Front sight red insert benefit?

[Walter Rego]

I have used the flat white paint base coat followed with fluorescent red or orange paint on the front sight serrations of a couple of stainless S&W revolvers. It helps a lot in picking up the front sight especially in those shallow notch fixed rear sights.

But as others have mentioned, many holsters will wear that paint off in short order unless the holsters are constructed in such a way as to not bear against the sight blade when holstering the gun. But you can't beat the price and the lack of it being a permanent modification.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

BTW, the red plastic inserts are known to shrink and fall out after a while. Avoid the hassle and just paint it.

My RR's in my 29's from the early 70's and my pre-18 and K38 Have never shrinked or fell out..........Course I don't nail up wanted posters with the butts either.

 

[Geeorge]

My RR's in my 29's from the early 70's and my pre-18 and K38 Have never shrinked or fell out..........Course I don't nail up wanted posters with the butts either.

exactly , I have two pinned recessed 19's and 3 pr 66's that still wear their red ramps proudly and have never fallen out

 

[Abbynormal]

Back in the 70 & 80's days when cops and peeps preferred revolvers,
the RR/WO gained favor.

I grew up shooting revolvers with standard black front and rear sights. When I got a 29-2 with RR/WO, I was awestruck with how much the visibility of the sights improved my sight picture.

For S&G's, I cleaned the front and rear sights of my 28-2 with acetone twice. I let the gun dry and used Testers white model paint on the front sight. Note: I only painted the upper part of the front sight that extended from the top of the sight to the point where the front sight disappeared in the rear sight notch.

I did 2 coats of Testers white and used Testers flourescent red two coats.

After letting them dry, I put 2 coats of clear coat.

As for the rear, acetone, a tooth pick used to outline the rear sight notch and again clear coat.

Mine have been done for 5 years and I haven't had to touch them up.

 

[Hawg Rider]

There is absolutely no advantage to installing the red insert compared to just painting the sight. The paint can easily renewed as needed. You can easily experiment with what color works best for you too.

Personally I have come to prefer a medium green. I also sometimes use Forster's "Bonanza Gold", usually used for filling the markings on guns, to paint the sight which then resembles a square Gold bead. Just paint the serrated side of the sight. I only paint the top about 3/16" so when the gun is at arms length it appears as a square instead of a vertical gold bar.

Using some Bonanza Gold is a great suggestion! I just happen to have some, so I'll give it a try.

 

[329]

I don’t think the red ramp is the worst option…just one of the many options. As others have stated it is hard to get a defined outline in bright sun. It works well on overcast dys or just s the sun is getting low. I prefer the patridge black sight with the solid black rear. I find it easy to get a crisp view of the front sight on sunny days or indoors. Another option if you have the red ramp is picking up a can of Birchwood Casey Sight Black to black out the red on sunny days and indoors as needed. One little can will last a long time.
I am not a fan of tritium or fiber optic sights. The tritium only shows up well if it is really dark (and I won’t shoot in the dark since I can’t 100% determine what is behind the target). Th fiber optic is too bright for me to see the target well. But that is the beauty of this you can chane the sights to your individual preference depending on what work best for your eyes and shooting situation.
To the OP, I would paint the front sight first and try it out in all shooting conditions. If you like the red or orange the front sight can be milled out t the top with a dovetail end mill and ther are kits at Brownells or Midway that low you to fill the slot with whatever color epoxy you want.

 

[SF VET]

on some of my firearms, I have gold dots, brass dots, white paint, tritiums, fiber tubes, and just black front sights. Being red-green color blind, reds and some greens just look dark without any color to my eyes. A tiny careful dab of white auto touch up paint is my fall back on front sights.

SF VET

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Despite my appreciation for aesthetics, my retirement EDC is a Glock 26.

Could it be an ultimate plain jane?

I had a really nice 27-2 four inch with a great trigger job from King's Gunworks and their Master Gunsmith, Al Capone.

My retirement EDC is a Glock 19 but I carry the Glock 26 when I am wearing shorts.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Revolver shooters are always looking for ways to improve visibility and contrast of sights. One way, popularized by Smith & Wesson, is to install a colored plastic insert in the front sight blade. Red is a color not often found in nature and would stand out well against most any target (other than a stop sign). It’s one of the most popular custom revolver modifications.

GUNS Magazine Secrets Of The Red Front Sight Insert - GUNS Magazine

 

[PeteC]

This one is not a ramp, but definitely a red insert. Not sure how common this was, or when. Found on a mid-50's K-22 Masterpiece with 6" barrel:

 

[CajunBass]

I used to use "White Out" correction fluid many years ago. It was what I had, and it seemed to work just fine, especially against black B-27 targets. It would chip off, but not as quickly as I had thought it would, and it was easy and quick to refresh anyway.

I've graduated to cheap nail polish now. A bottle of white and one of day glow orange from the dollar store, about a buck each, maybe 10 years ago. Still using the same bottles. It goes a long way. As others have said, a coat of white, let dry, a coat of orange, let dry. Nail polish dries really quickly, and is easily removed with nail polish remover that's probably in your bathroom anyway.

All my revolvers though have factory red/orange front sights. About half have white outline rears. I had to look to make sure of that. I've never had one come out. I really don't think it's something I think about very much.

Oh, I've tried some glow in the dark paint. Don't bother. It works for a minute or so but fades out quickly. The stuff I used is called "Glow On" and gun sights were specifically listed as one use for it.

Well, it does work in that if you "charge" it, it will glow...but it will fade quickly. Now, on the other hand, it really POP's when it has some light around it, say at the range, or during daylight, but not so much in low/no light conditions. I don't know if they make other colors or not. The stuff I got is a zombie green color.

 

[IrishFritz]

In my opinion red ramp utility depends on your eye sight needs. In my case at 76 years I have only fair vision even with tri-focal glasses. Black sights are totally lost to me so a red or orange insert is a necessity to get on target. My current carry is a model 19 4" with factory red & whites and target hammer and trigger and I practice only in double action.

 

[jem102]

I wonder if fitting an insert made of brass would be beneficial?

I like this Idea!. I have several gold bead fronts and they work well for old eyes. I have tried some with brass and they dull rather quickly. The gold beads are always bright.

 

[rolomac]

Red Fingernail Polish

I had wondered about this too and have found that the old eyes aren't as quick to pick up that front sight. Then one day I happened to notice my12 year old granddaughter's bright red fingernail polish. When I asked her about borrowing some she asked,"Grampa, what do you want fingernail polish for?" When I explained that I was going to paint my toe-nails, I got a very strange look. Couldn't stop laughing and finally told her what I wanted to try and she brought me her brightest red polish which I tried on my model 10-2 and I loved it! There was that sight standing proud and easy to focus on. So I applied it to all of my handguns (only 5) so that I have the same sight picture on all of them and I really recommend it.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Never did anything for me. my DW M-12 has interchangeable front sights, red, yellow, I always go back to black. As noted, paint is easily renewed. I learned to shooting firing Bullseye with black sights, that may be part of it.

 

[Vtgw938]

My RR's in my 29's from the early 70's and my pre-18 and K38 Have never shrinked or fell out..........Course I don't nail up wanted posters with the butts either.

I just had a red insert fall out of a 1964 27-2 while cleaning it. Posts and everything were still attached. Super glued it back in. Luckily it didn't fall out while shooting.

It hasn't been shot much, it was so-called unfired when I got it and I haven't shot it a lot. Don't know about shrinking but it went back in without any effort.

Didn't care or need them back in the day but appreciate them now with old eyes. I like them on the guns that have them but have resisted the urge to cut any of my guns that don't. Red paint works fine for what I need.

 

[AC Man]

Just a FWI for kicks. I was reading a anti gunner thread on the internet and he argued that the red ramp sight indicates it is not a real gun, but he wanted to know if you were 50 yards away how could you tell the gun is not real. LOL

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I like this Idea!. I have several gold bead fronts and they work well for old eyes. I have tried some with brass and they dull rather quickly. The gold beads are always bright.

My BIL did that to an old 4in 41 mag. It does get dull(brass). But a few rubs with your thumb and it's bright again.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I don't think they are for sale. They are cast in the sight. I bought some casting resin from Hobby Lobby and some dye but didn't like how it hardened. I ended up using some quik setting clear epoxy and used the dye to color it. Dammed around the sight with masking tape, then filled the slot with the colored epoxy using toothpicks to drop it. Let it set, trimmed off excess and let it dry for a couple of days, turned out just like factory.

Rosewood

I made my inserts out of toothbrush handles.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

This one is not a ramp, but definitely a red insert. Not sure how common this was, or when. Found on a mid-50's K-22 Masterpiece with 6" barrel:

Same sight on my 686 mtn gun.