low light sights but traditional look

[BigBoreBLR]

Any ideas? dab of glow in the dark paint. Was hoping for a sleek looking fiber optic sight. Not sure if a peep sight would look ok or not.

This is purely for hunting. Those mid day muzzleloader competition shoots I have another gun for.

Strictly for hunting.

If it matters, it's a lyman GPR LH 54 cal. Pretty sure they're 3/8 dovetails.

I missed a deer offhand at 70 yards. I think I had the front sight too high.

Was thinking of grinding off the semi-buckhorn parts and opening up the rear sight blade gap a bit too. Maybe, swaping a front sight with a brass round dot. Painting the dot with the glow in the dark paint. And then ontop of the modified rear sight, punching two holes on each side of the blade gap and painting the holes with the glow in the dark paint.

Would look traditional from the sides that way.

 

[BrownBear]

Get yourself a jug of "white out" for typewriters. No it doesn't glow, but that white on the front sight will add time to your dusky hunting hours. Once the sun comes up, flick it off the sight with your thumbnail, and go back to hunting. A jug of white out is standard in my shooting bags.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'd say that if you need something like luminous paint or a tritium sight, it's too dark to shoot. Seeing your sights is one factor, being able to see enough of the deer to properly place your shot, is the other factor.

Because of the construction of the human eye, the center of the vision area is mostly color-receptor cells, while toward the edge of your vision are the cells that function in lower light...so when light is reduced enough that you can't clearly define color, ...you will be using cells on the edge of your vision and thus automatically shoot off target, often high.


So the next option, the one that I use is a thin, silver, front sight post. Works great in low light, especially if your back is to the South so that the setting sun illuminates the edge facing you. A well polished edge on a steel sight would work, but in my case I don't have to worry about rust reducing the light reflected.

Another option is to have front sight base installed, and then use a piece of ivory, or plastic that simulates ivory. OR as mentioned, simply paint the back of your sight with something white.

It's not set in stone... if I'm facing North, and the sun has just set, a deer in the field may be illuminated enough for me to see it well, and my sights, but that same time of day in the woods, I can see the deer, but not enough definition on the deer's body, and my sights are too dim as well. Time to go home...

IF you widen the rear notch, then you may introduce a problem sight picture... sometimes that results in the shooter not really being able to determine when the front sight post is centered.

LD

 

[Swede50]

You could put some glow in the dark paint on the deer :haha:

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

 

[silly goose]

I like hunting traditional, and accept its limitations. 70 yards would be a long shot for me in very good conditions, and I still wouldn't take it offhand. I love a rock solid rest. Lots of folks say they make those shots fairly routinely, I'm not one of them. Or maybe our individual range estimation is not calibrated the same.

 

[relicshunter]

Something I thought of doing is to get some of the fiber optics made for achery sights and glue it to the front pin. I think Truglo makes it in a wire form so you can cut the length you need.

 

[brubincam]

a dab of orange finger nail polish works

 

[Spikebuck]

I think everyone's eyes see a bit differently, and hence why there are so many options being given. White has never helped me, personally. I see bright yellow painted on a sight much, much better. But could be my color-blindness that affects me. Funny thing is it's exactly the same for my traditional arrow fletching...yellow over white every time.

For a purely traditional open sight, I like a rounded nickel-silver front sight. The "glow" created right at the tip of the round seems to work well with my eyes from first light until the end of adequate shooting light. I also open the notch in the rear sight enough to allow light on both sides of the front sight, which helps me tremendously.

For a traditional peep sight, I like the Johnson peep sight sold by Muzzleloader Builders Supply. The brass version has enough "flex" that I've even successfully experimented with drilling and tapping a hole for a small set screw as far toward the "peep" end as practical to contact the tang, and using that for fine elevation adjustment. You can't do a lot with that and for all practical purposes your horizontal and vertical need to mostly come from front sight adjustments.

Muzzleloader Builders Supply also sells a "traditional" front fibre optic sight "set." If you want fibre optic on the front, this is definitely the most traditional looking one I've ever seen. You would definitely need a rear sight with vertical adjustment capabilities for this front sight...perhaps a long Hawken with the elevation step bar or something similar.
http://www.muzzleloaderbuilderssup...?cart_id=6549043.20964&next=75&product=Sights

I'm also with Silly Goose as far as using a solid rest. Each shooter needs to understand their skill and limitations....70 yards offhand in hunting situations is, for me, too far. But with a solid rest, which can just be the side of a tree, a good branch or log, my knee if seated flat on the ground, etc, I've taken deer as far as 115 yards with traditional gear.

 

[Blackbruin]

Rmc v peep will work nicely and be a direct replacement for your rear sight. Kinda hard to be truly traditional.

 

[Ron LaClair]

I use florescent orange paint in a spray can. Spray some on a paper and use a toothpick or match stick to put a dab on the back of my front sight. White will work unless there's snow.

 

[robinsroost]

Get yourself a jug of "white out" for typewriters. No it doesn't glow, but that white on the front sight will add time to your dusky hunting hours. Once the sun comes up, flick it off the sight with your thumbnail, and go back to hunting. A jug of white out is standard in my shooting bags.

BrownBear is right. I have used white out for years. Another option is a product called Site Black. It is in a spray can and it coats your sight with a flat black coating, that makes the sights easier to see in sunlight. Keep yer powder dry........Robin :wink:

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

The best low-light-yet-primitive sight I've found is just brass or nickel. However the SHAPE of the sight is CRITICAL.

In outdoor, low-light conditions the light is almost always coming from straight above. What you need your sight to do is to act like a signal mirror and reflect light from above straight to your eye.

This Tennessee sight from TOW is just about spot-on for proper shape. http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/874/2/FS-FG-40-B

See how the end that faces your aiming eye is at a cant? You can tarnish the brass nice and dark, but the back face of the sight you want as a fresh-but-rough surface.

That back face also needs to be uniform for those times when the sun is up. If there are changes in the angle different parts of that face will shine brighter while others are darker. The worst is having the back face rounded. If you look at the edge of a 5-cent piece (nickel) and move it around you'll see the bright spot move.

Neither do you want the back face polished. If it acts too much like a mirror it will reflect images such as a dark pine branch above you. Again bright and dark spots are bad to have facing your eye. Just freshen the face with sandpaper.

This method works well even when the light is bright, although you may prefer darkening the sights with a candle.

I do this on the bead sights of my T/Cs and Cabela's Hawkens. I just file a slant in the bead so that it shines brightly.

 

[rodwha]

If you truly want a good glow in the dark paint: http://glowinc.com/glow-in-the-dark/gun-sights.aspx

 

[BrownBear]

The absolute best I've seen, but about as traditional as an Abrams tank, I learned here on the site. Get some of those tiny replacement lights intended for lighted fishing bobbers. Tape it to the barrel to project light forward onto the front site. They're low enough not to interfere with your line of sight unless your sights are really low. Really works well if you really need the low light help. I confirmed it worked, then decided I just didn't need to hunt in such low light.

 

[Tony Logan]

I had a set of fiber optic sights front one color and adjustable rear sight another color, I got from Dixie Gun works. I think I still have them, and should list them to sell, they fit a pedersoli I used to shoot great. Weren't cheap either but gave me extra shooting time for sure

 

[Wes/Tex]

Get yourself a jug of "white out" for typewriters. No it doesn't glow, but that white on the front sight will add time to your dusky hunting hours. Once the sun comes up, flick it off the sight with your thumbnail, and go back to hunting. A jug of white out is standard in my shooting bags.

Dadgum it, you told the old greybeard's secret...real traditional too, used a wee bit that hadn't dried from a real old bottle my Mom had with her old Royal slam down those keys manual! :rotf:

 

[Danny Ross]

If you use glow in the dark paint put white on first it will make the glow brighter than just putting it on a blued sight. I use white finger nail polish for the base when I put Flo Orange on my front sites, it makes a huge difference in how that orange stands out . There is a finger nail polish by the name Sally Hassan that has nylon in it, it is really hard to chip off and that is what I use for my white base coat.