. I'll post some pictures tomorrow or possibly Thursday with the finished product.

 

[Guitargod1985]

Here is the base coat.

 

[dfariswheel]

You're sort of wasting your time and money.
The luminous paints only glow very dimly, and for only a very few minutes.

To get them to work at all, you have to "charge" the paint up by shining a bright light on it before use.
Even then, the glow isn't very bright, and the paint will only glow for a short time.

So, just HOW are they to be used. Before using the sights you have to shine a bright flashlight or other light on the paint, which destroys your night vision for about 30 minutes.
With your night vision compromised, the sight will appear to glow even less.
Finally, if you have a light to shine on the paint, why not USE the light to illuminate the area instead of a dim, ill defined sight paint.

The only night sights that really work are Tritium sights that actually generate their own light by nuclear reaction.

All the "paint" type glow in the dark stuff is ineffective at best.
The only paint that really glows well enough to use is Radium paint, and it's a deadly and highly restricted material.

 

[Gunsmoker]

I've never seen a revolver open up on the right side like that.

I'm a lefty so this would've factored into my first purchase. Did it come like that?

 

[Guitargod1985]

It actually opens from the other side. I use my webcam to take my pictures, and it produces a mirror image

 

[mfetty77]

I just painted a bunch of dad's sights using Bright Sites paint. Very bright stuff made for gun sight. It doesn't glow or anything but none of the guns I did where carry guns, so it's ok. It worked great on the Sig Pro 2009. It last longer than model paint or nail polish too. The whole kit with shipping was $19.20 at Brownell's.

 

[Guitargod1985]

I've decided not to apply this luminescent paint because I noticed it only glows for about an hour. Does anyone know of any paint that will glow for several hours at a time? I checked out the Bright Sights website and the have a "ghost glow" paint that glows, but does anyone know for how long? Also, has anyone had any success with DuraGlo from the makers of DuraCoat?

 

[Kilgor]

Radium paint.

Just kidding. Don't use that.

 

[Guitargod1985]

Yeah, if I were to use that I may end up like Marie Curie.

 

[woolfam]

The best glow paint out there is sold HERE.

I've used it on some flashlights and the sights on a Taurus M85. The initial brightness wears off rather quickly, but it glows enough to be seen in a dark room all night.

 

[Guitargod1985]

Thanks, wolfam - that looks like it may just work.

 

[the naked prophet]

You could install a simple LED and battery device to your holster, to constantly keep the paint "charged." Couldn't cost more than $3 to put together, and would add minimal weight to your carry rig. Hmmm...

 

[dust_101]

Hey prophet, what about cutting out some space inside some grips, and running some wires up to the front/rear sights and tapping in some LEDs in there? Now that would let you see the sights line up in about ANY light

kidding!