Can't see my front sight????!!!!

[oldracer]

Well, when I shot my Lehigh rifle the other day I had a huge time trying to see the front sight. Since the barrel is a 42 inch it is much longer than any of my 34 inch 45-70 BPCRs so I am trying to figure out what to do. One of the things I did was to epoxy a small piece of white aluminum window blind material to the rear vertical edge of the sight but I still can not focus on it? So, what you you OLD guys do about this anyways........

[725]

Fiber optic front sight. Not period correct but it keeps you on target.

[DIRT Farmer]

Try widening the rear notch, more light helps to focus the front sight.

Did you check the distance for the location of the rear sight? one of my rifles has had the rear sight moved forward to make the sights more visable.

My experience with fiber optics was I had a bright fuzzy thing on the front of the barrel.

[mooman76]

I'm starting to have that problem on a few of my longer guns and of coarse they have tiny front sites. My Trapdoor and it's not the carbine and an old original squirrel rifle, weighs a ton, 32 can and a 1 1/8 barrel about 42 inches long. I have to wear my glasses to see it which I usually wear my glasses when I shoot anymore anyway.

[405]

Old eyes are a pain! If you can bring the front sight into focus without looking at anything else, then as suggested, just open the rear notch up a tiny bit. That's about all that can be done. Let the rear sight and target go fuzzy and the eye will naturally find the center of the fuzz. :) You can move the rear sight forward for better sight picture clarity but a price is paid with shorter sight radius.

[Maven]

"My experience with fiber optics was I had a bright fuzzy thing on the front of the barrel." ... Dirt Farmer

Yup, what Dirt Farmer said!

[Beagle333]

Make mine 3 votes for "Widen the rear sight, focus on the front sight and center it in the fuzzy area."

[Hang Fire]

Get this from Track Of The Wolf, replaces standard rear sight and works great. I have it on two of my ML and made all the difference in the world.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/imgPart/rs-ca-peep-16_0.jpg

[oldracer]

Now that looks like it might help. I'll order one today sometime and give it a try. I did test the sight picture with the small piece of white aluminum epoxied to the edge of the front sight last night at dusk and the white helped a lot.

I was also thinking about the small piece that fits on the eye glasses to make your eye act like the rear of a tang sight?

[hobbles]

At 64 years old, I had to go with the Hiviz two color 3 sizes front sight and I have to use the largest one (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/hobbles/sh.jpg) to see it, and that's with prescription glasses. But I can now shoot like I used to. Heck, I even put a nose touch (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/hobbles/nose1.jpg) on my stock to keep my POI consistent.
I took off the peep sight.

[Maven]

Here's a link to the sight Hang Fire mentioned: http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/883/1/RS-CA-PEEP-14

[oldracer]

I ordered one a bit ago for my 15/16 barrel so it should come this week.

[frontier gander]

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm53/thepowerbeltforum/Lyman/DSCN3403.jpg

[oldracer]

Those are like the set I have on my Ruger LCR and they are GREAT! I want to try and keep the rifle somewhat period correct but if I was to make it into a hunting only gun then the fiber optic sights are the way to go.

I did see an article on making an ivory front sight post and while a huge amount of work, that would surely make the front easier to see. Anything bright would tend to draw the eye and allow it to focus much better I believe.

[mooman76]

Have you thought of painting it? Just the back edge that you see. I often use fingernail polish. Cheap, comes in a wide variety of bright colors, is very convienent in the little bottles and stays on pretty good. It also removes fairly easy when you want to take it off.

[Hang Fire]

Now that looks like it might help. I'll order one today sometime and give it a try. I did test the sight picture with the small piece of white aluminum epoxied to the edge of the front sight last night at dusk and the white helped a lot.

I was also thinking about the small piece that fits on the eye glasses to make your eye act like the rear of a tang sight?

Quick test, on back of your current rear sight, stick on small pieces of black tape with different size holes to see if you get an improvement. (holes will need to be on the large size to act as an extended ghost ring)

[gnoahhh]

All good suggestions. My solution was to focus the light better so as to see the sights more clearly. One way was to stick a piece of electricians tape on the RH lens of my shooting glasses with a tiny hole in it through which my shooting eye peeks through. The small hole 'corrals' the light waves, in essence focusing them to make the images of objects varying distances away from the eye seem sharper. (The same theory behind using a small f-stop in a camera lens.) The down side is it also blocks light, making the images darker- but not so much so as to prevent accurate shooting. There are store bought devices that accomplish the same thing, but none are as cheap as a 1" piece of electricians tape.

The other approach is to try a $10 pair of drug store reading glasses, in 1.00x or 1.25x. I found that they focus the front and rear sights ok for accurate shooting while not making the target too blurry to see clearly. It is actually the method I use when hunting. I let them ride down on the bottom of my nose while mooching around the woods and when I take a shot I nudge them up in front of my eyes with the thumb that's wrapped around the wrist of the stock, all in one motion when I shoulder the rifle.

These two methods have allowed me to stay in the iron sight game and not have to switch to optical sights (or any other contraption that just doesn't look right on a muzzle loader or vintage cartridge rifle).

Edit to add: my optometrist fitted me up with a contact lens for my dominant eye that allows pretty good correction for seeing pistol sights+the target, again. Not too practical for hunting but that might be an avenue for somebody to explore a little further.

[bob208]

move the rear sight up the barrel. that brings the sights into focaus.

[Hang Fire]

The other approach is to try a $10 pair of drug store reading glasses, in 1.00x or 1.25x. I found that they focus the front and rear sights ok for accurate shooting while not making the target too blurry to see clearly.

Beauty of an aperture sight is, so far as the shooter is concerned, it doesn't exist, for the eye always seeks the center without thought, so concentration of front sight is allowed without worry as to the rear.

[oldracer]

I tried the black electrical tape suggestion this evening and put a hole in it with my leather punch. It stuck to the short vertical part of the rear sight and when looking through it the front sight post with the white rear color (now) came into focus very well. That should replicate what the sight I ordered the other day and it seems that it will work.

[flounderman]

if you use the aperature on your glasses, it clears everything up. merrit made one once that stuck to your glasses and was adjustable as to the size of the hole. somebody makes a clear plastic one that has a suction cup for the glasses. you can use the low powered reading glasses and put a piece of paper with a pin hole on them and see how this works. with the aperature close to your eye, everything stays in focus, clear.

[troy_mclure]

What about a bright brass sight? Many pistol shooters like a brass bead, how about a brass blade type sight. Shiny gold color is easy to see.

[gnoahhh]

Yes, but it tarnishes fairly quickly. If you're like me and have an old wedding band left over from the last 'noble experiment', it is a good source of gold for making front sight beads- and won't tarnish.

[oldracer]

My front sight as installed is a brass blade and it is very bright and it is also thin and now pretty short. I think the light reflecting from it combined with the long distance kept me from getting a focus on it. As I noted, I put the black tape on the rear with a small holes and combined with the black front sight with a white insert should work?

[gnoahhh]

One way to find out!

[varsity07840]

I wear bifocals and have had trouble seeing a clear front sight for years. I want all my rifles to be PC so with the exception of some of my BPCRs, peep sights weren't an option. I tried the Merit eye piece, stuck to my lens which was ok for target shooting but not practical for hunting. Even when pivoted out of the way, the suction cup was an obstruction. Sticking the thing on in the morning before getting into the woods was a pain and I had to tie a piece of fishing line from the eyepiece to my glasses to prevent losing the sight if it feel off. Not good when your in a stand, especially in the dark. So, I came up with the fix as shown . It's made from the kind of safety glasses that fit over prescription glasses. No more
obstruction from the suction cup and I can put the gadget on and take it off as I please. The screw at the bottom of the cup is a stop to allow the arm to pivot to the correct spot each time. Not pretty but it works.

Duane

[gnoahhh]

That's a darn good idea!

Sucks getting 'old' doesn't it?!!

[oldracer]

Well, I got my new rear sight from Track of the Wolf mounted. It was too short for the dovetail and it seems there was only one size available so I made an adapter from a piece of 3/16 inch steel. I had to make 3 before I got one that I was happy with as the bevels on the end gave me some problems. One was out of alignment and the next I cut a tad to small but the 3rd was just right!. I tried the sight picture last night and it is great and the front blade shows very well against both dark (bulls eye target) backgrounds and also my neighbors white garage door.

The adapter allows me to actually adjust the height of the rear sight with shims to change the impact up or down and I think it should be pretty close to spot on at 50 yards.