Question on LR Metallic Silhouette Handgun front sight

[GNERGY]

I have an XP 100 that was built by JD Jones back in the late 70's for metallic silhouette shooting. I shot it a lot with no problems because we shot on cement pads with no roofs.
I decided to enter a match a couple weeks ago that had covered shooting pads and it was really hard to see the front sight because of low light conditiond.
The front sight is a globe with a crosshair that I made out of .006 dia. wire. It worked really well being centered on the rear peep and not covering what you were shooting at.
My question is if I cut a slot infront of where the crosshair is in the globe, do you think it will let any light in to keep the crosshair visible on the black targets. Added picture with blue tape showing black area in front and in the back of the crosshair that could be machined out to let light in. Will probably just do the slot in front of crosshair first.
That is the problem I was having. The crosshair would dissappear on the targets and I would have to move off of them to get the crosshair aligned in the peep and then back on the target.
I don't think painting the crosshair white will do any good, not enough light getting to it. Guess I could tape a flashlight to the barrel. lightbulb
What would you professional gunsmith's do?
Thanks
Tarey
Here are a couple pics.

It is a .35 Remington necked to .338 caliber called the 338 CJMK for Crowley Jones Mastadon Killer it would knock down the mastadon silhouette at 250 yds. It has a Shilen barrel and rifle magna port. Shoots 200gr Hornadys at 2300fps.

 

[NesikaChad]

I've dedicated a good portion of my career in gunmaking to building competitive shooting rifles/pistols.

It's been my experience that 99.9% of the better trigger pullers (like Mid Tompkins, Nancy, David Karcher, Tubb, etc) don't want stray ambient light on the front globe. (which is the whole point of a globe, to tone down the direct light on the front aperture/post, etc) The reason is the glare will create a number of problems. Elevation, windage, eye fatigue, etc. . . This would be why many NRA service rifle guys can't wait to Leg out and move into a Match rifle. Sights are sooooo much easier to work with.

Generally when the front Iris is hard to distinguish you either open the rear aperture or increase the width of the post, Iris size, etc. Color filters can sometimes help. (yellow or orange is often a popular choice)

Sights (metallic) need to evolve with the condition in order to still shoot up to your potential. If your experiencing it, chances are good that everyone else is as well so it's beneficial to be comfortable with making changes. If it were me I'd whip up some additional cross hairs with heavier wire and move to either some sort of adjustable rear aperture or make/buy some in larger sizes.

The center of a hole is still the center no matter how large the hole is. Don't be afraid to go big to get light back to the eye!

Hope this helped.

BTW, nice piece. Here's a "supa bling" silhouette pistol I did about 5/6 years ago for a germ up in Oregon. Nesika NXP action in 6.5BR Ware.

C

 

[GNERGY]

Chad,
I was hoping you would answer my question. If anybody could help me come up with a solution or confirm what I want to try it would be you.
Back when I got into handgun silhouette the other shooters tried a lot of different front sight combos. The front post was too big to be able to be accurate on chickens at 200 meters for shoot off's. They ended up with crosshairs for the front sight. I tried different diameters of wires and .006 to .008 seemed to work the best for me as well as the other shooters. It would not cover the small silhouette ( chickens ) at 200 meters.
We shot out in the open so the front sight ( crosshair ) was always visible against the black steel targets. But when I tried shooting under a covered firing line I had a hard time seeing the crosshair against the black target, it would just dissappear. I would have to move off target and realign the crosshair in the rear peep and then back on target, then it would still blend in. If I could just get a little light to keep the crosshair a little brighter then the target I could hit them. I usually shot 35 to 37 out of 40.
I was even looking into the tru glo sights that bow hunters use, but I don't think you could use them sideways and not head on beacuse the light doesn't come out thru the sides.
That is why I was thinking of milling a slot where the first untaped area is on the globe ( so light can shine on the front part of the crosshair ) to make it more visible. Sorry for the long explanation.
Anybody else done anything with tru glo ( fiber optic ) sights on a gun. Has to be a small OD .006 to .010 Dia.
Thanks
Tarey
That's a really nice pistol.

 

[bassin93]

Gnergy, I shoot BPCR silohette with a sharps and globe front sight. I started with a crosshair and quickly went to an aperture insert for the front , like most everyone else used. Very simple, you find the insert that best encompases the target yet still lets you see around the target so you know where it is in your sights. Your eyes will naturally center the target inside the opening and shoot. The rams are at 500 meters for rifle and the sights work very well.

 

[GNERGY]

I cut a .140 wide notch in front of the crosshair and dusted the cross wire with some white paint. Still not sure it will let in enough light. I am going to open up the hole in the rear peep but the OD doesn't allow me to go very much larger.
Tarey

 

[bassin93]

one more thing to try, before I went to a front apreture, I clipped the top of the crosshair off with a finger nail clippers. ( I was in the middle of a match and had to improvise). but this also worked better then just the crosshair. Its your money but I think you should have tried different inserts before you did the hack job to your globe.