Painting Your Gun

[A1A]

Well, sort of. Some may have discovered that WM did away with their model building section of the toy department and with it the Testors paint. However, in their craft department, they have a fairly large selection of acrylic paints including neons. Although I like white with black sights, it just doesn't stand out against stainless so this was today's experiment with the SF-VI. So far it is an improvement to my eyes.

[randyhamrick]

I like it.

I had my favorite gunsmith install a brass insert into the front sight of my custom 1911. The brass picks up a lot of light, giving something postitive to focus on in the sight picture.

[El Bibliotecario]

Many of my handguns have painted front sights. I prefer yellow, but that's a matter of choice. I particularly like colored front sights on plinkers and field guns.

With fixed sight revolvers which shoot to the left or the right, I paint a slightly offset vertical stripe, then center the stripe in the rear sight. Sometimes this takes experimentation. While not perfect, it is a very inexpensive fix.

[A1A]

Yes, certainly not a new idea. I haven't been a big fan of it after seeing some nail polish jobs, but necessity, utility and cost win out. I forgot to mention that white did work well on the 4.5" Colt 22.

[wdhdoc]

I now understand why many very nice condition, well cared for vintage Colt DA revolvers have colored front sights. My vision ain't what it used to be and it's become very had aligning blue on blue.... especially in fading light.

So here's to some prior generation Colt owners who had to do something so their revered Colts could still be used....and so we could purchase them in the here and now.

JMHO

[bmcgilvray]

I passed 50 a couple of years ago so may be desirous of a dab of paint before long. So far I prefer the sharp black front sight best. Colored or white on the sights makes sighting more laborious to me. May be singing a different tune in a few more years.

[A1A]

Well now you young whippersnappers have done it. I don't see it (pun intended) as an age thing. As a matter of fact, my eyes have miraculously improved with age, all the way fro 20/200 with multi-focal lenses to functioning quite comfortably and even driving legally with no correction. They are strangely almost perfect for focusing on the sights ala Roper. Believe it or not. It's more a matter that the stainless sight is somewhat difficult to pick up against a light or varied background as you might encounter in a defensive situation (we won't get into aiming vs point and shoot) and the black on black against a very dark background is also. There must be a reason for white dot sights as on my semi-auto and orange inserts on everybody's Pythons, so this is an experiment. I might not like it at the range. We will see (pun again intended). The nice part is that if I don't like it, I can remove it.

[bmcgilvray]

The paint is the most sensible way to go with custom sights because one may always dissolve it away. Choices is what it's about.

[Ken S]

At 64 now, I find shooting with graduated bifocals has my head bobbing to find the right spot where everything is in focus with my SAA. (ps I can still get 3 inches at 50 feet offhand, so I'm not dead yet)
front sight trick on SAA . I carry a black magic marker in my kit. I hit the rear and top of the sight at the range and it dries dull/matt. Kills the light reflecting off the sight, and while it allows a better picture, it washes off easily and won't hurt the gun. Flat black paing on the rear edge works too, but is too much trouble. Ken

[GUNKWAZY]

A1A, you is a regular Monet when it comes to painting, and it even saved you some Moe-nay customizing them sights Yo-self.
They look good. Your 2 brudders Michael & Angelo would be proud of you.
Keep up the good woik.

Jeff (GUNKWAZY)