Painting Front Sight on Revolver

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

I've just about decided that the front sights on my 64, 637 and 642 are going to get a base coat of white Testor's enamel, topped with either fluorescent orange or fluorescent green. My question is how much of each sight to paint. Do most people paint the entire grooved portion of the ramp or just the the upper 1/4" or so?

 

[Ram48]

I have been coloring mine with a grease pencil in either red or white And I do the complete length.

 

[Walter Rego]

Before I painted the front sight on my Model 65, I experimented with a piece of that blue painters masking tape. You will want to paint all the way up to the top serration before the part where blade turns to smooth. But to figure out how low to paint, place the edge of the tape at various points close to the lowest serration and take a good sight picture. You can figure out what the lowest serration is that is visible at the bottom of the rear sight notch pretty quickly. Then count how many serrations up from the bottom to start and paint the area between that serration and the top serration.

 

[AZretired]

I've been using red nail polish for decades. Paint the entire length. Works greats and last a long time.

 

[Drail]

If your concern is being able to see the front sight in low light use yellow. Tests conducted by the insurance industry have shown that yellow is seen by the human eye better than any other color as the light source is reduced. This is the reason most fire departments are now painting the trucks lime green or yellow instead of red. Bright fluorescent colors seem like a good idea but on an outdoor range in bright sunlight where the sun is off to one side of you it can glare so fiercely on one side it will make you pull your sights off to the sunny side. I settled on yellow years ago and haven't found anything that works better in sunlight or low light. I also found that a small dot applied with a toothpick works better than painting the entire width of the blade. You just need a small reference point for your eye to center in the rear notch.

 

[Triggerman66]

I to use a toothpick to apply a Neon Orange acrylic paint to the upper half of my front sights after first cleaning the sight with alcohol. After two or three coats have dried I then apply two coats of clear nail hardener from my wife's nail stuff. This makes the final product rather durable. I get a 2 oz bottol of paint from the craft section of Walmart for around a dollar, also the shelf life is longer than the Testor paint I used before. There is also; Neon Green, Pink, etc.
Allow an hour or so between coats for the acrylic colored paint, the clear nail finish dries in 15 min.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

I always paint all of the serrations but will come in one
serration on each end with my tape on my white, base coat(s).

For my "color" coats I do the serrations that I didn't get with the white
and do it this way just so I don't end up with white showing at the ends.
Basically it gives me a "cleaner looking" sight when I'm finished.

 

[Frank46]

Maybe I'm old fashioned but most of my handguns have the painted foresight. On the ones that do have a removable front sight I plan on getting one of the gold bead sights and see how it works. There has got to be something better than painting the whole of the ramp with paint. Frank

 

[Drail]

The gold or brass bead front sight is one of the best designs anyone ever came up with.

 

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

Did you break into my house? You've got a picture of my 642 and my Robert Mika pocket holster! (No - wait a minute - there's no Tyler T-Grip.)

 

[yelloow7t]

I don't have my 642 yet, but here is what I plan to use. I've used it lots on restoring watch dials.

Tom

 

[john505]

I have heard of people painting gun sights. I have a S&W model 686 stainless that came with a front orange sight, but my other revolvers have the plain sights. I only know of one guy who did paint them and it didn't come out to good. He's a big gun buff, (some 40 guns) so he wasn't happy with the out come of it, so he took the gun to a dealer, who had some good advise for him. I don't know if i would try to paint my own sights, only because i would worry that the paint would not stick to the metal. This is a tough one! Good luck.

John

I've just about decided that the front sights on my 64, 637 and 642 are going to get a base coat of white Testor's enamel, topped with either fluorescent orange or fluorescent green. My question is how much of each sight to paint. Do most people paint the entire grooved portion of the ramp or just the the upper 1/4" or so?

 

[dant]

Testers 'DayGlo' orange works the best MOST of the time,but hey everyones eyes are different, see things differently ..........REMEMBER though when the sun is straight up, overhead, all of them bright colors tend to 'fade', then one "needs" contrast..............thats why there have been so many different cuts, angles,colors of sights over the years......

 

[TSQUARED]

I use fluorescent orange acrylic model paint and cover the equivalent of 1/8 in. vertical.

 

[frankw]

This article has a lot of good information.

Improving Your Snubs Sights

 

[Walter Rego]

Here's a couple of pics of what I did with my Model 65-3. I like the idea of using fishing lure paint, I'll bet that is more durable than model airplane paint and next time I'll try that kind of paint. The article in the link from frankw is good, it explains why you should not paint the entire surface.

 

[Ralph G. Briscoe]

I use the paint especially designed for gun sights....comes in red, white, yellow, florescent orange and green. It works pretty well. I'm more concerned with being able to take it off if I ever decide to sell a gun than its indestructability--comes off with nail polish remover...no problem.

 

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

This article has a lot of good information.

Improving Your Snubs Sights

Interesting article, but I'm not sure I agree with his logic on not painting the entire front ramp. (Besides, I've already painted the whole durn thing and I think it looks good and it's my gun so tthhppfftt!! )

 

[bassoneer]

I always paint all of the serrations but will come in one
serration on each end with my tape on my white, base coat(s).

For my "color" coats I do the serrations that I didn't get with the white
and do it this way just so I don't end up with white showing at the ends.
Basically it gives me a "cleaner looking" sight when I'm finished.

I tried some fingernail polish on four of my guns and it was OK, but it wasn't very bright. I'm sure there are brighter ones available, but I decided to try the fishing lure and jig paint. I started with a 13-3 all black...

Then added two layers of white...

Then blaze orange...

And then I did a 642, 640-1 and a Ruger GP-100 3"...

I'm 80% satisfied with my work, but my eyes are getting old and I can't get it as perfect as the ones you guys are doing. However, when I hold it up and look down the barrel the front sight is extremely obvious. My old eyes do like that. So...I'm calling it a success for me - I like the fishing lure and jig paint. Best Wishes, B

 

[chief38]

The Testor's Blaze Orange is the way to go. You need not paint the full front sight, only about 3/8" is the part you will actually see while aiming. Use a factory red insert as a model to judge how much to paint.

BEFORE painting, use some alcohol to clean off any oil or solvent residue. Apply with a wooden toothpick and use 3 THIN coats rather than a gloppy thick one. Do not concern yourself if you get a little paint on the side of the sight, just clean it off with a razor after it is dried - comes right off. Make a simply jig to hold the gun in a horizontal position as the paint dries so it doesn't run.

Chief38