My older eyes have really got used to bright sights with some air around them on my other pistols.

Front sights, several options for my new 2" model 60, but I wondered if anyone had any luck deepening or widening the fixed rear sight notch for a little better sight picture? I'm not expecting a night and day difference, just wondered if anyone has got bit of improvement.

Have you heard of the "Wonder Sight"? Its designed to use the upper side plate screw hole and makes the rear sight adjustable for elevation. GOOGLE it, look it over and see what you think! Well, on the other hand, if your "I" frame does not have the upper side plate screw.......

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

There you go! Proof once again that I learn something new every-time I get on this site. This time it was about a sight. I had never heard of them before. Sort of favors the Williams peep sight I love on my Marlins. Very reasonable too.

Thanks for the learnin'

Blueduck:

There are 2 possible solutions I can think of for your question:

1) you can have a gunsmith widen the rear sight notch. Done properly, the gunsmith will use a milling machine to take out the sides of the "funnel" shaped channel that is part of the rear sight groove. Obviously, this is a permanent modification. I've seen it done, and rather like it. I've heard it referred to as "hogging out" the rear sight notch.

2) You can use an XS Sight on the front sight (only):

https://www.xssights.com/ItemMedia/1...045_236526.pdf

The XS front sight is about $60.00, and you'll probably want a gunsmith to do the installation. This is also a permanent modification. I'm not a huge fan of night sights, but I think the XS sight would be a worthwhile modification. I'll be 60 yrs. old next year and think the large front sight would work well.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Dave

I'm 54 and need magnifiers to read. I removed the XS Big Dot front sight that came on my used 342PD, and put the original sight in place. The "Big Dot" absolutely sucked when trying to shoot accurately. I don't see how it would really improve anything in a flash sight picture at close range either. I can shoot fairly well with the stock sights (even better with my 638) even though I can't really get a clear picture. I agree, a wider rear sight (or narrower front) would help.

Both my 638 and the 342PD have Crimson Trace 405 laser grips on them, a first for me, and I like them very much. Totally removes any trouble focusing, and have made an improvement when dry firing since any flaws in your trigger control are very visible.

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--Rick

Well they did put an adjustable sight on the model 34 and on some chief specials . why not have a smith put one on yours ?

When I first saw your question in the title the bottom of the "J" was hidden by the line so I thought you were looking to improve sighting on an "I" frame. So there is no upper side plate screw, sorry, I'll go wash the egg off my face now!

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

I have pretty much the same problem.. Old and can't see worth a darn.
I've tried different front sights. But have never had much luck or liked them. And keep going back to the orginal sight.
I've thought about having a 'smith cut the rear sight groove a bit deeper.
But with the hogue grip it points so natural and just shoots so good, I don't want to mess with it..

FWIW , I have fiber optic sights on most of the guns that I shoot local weekend matches with. Tried a fiber optic on the J ,, still didn't care for it and went back to the original .

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You could always have it cut for a dovetail and fitted with a new style sight of your choice.

BFrom someone who is never 6 feet from a pair of readng glasses, I figured that was a simple misread. Very good info though, I knew nothing of those!

Thank you all for all the other suggestions as well. I tried a standard XS dot on front. It's ok but as above my Confidense in longer shots not as good as notch and post but I can keep them in chest/belly region at 25, just takes longer and groups are not as pretty as notch and post. Shame not an easier way to turn that "half dot" picture to a full dot with deeper wider trough. I think it would be easier to be consistent with it.

I'll ponder and thanks again.

Blueduck:

The rear sight track can we widened a drop. Assuming you are happy and accurate with the point of impact now, as long as you take equal amounts off both sides the POI should remain the same. If one side or the other is favored then POI would change.

I have done this successfully on a couple of fixed sight revolvers over the years to adjust POI for me - as there are no adjustments for windage to otherwise be made. Thankfully one gun was stainless and the other Nickel so no refinishing was necessary.

The front sight can be painted with Testor's model paint in a bright or fluorescent color and between the two mods that may help you out.

The gun in question is really a close-up and personal defense type revolver and so I would assume this gun was to be shot mostly at 7 yards or less - hence target/competition grade accuracy is not essential and this might help at no major expense to you.

I use "white out" on some of my front sights. If you don't like it easy to remove with solvent. Even in this age of word processing programs the old "white out" for typewriters seems to be widely available.

You could try Dave Lauck at dlsports.com. He makes a custom fixed rear sight and matching height front sight. Very cool but very expensive.

Just leave it be. Practice shooting out to 7 yds at a man sized target without the sights. A 2" J-Frame will never be a precision firearm whatever you do to it. It's a CC close up and personal weapon and one of the best for that purpose.