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What kind of sights do the rest of you use. I haven't found anything that is good in low light. I've tried brass, sliver and steel. Any suggestion??
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olgreenhead
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I read in foxfire 5 they used bone in low light
NoJacketRequired
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Cody,
I'll try to answer your question as plainly and simply as I can. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool scope user, so for me to use iron sights for hunting they've got to be very, very good. I recently purchased a Traditions Pursuit in-line rifle which sported Tru-Glo fibreoptic sights, which I though would be just the ticket. Wrong! Couldn't see the red front sight at all. So that rifle now wears a scope.
But there IS a good solution for iron sights! And I first read about it here! (Yes, this web forum is an invaluable resource for muzzleloading fans.)
Go to Wal-Mart and purchase two things. The first is a small bottle of Testors model paint in gloss white. This should run you less than $3. Then go to the paint section and pick up a bottle of their glow-in-the-dark paint. This is more expensive (around $10). Make sure it's NOT the water-soluable kind. Now you can go home and use the end of a toothpick to apply a dot of white paint on each side of the rear sight notch, and to cover the front sight bead. Let it dry thoroughly (24 hours) and then using another toothpick apply glow-in-the-dark paint over the white paint dots. You'll need to stand your gun up vertically on the muzzle in order to get the paint to dry well without running.
Shezam! You've now got glow-in-the-dark sights that are good right up to legal light. I know this because last Friday night I shot a pesky porcupine out of a maple tree after I had already called it quits on the deer hunt. There's enough paint in the bottles to paint about a thousand sights, so don't be shy about sharing it with your buddies. Just as a hint, the bigger the dots of paint, the easier they are to see. And if you've kept your gun outside all night, as you're walking to your stand you'll want to shine your flashlight on the sights for about 30 seconds so they'll be "energized" enough to be visible on the early morning hunt.
When it comes to iron sights I was a non-believer. But now I've seen the light!
I'll try to answer your question as plainly and simply as I can. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool scope user, so for me to use iron sights for hunting they've got to be very, very good. I recently purchased a Traditions Pursuit in-line rifle which sported Tru-Glo fibreoptic sights, which I though would be just the ticket. Wrong! Couldn't see the red front sight at all. So that rifle now wears a scope.
But there IS a good solution for iron sights! And I first read about it here! (Yes, this web forum is an invaluable resource for muzzleloading fans.)
Go to Wal-Mart and purchase two things. The first is a small bottle of Testors model paint in gloss white. This should run you less than $3. Then go to the paint section and pick up a bottle of their glow-in-the-dark paint. This is more expensive (around $10). Make sure it's NOT the water-soluable kind. Now you can go home and use the end of a toothpick to apply a dot of white paint on each side of the rear sight notch, and to cover the front sight bead. Let it dry thoroughly (24 hours) and then using another toothpick apply glow-in-the-dark paint over the white paint dots. You'll need to stand your gun up vertically on the muzzle in order to get the paint to dry well without running.
Shezam! You've now got glow-in-the-dark sights that are good right up to legal light. I know this because last Friday night I shot a pesky porcupine out of a maple tree after I had already called it quits on the deer hunt. There's enough paint in the bottles to paint about a thousand sights, so don't be shy about sharing it with your buddies. Just as a hint, the bigger the dots of paint, the easier they are to see. And if you've kept your gun outside all night, as you're walking to your stand you'll want to shine your flashlight on the sights for about 30 seconds so they'll be "energized" enough to be visible on the early morning hunt.
When it comes to iron sights I was a non-believer. But now I've seen the light!
Cody,
Ivory or bone.... Make you a poacher's sight. Cut it the weith of your front sight. Mill a little off your iron sight and attach it. Then file it down to the orignal level. That's what I did and it works great, especially on black targets.
SP
Ivory or bone.... Make you a poacher's sight. Cut it the weith of your front sight. Mill a little off your iron sight and attach it. Then file it down to the orignal level. That's what I did and it works great, especially on black targets.
SP
NoJacketRequired
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Rat,
This is indeed the traditional section, but there's no reason why we can't take the lessons learned elsewhere (like on the modern side) and apply them to our traditional firearms. I would hazard a guess that somebody, somewhere, some time long ago, actually tried to use white paint on his squirrel gun sights. That fer me makes it fully qualified as "traditional" ;-)
As Keith mentioned, red is nigh-on impossible to see. But yellow or amber in fact isn't the easiest to see. There was a post about this on the modern firearms side in which the human ability to see colour was discussed in some degree of detail. The graphical evidence presented there showed the human eye has a strong preference for colours in the green/blue band, and even more so as we move from normal day vision to "night" or low-light vision. If we choose white as our sight colour (ie white dots on the front and rear sights) we stand a better chance of seeing the sights because those dots are reflecting all colours of light toward our eye.
OK, I'll hop off my soap box now. But just before I do, please keep in mind that my reference to my Traditions Pursuit was to its fancy modern sights, that as fancy and modern as they are, just can't be seen in low light. In fact, my painted "traditional" sights on my "traditional" Hawken-style gun beat the daylights out of the fibreoptic ones, so this is one of those happy times when high tech doesn't necessarily equal high performance!
This is indeed the traditional section, but there's no reason why we can't take the lessons learned elsewhere (like on the modern side) and apply them to our traditional firearms. I would hazard a guess that somebody, somewhere, some time long ago, actually tried to use white paint on his squirrel gun sights. That fer me makes it fully qualified as "traditional" ;-)
As Keith mentioned, red is nigh-on impossible to see. But yellow or amber in fact isn't the easiest to see. There was a post about this on the modern firearms side in which the human ability to see colour was discussed in some degree of detail. The graphical evidence presented there showed the human eye has a strong preference for colours in the green/blue band, and even more so as we move from normal day vision to "night" or low-light vision. If we choose white as our sight colour (ie white dots on the front and rear sights) we stand a better chance of seeing the sights because those dots are reflecting all colours of light toward our eye.
OK, I'll hop off my soap box now. But just before I do, please keep in mind that my reference to my Traditions Pursuit was to its fancy modern sights, that as fancy and modern as they are, just can't be seen in low light. In fact, my painted "traditional" sights on my "traditional" Hawken-style gun beat the daylights out of the fibreoptic ones, so this is one of those happy times when high tech doesn't necessarily equal high performance!
KyFlintlock
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I use the traditional fixed blade sights on my deer gun, but did hit the tip of the front blade to make it shine a bit. On my .32 squirrel gun: I filed the blade down to sight it in and found it unusable (shot 18" low at 25 yards when I got it!), was only a stump left!! So, I bought some Lyman replacement sights (white bead in the front) and they work GREAT for those little beady heads. Although they aren't period correct, they git-r-done on bushytails.
The bone tip sounds very interesting...
The bone tip sounds very interesting...
I've settled on the following for the bead front sights on my TC Hawkens:
Most general purpose drill bits have a slight taper at their ends...using a drill bit just barely smaller than the diameter of the front bead, I gently start to drill a hole in the face of the bead, but only enough to let the tapered end dish out the face of the bead.
Then I dab it full of white model airplane paint...it stays protected in the dished out face from being rubbed off from handling, brush, etc...and gives me good contrast in the woods
Most general purpose drill bits have a slight taper at their ends...using a drill bit just barely smaller than the diameter of the front bead, I gently start to drill a hole in the face of the bead, but only enough to let the tapered end dish out the face of the bead.
Then I dab it full of white model airplane paint...it stays protected in the dished out face from being rubbed off from handling, brush, etc...and gives me good contrast in the woods
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