visual problems picking up my front sights at the range

kozmic

kozmic

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I went to my outdoor range on Saturday with my 36 flat latch snubby, my mid-sixties 10-2 4" and my 6" 28-2 from the early 70's (see my avatar). All are "nicer" (85-95%) shooters and not safe queens.

Normally I wear contact lens that have rings to act like bifocals and yellow shooting glasses. That typically gives me pretty good depth of field and contrast. On Saturday I wore my regular bifocal glasses that turn gray in sunlight.

It was windy and my eyes were watering slightly and it was very gray and overcast. I had a terrible time picking up the front ramp of the sights shooting at black ink paper targets at 25 feet and beyond. It was tough on all three of the above guns. My semis with night sights or white three dots were fine.

I could acquire the back sight and target fine just not the front sights in alignment. It would blur and I would loose everything!

I know there are those little aperture holes that suction cup to the lens of your dominate eye are available. But what I really would like to do is paint the front ramps of all three guns (and my 442) to create some contrast.

My questions are as you'd expect. (1) What to use for paint or nail polish, etc. I think I will use an orange/red color to try to duplicate the S&W color on OEM front sights. (2) If whatever I apply is removable will it impact the value of the guns? (3) Am I missing anything as far as products, colors or acceptable procedures, etc?

I tried a search and I know this has been discussed but I couldn't find anything. It would be great if someone could provide a link to those older threads if you know where they are hiding!

It was a demoralizing day at the range.:(

Thank you in advance.
Koz
 
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I think if you are having trouble focusing on the front sight (which is key to accurate shooting) that a visit to your eye doctor is in order, especially if he/she is familiar with your shooting needs. If you need different shooting glasses, all you might accomplish with painting the front sight is to make a black blur into a brightly colored one.
 
I've never been one to be concerned with "the value of the gun". If it's an investment piece, then it probably isn't getting shot.

If you want to paint the front sights, use something like acrylic craft paint. Comes in eleventy gazillion colors, including glow in the dark. Comes off with a little friction, maybe solvent.

In terms of your eye prescription, how about wearing reading glasses instead of bifocals or contacts with multi focal areas? All you want/need to see is the front sight. Get glasses that allow that. I use cheap, non prescription, large lens reading glasses from the drug store as shooting glasses. The lenses are large enough that I don't have to move my head into a weird position to get things lined up with my eye. When I want to look downrange to see where I've shot, I slip them down a tiny bit and look over the lenses.


Sgt Lumpy
 
Contact your eye Dr. and see if he will allow you to bring a gun (cased unloaded) to the office and be fitted for a Rx that allows you to see the front sights properly. There are several mfg's that will make up shooting glasses for just your Rx.
 
CAN'T SEE DIDDLY

If you're over 40 y/o, it may be an oldagematizm & you are in good company. If you have RX glasses, try them all & see which ones work best for shooting. For me the small readers work best, but don't offer a lot of protection. I painted most of my front sites orange. Use a coat of white first, then the orange, it comes out much better (thanks whoever gave me that tip here). the 3 white dots work better for me also at close range.
 
When I developed that problem I was still a sworn officer and carried concealed by agency mandate. I knew my Ophthalmologist was a gunnie from having encountered him at my shooting range on occasion. I went to him packing under a vest. He had a young intern with him at the time of the appointment. I explained the problem. The Doc asked me just what was the distance from my eye to the front sight. I said, "I don't know but if you have a tape measure we can find out". He pulled a small tape from a drawer and I turned slightly and drew to a shooting position. I thought the young Intern was going to have a heart attack. The Doc just laughed and proceeded to measure the distance. I reholstered and the Doc finished up. I got a set of shooting glasses that were of the "progressive" type that cured my problem. I have no idea what the Intern thought of the whole situation. :-) ................ Big Cholla
 
The suggestions regarding prescriptions are good info. But you might still like to color the front sight. I did because the plates on our plate range are in the shade and hard to aim at with a blue front sight.
I was in Walmart and asked a very nice and very helpful female customer if she knew anything about nail polish and if she could help me. For what I intended to do, she told me to use two coats of white and follow with two coats of color. She also steered me away from the expensive stuff (over $5.00 per bottle). I bought NYC (New York Color) brand #134 "French White Tip" and #112 "Times Square Tangerine Crème". I cleaned the sight with alcohol, masked the sides and painted the serrated portion.
The sights I colored work great on the plate range.
The polish is removable using acetone (nail polish remover).
 
kozmic said:
Normally I wear contact lens that have rings to act like bifocals and yellow shooting glasses. That typically gives me pretty good depth of field and contrast. On Saturday I wore my regular bifocal glasses that turn gray in sunlight.

It was windy and my eyes were watering slightly and it was very gray and overcast. I had a terrible time picking up the front ramp of the sights shooting at black ink paper targets at 25 feet and beyond. It was tough on all three of the above guns. My semis with night sights or white three dots were fine.
Click to expand...

I hate days like that. My eye are in good shape after surgery but those sunglare/wind/dust watery, burning eye days are no fun at all.

It sounds like your contacts and shooting glasses combo at least works. Maybe you can try lighter colored targets. But I like my red ramp front sights and I think the painting would help. I've heard Testor's model paints are pretty good.
 
I've been using day-glo orange and green paints for more than 20 years on my front sights to make them easier to pick up quickly, especially in low light hunting conditions. I have always used a white base coat first. You can buy these type paints at any decent hobby shop.

As I've gotten older I have started having a bit of a problem getting a decent sight picture. I found out that my wife's optometrist was a pro gun guy and had him fit me with some Rx shooting glasses that are safety lenses as well. They help for some situations, but not all as glasses of this type are always going to be a compromise. I bought one of the Meritt dial shooting glasses attachments a while back from someone on this forum. That was the answer for 95% of my shooting needs! Now I can dial in the front sight nice and clear while still having the target be in enough focus to make sure I am holding the sight picture the same from shot to shot like I could a few years ago with my own naked eye.
 
My solution for your problem:
--Fingernail polish works well for front sights, and has the advantages of being inexpensive, available in many colors, and easy to remove. Try many colors -- my current favorite is one called "Mellow Yellow".

-- Try adopting a slightly more down-tilting head position, tuck in your chin a bit so that you are looking through the upper portion of your bifocals. It's amazing how this one detail sharpened front sights for me.
 
I wear a progressive script that works for me. As to the front sight I use white appliance touch-up paint found at any hardware store. It is a base coat and from there I apply an orange glow acrylic paint found in Walmart, but there is only so much I can do about 67 year old eyes.
 
With all of the M&P's that are losing their front sight on the range there should be plenty to pickup and use one of those !!!

Randy

PS....small attempt at humor here..
\
I can joke around a little bit about this very issue as I had a detached retina in my right (dominant) eye and am struggling on the front sight as well, but for different reasons....hopefully after catarac surgery in Feb. things will be remarkable as they told me...sign me up for remarkable soon!!
 
My solution for your problem:
--Fingernail polish works well for front sights, and has the advantages of being inexpensive, available in many colors, and easy to remove. Try many colors -- my current favorite is one called "Mellow Yellow".
Click to expand...

Have to make sure you don't use the same fingernail polish on your nails. You might really get confused!
 
I've had the same problem for the past few years. I didn't want to modify my classic Smiths, so I painted the fronts and had White outline rear sights put on. I also bought extra sets of rear sight screws and kept the old solid black sights.

I've found for painting front sights:

Use acetone and a toothbrush to deeply clean the serrations of the blade

Use blue 3M painters tape on the side of the sights and to limit the area you paint

I use white fingernail polish (2 coats) drying 2 hours between coats

Then I use Testers Fluorescent red paint (keep applying coats until completely covers blade serrations

Lastly, after letting the Testers dry 24 hours, I put 2 or 3 coats of clear nail polish.

This lasts for 2-3 years for me without having to touch up

Just be careful in keeping solvent off the front sight blade when cleaning
 
Having the rear sight, front sight and target in focus would be ideal, but not possible. You have to have the front sight in focus and let the rear and target go fuzzy. The older your eyes, the fuzzier the rear sight and target will be. So anything that gets the front sight in focus is the key. As you can tell from the responses above, you have a lot of company.


Charlie
 
I am near-sighted. I used to be able to read through my distance-corrected lenses but I can't anymore. Been having the same trouble others describe here re: front sight and target. I experimented the last time I went shooting by looking over my glasses, the front sight was sharp but even at 7 yards the target was fuzzy- but I still got better hits by looking over glasses than looking through.
 
I had the front sight problem
Tried my computer glasses and they work perfectly
Tell your eye doctor your monitors are at the end of your fingertips with arm straight out.
I made the doc put the little test thing out as far as it would go
Get your prescription then go to some online eye buy direct place
Type in the numbers from the prescription
$30-$40 will get you decent frames w single vision polycarbonate lenses with anti-glare coating
I will never go to a walk in glasses place again - total rip-off
 
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