Front Sight and 9am sun in your face

[SW CQB 45]

Shot a match today and needed to be somewhere, so I showed up early to be on the first string at 0900 hrs. Sun was in my face so I dropped my cap bill as low as it could go.

When the first string came out with my revolver
M65 4" with integral serrated ramp and fixed rear
heavy smoked my sights

5yd, 2shots, 3 seconds from the holster

I took a sight pic however my brain was telling the trigger finger not to pull because I could not get a focus on the front sight. Very glairy even with smoke. I snapped both shots and was still able to keep them in X, but it was ugly and I was not comfortable or in my zone.

At 15, it was worse. the glare was so bad, I could not get a clear front sight and my entire first six shots hugged the 10 ring in the 9 at 11 o'clock.

at first I stopped to make sure no one else was shooting my target but after a few moments...it was me.

at the 25, I made the decision to hold right. I ended up shooting a 491/500 but it was sloppy.

Semi Auto
Springfield Armory 9mil 5" with LPA rear and factory front plain ramp with heavy smoke.

Same crap! I could not see my front sight and my trigger finger would not move because all I could see was glare.

At the 25, my gun LOCKED UP out of battery and I mean LOCKED UP with two shots left. I could not clear it before the whistle. So I had to eat two shots or possibly 20 points. I was working on getting my avg 491-492 (my norm) out of 500 but eating two put me at 472

MY QUESTION....obviously these ramped sights dont do well with the sun in your face.

Next year, I will be shooting a different revolver (season almost over) with adjustable sights.

Would a post/patridge front sight on either gun have cleaned up my sight picture today with MR SUN in my face?

Even though I did not shot bad (considering I ate two with the auto and it was a swelled case at the base. dont know how that happened with once fired brass....but my fault, did not have time to chamber check my match rounds. lesson learned)...I wanted to hit mid 490s with both today.

urgghhh!

 

[MKT]

CQB,

All of my comp guns are fitted with a patridge sight, even my 2" revolver. Shooting into the rising sun on an east facing range can be a bear. I find that pulling the hat low and using blinders helps but even the patridge sights will wash out in that kind of light but they are far better than the stock ramps for competition. Last week during the service and off-duty revolver matches (east facing range, early relays) I had to go three clicks right for the sun, something I don't usually need to do with these guns.

Bigger question is why did the Springfield lock up? Bad round jam up the works or something else?

 

[SW CQB 45]

thanks for the respons MKT.

I bought a tall front sight non serrated post/patridge....that I need to widdle down to work with the LPA adjustable rear.

its .300" tall and the factory is around .155" tall.

Yes, bad reload. with two shots left in my match, I noticed the slide was partially out of battery. I give the back of the slide a forceful nudge thinking my thumb caused the out of battery situation. but it would not move. then I went to the typical clearance drill but the "rack" part did not work...then the whistle blew.

I had to "gorilla grip" the slide to force it open and it ejected the bad round. I picked it up and held onto it.

When I got home, took apart my gun and with the two rounds left over, I noticed one had a heavy shiny mark near the base completely around the case. the other was clean of chamber markings.

I dropped the clean one in...no problems. I dropped the "ringed" one in, and it stopped short of full chamber. it appears the base is swelled compared to the other round.

Its once fired brass that I have access too. guess I must have got to "ruff" with the dillon or bad case from the get go. lessoned leared to always check my rounds to ensure they chamber. had too much going on this past week.

Back to the front sight....
any guess what I should honed done the front sight height to?
I only have 50 clicks of adjustment with the LPA rear and the clicks are aggressive...meaning no fine adjustment.

I was thinking lowering it to .250" or .225" and seeing what I had there. I installed it at .300" and could not get it to zero at any distance. shot wayyyy low even jacked all the way up.

currently with the .155", the LPA is bottomed out to one to two clicks up depending on ammo.

thanks in advance

 

[Lynyrd Skynyrd]

A patridge sight seems better to me under all conditions but especially when the conditions are bad like you describe. On my target only gun I even have the front undercut like this \ so it is always in shade.

The other thing I've found to help a lot is too deepen the rear notch, not so it is deeper than the front is tall but just about the same. In my old age I also like wider rear notches, makes it easier to focus on the front sight and doesn't seem to cost any accuracy. I saw some International Rapid Fire pistols one time and they had a lot wider rear notches than I would have thought.

 

[MKT]

Don't whittle down the front sight. Keep it as tall as you can get (but not taller than .375" - max height for legal) replace the rear blade with a .160" blade or a Model 41 blade, it is .196". With the tall front sight and tall rear sight you might even be able to achieve a neck hold at 25, and you will definitely get a neck hold for the 50, which will help on the TSRA Distinguished Match.

 

[SW CQB 45]

Don't whittle down the front sight. Keep it as tall as you can get (but not taller than .375" - max height for legal) replace the rear blade with a .160" blade or a Model 41 blade, it is .196".

MKT....

My rear is a LPA that Springfield Armory sells which is a direct fit into the factory dovetail.

are you referring to the same rear blade to fit my LPA?

if so, where can I find it?

here is my rear sight Springfield Armory Adjustable Rear Sight 1911 Novak Cut Steel Blue - MidwayUSA

 

[MKT]

Oooops....

Missed the fact you were shooting a fixed sight 65, I had adjustable sights on the brain...guess that means you need to change to an adjustable sight revolver .

I don't know anything about the Springfield adjustable rear yet. I still haven't decided if I will swap over to adjustable or keep shooting with fixed. Deb or any of the crew in the Custom shop might be able to answer the question for you and/or advise if they have different height rear blades available.

As far as the adjustable rear on the Springer, how much elevation range does it have? If enough you may not need to do anything other than install the patridge.