Ruger Blackhawk front sight

[guitarguy314]

Hey guys!

What kind of paint is best to use to add some color the front sight of my blackhawk? I've read everything from nail polish to hobby paint. And I'm just not sure what to use.

Also, I am terrible with crafty stuff like this. How exactly do I go about adding the color? How big should the spot be? What shape? What kind of brush do I use? Are extra coats necessary (like a base coat or clear coat on top etc.)? Do I need to prep the sight in any way before painting?

Thanks guys

L

 

[Remllez]

Clean well with acetone or alcohol, tape where you don't want paint then experiment with color, size, shape etc.......paint is cheap, I'd use a toothpick to apply the paint. Brushes can make a mess.

 

[BCRider]

Try a few. The nice thing is that with nothing more than a drop of paint any of them are easily removable with near to no effort. Once you find a color and style you like clean the sight really well and use a good brand of enamel. Even then you'll need to take care to avoid many of the usual gun solvents on the paint. But if it does chip away it's easy to replace.

For a simple dot of paint, if that's what you decide on. a very small bump of paint on the end of a toothpick simply touched to the face and allowed to "puddle" out will form a perfect round spot. Just adjust the "bump" of paint, as opposed to a full drop that is almost about to fall off, by some amount to vary the size of the final dot.

Depending on where you shoot you want a colour that contrasts well with the surroundings. Especially if you will paint the whole back face instead of only adding a "finder dot" to the otherwise black face.

In the end if you are serious about this and if you need fast sight acquistion and shoot outdoors then the hot setup would be a fiber front sight. A fiber front lights up as though it has batteries and a high powered LED inside when sunlight hits it. I've got a few guns with fiber fronts and they are hands down the fastest and easiet to present, sight and get off a fast and accurate first shot consistently. On the other hand the sights I have with white dots help but not nearly as much.

For the rear sight when used with a "marked" or fiber front I far and away prefer a simple black face with no white U's or dots of any sort. The added "finders" are simply confusing to obtaining a fast sight picture in daylight.

Now shooting in low light? That's a different story. In that case the white "finder" dots on the rear can help a lot.

 

[ljnowell]

I took my wifes brightest white fingernail polish and just used the brush in it. It worked perfect. Just take your time. You can always add more, its a lot messier to take it off.

 

[BCRider]

It's not at all hard to take off anything you can put on there that comes out of a one part can. A little acetone and you're back to a stock black front sight.

 

[gspn]

I use White-Out...the stuff you use to cover up typing errors. It's cheap and awesome. I keep a small container of it in my gun bag.

 

[250-3000]

Fishing jig paint works very well, durable and beads up nice. White first, then the color of your choice over top. No idea how hard it is to get off, but doesn't rub off in a holster. Just degrease the sight first.