Help needed on glow in dark front sights

[Howie1968]

When shooting out of a blind in daylight hours I cannot see my white dot on front side same thing happens when shooting under as roof at shooting range. I mainly hunt hogs at night and use night time red hunting lights and use a red headlamp to illuminate the front sight

 

[Brokennock]

When shooting out of a blind in daylight hours I cannot see my white dot on front side same thing happens when shooting under as roof at shooting range. I mainly hunt hogs at night and use night time red hunting lights and use a red headlamp to illuminate the front sight

All the following is assuming you aren't looking to keep your sights hc/pc.

I found a paint, it is quite thick unlike model paint, that is photolumescent. I'll take a pic later and post it.
Thing is, it needs to be charged with some time in the light and only glows for so long.

If ambient light is coming through the blind window or from outside the range cover, a fiber optic might work.
A side note on fiber optic front sights.
I used to run them for front sights on many of my pistols. Sometimes they get hot and melt during a match or class. Sometimes they just break, especially if not tightly in place. I kept spare material, a lighter, and jeweler's wire snips in my pistol pouch for replacement.
Despite replacement availability I found the hole left by a missing fiber optic tube can be as effective or moreso than the tube in place in low/no light when using a flashlight.
If your target is illuminated but you and the sights are not, that hole can be pretty obvious (nudge, nudge, hint, hint)

I have also seen a glowing adhesive set of stickers available to make "night sights" on revolvers that can't easily have the front sight replaced. I don't remember the name. But I know they were associated with defensive snubnose shooting to help your search.

Other than a tritium insert. Any other glowing materials that I know of will only glow for a limited time.

 

[pwbsmokey]

Try Glow-on sight paint. glow-on.com

 

[Brokennock]

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I got it from Amazon.

I leave this with a small desk lamp over it.
This pic is after it has been out from under the lamp for over an hour.

The camera function makes the area look brighter than it is, but it isn't pitch dark.
I stuck it partly under the lamp again for a half hour.

You can see that only one side of the rear sight was in the light from the lamp.

Hopefully the use of a modern gun can be forgiven. I don't use this stuff on any of my period gear.

 

[Eutycus]

Forgive me, I must have missed something, was there a question in there somewhere? Like which sights do you use or something like, that?Or are we just comparing?

 

[Brokennock]

Forgive me, I must have missed something, was there a question in there somewhere? Like which sights do you use or something like, that?Or are we just comparing?

You raise a good point.
I assumed the o.p. was a question about how to see one's sights better. I've not noticed poster to be overly concerned with p.c./h.c. (not said as a judgment) which influenced my answer.

 

[FishDFly]

Forgive me, I must have missed something, was there a question in there somewhere? Like which sights do you use or something like, that?Or are we just comparing?

I feel better now.

 

[Stony Broke]

Gosh...with those big old hogs you shoot, it must be hard to miss one !! When hunting hogs at night, I always have a light or two in the area, and when there is movement, they get brighter. I've shot a lot of hogs just using those lights. I get them at Harbor Freight and they are solar powered, easy to put up and only about 25 bucks each. I have some that have been working regularly for years....

 

[Brokennock]

I feel better now.

I think it was the title that made me assume it was a question or that he was looking for suggestions.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

A green Hi-Viz front sight works better than anything I've tried. I took it off after hunting season and replaced with the iron blade.

 

[Howie1968]

I apologize for confusion, I'm a hunter so PC/hc do only matter this the stock Tc hawken front sight I have the fiber optic red front sight on hand 4x I'm saving these for other projects so I was asking about recommendations on illuminated paints inside a ground blind during the day the fiber optic red is still to dark so a glow paint is what I'm wanting to get. The ground blinds I use are solid black inside when bowhunting I add a light to the sights to make brighter so I can shoot in daylight. It's hard to explain the proper terminology

 

[2 shots]

i just put a set of williams fibre optic ghost ring rear sight and f/o red front sight on my hunter renegade so i could see it better. looked good when i was done. i went to the range to sight in guess what? benches are covered , i could not see the red front sight at all [ mid day] totally useless . guess same would happen in woods under trees, in blind , ect. total waste of time and money.

 

[Brokennock]

I apologize for confusion, I'm a hunter so PC/hc do only matter this the stock Tc hawken front sight I have the fiber optic red front sight on hand 4x I'm saving these for other projects so I was asking about recommendations on illuminated paints inside a ground blind during the day the fiber optic red is still to dark so a glow paint is what I'm wanting to get. The ground blinds I use are solid black inside when bowhunting I add a light to the sights to make brighter so I can shoot in daylight. It's hard to explain the proper terminology

Not sure if your fiber optic red front sight is encapsulated or if you cab change the tube. If you can change the tube, change it to green, it transmits more light. I did a lot of shooting in the dark for a long time. I tried green, red, orange, blue, and yellow fiber optic filaments/tunes. Green always seemed the brightest. (Blue was only tried because it was stock on a friend's gun of a certain make/model,,,, it sucked)
If you change the tube, try to bead the ends the absolute minimum amount you can to get it to stay in place. The more you distort the end, the more light you will loose.
If you are buying a new sight and have choices, longer is brighter than thicker. Take a 6" piece of fiber optic replacement tube, all the colors look super bright on the ends. Cut one in half, not as bright. Cut it down to sight size, brightness drops again. Now bead an end, hmmm, no where near as bright.
I even toyed with the idea at one point of dovetailing a second front sight so I could run over double the length of tube, glad I didn't bother, lol.

 

[FishDFly]

If you are color blind, you may need to try different colors to find the one you can see.

 

[2 shots]

thanks brokennock, i read that red is the first color to fade from our vision [ after buying the sight], it works great in direct light not so in shade . will find some green rod and try it. easy enough to change. thanks again. mike

 

[user 48679]

A fiber-optic sight is light-gathering, so try sticking the muzzle outside the blind to aim/shoot.

YMMV, but I've been using FO sights ever since they were first introduced, and never had an issue with any.

 

[renegadehunter]

I experience the same thing @Howie1968.
F.O. sights work very well for me out in the woods in low light (years and years of using F.O. bow sights to elk hunt), even under a pretty thick tree canopy, but when in a blind or under a roofed shooting area they just don't gather enough light to show up well.
I believe Brokennock's paint is worth a try, but you would have to "recharge" it on occasion. Certainly a risk of spooking off hogs to light up your blind with a flash light, but if it lasts for around an hour that isn't too bad.
Ever heard of tritium sights? They are mainly sold for unmentionable pistols, but perhaps a setup of those could be bought and then have a gunsmith drill and tap your favorite hog hunting rifle for them?

 

[Brokennock]

I experience the same thing @Howie1968.
F.O. sights work very well for me out in the woods in low light (years and years of using F.O. bow sights to elk hunt), even under a pretty thick tree canopy, but when in a blind or under a roofed shooting area they just don't gather enough light to show up well.
I believe Brokennock's paint is worth a try, but you would have to "recharge" it on occasion. Certainly a risk of spooking off hogs to light up your blind with a flash light, but if it lasts for around an hour that isn't too bad.
Ever heard of tritium sights? They are mainly sold for unmentionable pistols, but perhaps a setup of those could be bought and then have a gunsmith drill and tap your favorite hog hunting rifle for them?

Don't really need to drill and tap to use a tritium front sight from another platform. Just pick which Trijicon model (don't waste your time and money with other brands) offers the closest to the correct height to what you need and have the front sight dovetail recut to match it. Will have to look at the listing for several guns to gather different front sight heights, if you need something really tall maybe need to look at the sights designed to co-witness with a RMR or other red dot.
Our eyes can be funny about color.
I switched from fiber optic to Trijicon HD sights. They have a small tritium dot in the middle of a large, thick, colored ring that is photo luminescent. Ring color options are either fluorescent orange or fluorescent green/yellow.
I tried both. My need with these sights is for fast precision. I pick up the orange faster, but, I just can not seem to focus on it as crisply and clearly as I can the yellow/green. Weird.

 

[morehops52]

Don't really need to drill and tap to use a tritium front sight from another platform. Just pick which Trijicon model (don't waste your time and money with other brands) offers the closest to the correct height to what you need and have the front sight dovetail recut to match it. Will have to look at the listing for several guns to gather different front sight heights, if you need something really tall maybe need to look at the sights designed to co-witness with a RMR or other red dot.
Our eyes can be funny about color.
I switched from fiber optic to Trijicon HD sights. They have a small tritium dot in the middle of a large, thick, colored ring that is photo luminescent. Ring color options are either fluorescent orange or fluorescent green/yellow.
I tried both. My need with these sights is for fast precision. I pick up the orange faster, but, I just can not seem to focus on it as crisply and clearly as I can the yellow/green. Weird.

I'm having the same problem and had never considered Trijicon. I'm going to check it out.

 

[Howie1968]

can you recharge the glow paint with any light or is it light specific? years ago i had a fiber optic pin on a bow and it required charging, as stated night time hunting is not a problem in a blind as i have a red head lamp shining on front sight plus my red night hunting lights illuminte the hogs. during the day if im in a tree stand or climber i can see my painted white front dot just fine its the transition from dark blind to sunlight