Front sight conundrum...

[willbrink]

So I have this S&W 1911 from the Performance Center I have mentioned before. 1000rnds plus, and it's a damn fine machine. I have no complaints (so far) but one, and that's the front site. The gun has a Wilson adjustable rear site with a simple black blade style front site.

It's just black on black site picture, which is very slow for me to get a site picture with. I would really prefer something up front to make the front site stand out from the rear. "So change out the front site" you say. Can't, as the 1911s from the PC have a proprietary cut, so you can't just buy a Novak front site, or Xpress site, etc and put it on. Blah.

So, I figure I have two choices. I can go the nicer more expensive route and send it to a place like tooltech who can put a Trijicon tritium insert directly into the front sight:

http://www.tooltechgunsight.

Don't know what the cost is, but no matter it will take time and $$$...

Or, for like $5-$6, I can get some site paint, paint the blade red, and be done with it:

http://www.brightsights.com

Third option? Thoughts?

 

[rcmodel]

Paint it if you must.

Be aware that the most accurate bullseye guns have matt black sights. And if they ain't black enough, they smoke them.

All you have to see & focus on is the front sight.
The rear notch & target will take care of itself.

You can't focus on all three things at once anyway.

rc

 

[willbrink]

I have no doubt they are accurate bullseye guns are black sites, but not the fastest by any means. It's a great slow fire gun, but I shoot IDPA/tactical shooting courses, etc where speed counts. I'm fastest and most accurate with a black rear noch and dot front site as my eye picks up the front site only quickly. Black on black (and lets not even mention what happens to these sites in low light shooting) not so much...

 

[cavman]

Be aware that the most accurate bullseye guns have matt black sights. And if they ain't black enough, they smoke them.

I attended a Brian Zins clinic a month ago and he took my Bullseye gun and my pocket knife and made a single stroke with it, making a score mark on my front sight. (any way: up, down, sideways; just need a mark, leaving a little silver line.)

He said this is a sure way to Force the shooter to focus on the front sight. He said that if one can see the mark, one really, really knows one is actually focusing on the front sight.

I have to agree that by seeing the mark I know I am on the sight and not focusing by accident, or fatigue, or whatever reason somewhere else. (Which we all know is bad, bad, bad)

(and lets not even mention what happens to these sites in low light shooting)

This happens to me all the time shooting under "normal" range conditions. Very frequently (all the time actually as Camp Perry is the only range that I shoot at that is truly open), I shoot under a range roof. With the super bright backdrop where the target is, and me under the shade of the roof, it does, still, even with the little silver scratch, make seeing the front sight in super focus still pretty difficult. This actually seems to impress me that perhaps many times I may not be actually be focusing on that front sight. Ahhh the joys of shooting Service Pistol.

 

[willbrink]

I'm good with focusing on the front site and it comes naturally at this point. My splits however are faster when the front site is visually easy to differentiate from the rear, which makes sense. Using a shot timer, I am consistantly faster with the site picture I have come to prefer after many sites used found on my other guns.

 

[Oro]

See the pics I posted here about an FO front post. They are inexpensive and effective.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=457196

 

[gb6491]

Dawson has fiber optic front sights for the Performance Center 1911: http://www.dawsonprecision.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=SIGHTS+FRONT:Smith+&+Wesson
Regards,
Greg

 

[willbrink]

A red fiber optic up front would work fine, thanx!

 

[avan47]

You could have a machinest remove your front sight and mill a dovetail slot in your slide. Why do you need a different sight. I have the XS big dot tritium sight on my 45 auto. It is very fast to get on target, but works best with the XS shallow v rear sight. Not very precise for target shooting, but it is very fast to get on target. If you are going to mill a dovetail slot in your slide, you need to know which sight you want to use so that you have the proper dimensions for the slot.

 

[Bix]

Todd Green has posted a nice DIY hi viz front site procedure on his site:

http://pistol-training.com/articles/the-johno-diy-high-visibility-front-sight

Have not tried it yet, but plan to on a Heinie front sight that I'm not picking up quite as fast as the big white-outline golfball Warren front that I have on another gun.

 

[willbrink]

Follow up, I painted the front site white using this company's product:

http://www.brightsights.com

An improvement in the site picture for sure. No, not like replacing with a high end product, but for $5, I figured ***. Might still change it in the future, but works for now....

 

[log man]

Hiviz makes a FO sight for that. http://www.hivizsights.com/SW1911-Handgun-Smith-Wesson-1911-model-pistols-P50C9.aspx And will look like this and improves sight acquisition greatly.

LOG