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1Shirt
11-10-2006, 10:13 AM
Who uses what for blackening sights on Milsurps? Am looking for the experiance of oldsters like me with lousy eyes. Thanks in advance to those who respond!
1Shirt!

RayinNH
11-10-2006, 08:52 PM
1Shirt, I've just used a felt tip marker, like a "Sharpie". Works well, easy to apply, but does come off with gun cleaning solvents though...Ray

Explorer1
11-10-2006, 09:35 PM
Well, not quite an "ole timer" but approaching. Have used my share of carbide smoking sights while shooting handgun silhouette. It is very effective, I have seen some melt the colored inserts out of their sights.
A couple carbide rocks, a few drops of water, and you have soot. The smokers used to be like $10 and last forever with a little routine cleaning.

Ken O
11-10-2006, 10:04 PM
I use the Birchwood Casey Sight Black. Its like soot in a can. I think the carbide smoker does a better job, but during a competition its nice to reach into the stool and give the sight a spray if you get a glare.

Jack Stanley
11-10-2006, 10:09 PM
I use the Birchwood Casey Sight Black. Its like soot in a can. I think the carbide smoker does a better job, but during a competition its nice to reach into the stool and give the sight a spray if you get a glare.

That's the same stuff I use and I like it for the convienience .

Jack

carpetman
11-10-2006, 10:30 PM
Take black cat hair and grind it real fine. Mix it up into minced cat liver to form a glue. Dab it on. The cat doesnt have to be black as long as it has a black spot. Report how it worked for you and if it needs some adjusting we can work on it.

Phil
11-11-2006, 07:04 AM
I tried the black cat hair but SWMBO really hit the roof when she saw the bald spot on her favorite kitty. Then I tried the hair from a black squirrel that had been run over in the street. Mixing the viscera from the squirrel with black hair from the squirrel really does work better than using cat hair in my opinion. You really don't want to leave it in your shooting kit for very many weeks though. There are just some odors that Hoppe's #9 won't cover forever.

Cheers,

Phil

Four Fingers of Death
11-11-2006, 07:27 AM
Birchwood Casey put out a little spray can and also a sight black which is like a marking pen, touch it up just before you hit the mound. Before this stuff was freely available, I use camphor in a tin, the smoke is very sooty, and a yank at the 88 Police Olympics gave me an acetelyne smoker, which was like a aluminium tube with a wick and a lighter striker. Worked a treat, but we can't get the acetelyne rock here. It is mined in Tasmania, but all goes overseas I am told. MIck.

versifier
11-11-2006, 04:55 PM
I raid my teenage daughters' stashes of nail polish, red, orange, white, black, depending on what I need for any particular day or conditions. When they raid my shooting box to get it back, I use a sharpie for the black. Orange Halloween nail polish is on sale in many places right now - ask your wives, daughters, girlfriends to keep an eye out for what you need, they will probably get a good laugh out of it and find it at a reasonable price, too.

mooman76
11-11-2006, 09:15 PM
I tried the black cat hair thing too. Got the S#1t scatched out of me!

BD
11-11-2006, 10:41 PM
Regular masking tape, (the beige colored stuff), twisted into a taper and lit gives the blackest soot of anything I've found. And the price is right.
BD

Harry Eales
11-22-2006, 04:47 PM
For a temporary, wipe off sight black, nothing works better than the flame of a lit candle. Provided you haven't any plastic sight inserts just light the candle, hold the sight in the flame for a couple of seconds and you have a matt black coating of soot that won't shoot off, yet will come off with a dry tissue or rag.

Harry

Hip's Ax
11-22-2006, 05:38 PM
I still shoot some service rifle from time to time and for years I used the simple Gunsmoke carbide lamp. A couple of years ago I ordered the Ray-Vin Super Smoker after seeing one at a match. The first time I used the Ray-Vin I gave away my Gunsmoke right then and there. The Ray-Vin works amazingly well, no squirting the water or spitting in the lamp and then trying to hurry to screw the top on before all the gas gets away just to have to do it again because you didn't get enough smoke. Just twist the bottom and hit the spark wheel, if the flame goes low and you still need more just twist the bottom again. The Ray-Vin is expensive compared to the Gunsmoke but worth every penny.

http://www.ray-vin.com/

http://www.ray-vin.com/gunsight/img/supersmoker.jpg

doc25
11-22-2006, 05:44 PM
Camphor from the drug store. Light it on fire and beautiful black soot. You can run it down the outside of your barrel and wipe it all off after.

Ron
11-29-2006, 02:46 AM
4fingermick - see private message re carbide.

Ed Barrett
11-29-2006, 11:25 AM
I usually use an oily cleaning patch. hold it with a long nosed pliers and light it. Different oils will give different amount of smoke. It's cheap and easy.

1Shirt
11-29-2006, 06:09 PM
Good words of wisdom guys. Find the perm felt tip marker the easiest, but left the top off and it dried out. Masking tape works great. Am to cheap to buy a carbide lamp. Last time I used one was on Paris Island in the 50's. Will have to try campher one of these days, preferably when I have a cold. Gave up on the nail polish some time back because it kind of seemed I could never find the front sight in the notch. The spray can works great. Had a couple of skunks come under my deer stand a couple of weeks ago, and thought that I had never seen blacker hair than on those skunks and thought about one of them. However the thought of mincing the liver of skunk, was about like the third curse relating to eye of nute and wing of bat----so I passed on that, and the skunks proceed on.
Anywho, am always learning from this site. Am not sure that every thing I learn is useful, but it is a wasted day when you don't learn something.
1Shirt!:coffee: :coffee:

C1PNR
12-04-2006, 10:14 PM
Am to cheap to buy a carbide lamp. Last time I used one was on Paris Island in the 50's. 1Shirt!:coffee: :coffee:
Hey Top! What happened to your bucket issue lamp? I've still got mine.[smilie=1: What a piece of precision equipment, eh?

I do admit, though, to being a "Hollywood Marine" from MCRD San Diego (1961), and I only lasted 4 years, so I guess you get some slack for sticking it out.

I haven't had any carbide in a lot of years, and went to the spray can for handgun work. But I still think the carbide is a VERY GOOD sight blacking agent, and easy to clean off later.

Alaskantmb
09-22-2013, 08:59 AM
I have used a Gunsmoker smoker for many years and the threads on mine no longer grip. I have not been able to find a source for a new one. Can anybody tell me where I can get a Gunsmoke Smoker?

Four Fingers of Death
09-22-2013, 12:25 PM
Cigarette lighter is ok, quick and easy to use, but rubs off reallllll easy, especially if you have light clothing! Probably a better bet would be to sandblast the sight parts that are shiny then rust blue the area with a DIY kit. Permanent fix that way.

Patrick L
09-22-2013, 08:43 PM
I like a zippo lighter for smoking sights, and boolit molds too. Especially when its full, it makes a tall, sooty flame.

Scharfschuetze
09-22-2013, 09:10 PM
I'm going to try that masking tape trick. I've never heard of that before and I've shot NM and PPC all over the US back in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

That Ray-Vin Super Smoker sure looks to be the "bomb." I may just have to try one of those. I've used old mining lamps that were issued on military teams as well as the Gunsmoke unit on police teams, but that Super Smoker looks to be just the ticket for future range days and matches.

I loved the ending of the video for it when the narrator said that it came with "10s n' Xs and some leg points in it."

john hayslip
09-22-2013, 10:11 PM
Testor's flat black model paint, fairly cheap. Small bottle of it and a bottle of paint thinner for cleaning brush take up about a cubic inch of space. Add a cheap small brush and you're in business. Doesn't come off easy, goes on easy and is a good dull black. Not as good as acetelyne but you can't by carbide in Texas any more. some stupid state law.

country gent
09-22-2013, 10:46 PM
I used the gun smoke smokers and carbide water mix. set up and made a dozen with a built in striker and 45 deg flame angle. Then got a miners lamp and that worked great we could do the whole state teams rifles on one charge and then some. Anothertrick is flat black model paint with a little talc mixed in not as dull/flat as the lamp smokers but its not bad. I find the flame of a zippo oily and a butane dosnt produce alot of smoke. I always perfered the smoke from the lamp

Win94ae
09-22-2013, 11:27 PM
I have a can in my vest, but I usually block the sun with either homemade sight hoods, or electrical tape.
Sometimes Sight Black is the same color as my background, so that makes it difficult acquiring the proper sight picture.