Rear sight recomendtaions for 1911 & fiber op front

[bobthenailer]

Hi , im putting togeather another 1911 in 45 acp , and im out of the loop on the latest hot sight set up for action pistol type shooting , my slide has a bomar style rear sight cut & a novak front dovetail . I want to install a fiberoptic front but cant decide on the rear sight blade configuration . express , wide sight notch , U sight notch , or the ghost style from caspian circle or diamond , or trimmed outer top edges , or combnation of above .
I allready have the tradtional bomar /black front sight or electronic red dot sights on my other 1911s. Im 64 years old so i will also have to accomdate my old eyes as i cant track the sights as fast as I once could.

[jbird]

I shoot a lot of action pistol with a M1911. I use a fiber obtic front with a Bomar in the rear with the standard notch & the rounded corner blade. Not sure what that rounded corner syle blade is called.

I tried the express style rear & I didn't like it. I could not get used to putting the front dot on top of the shallow rear groove. I always, without thinking about it, aligned the top of the front with the top of the rear. I shot low. Maybe with more practice it would have worked out. But I want to keep the same sighting style from gun to gun. I shoot several different pistols & divisions.

I also tried the "wide notch" & I use that for my carry pistol (great for extream close range). But not the match gun. My hits were loose as compared to the standard rear notch. I see the "big dot" fiber optic in the rear notch & I shoot. Doing that with a wide rear notch at 15 yards will result in an out of the "A" zone hit. Very fast sight, but more difficult for precision work.

[bobthenailer]

I got the EGW fiber optic front with the tradtional bomar combat style rear sight.

[gwpercle]

I have a fiber optic front sight...really like its visibility. Have a wide " V " express sight , seemed like a good idea on paper but I find the wide " V " hard to use ...not satisfied with it. Hard to explain but there is a lack of precision on where to put that nice visible round dot in the rear sight. I'm going to swap it for a " U " rear notch and see if that helps. I have a 7 X 57 mauser that has a brass bead front and U - notch rear that I can shoot well. Just nestle the round bead down in the U and your on...mabey same set up will work for handgun.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I use the standard Novak rear on duty as a LEO on my Colt 1911 5" and am over 50 years of age.

[ole 5 hole group]

Sounds like you’ve got the bases covered and looking for a little magic gadget. I can only suggest a couple solutions – widen your rear sight 0.040” or mill your slide for a Leupold DeltaPoint.

My experience has been different than jbird’s, as my other 1911 is set up with a thin front sight (0.115) and a bomar type rear widen an additional 0.040”. I painted the front sight white and painted the rear inside ears white, so when the pistol comes up I align the fat white strip between the rear thin white strips and send it. At 25 yards I can normally keep 10 rounds within a 3” group in a somewhat rapid fire mode. I might add that both pistols are Baer PII’s with the 1.5” guarantee. Both do very well from a rest at 25 & 50 yards and the Delta will raise hell out to 100 yards rested and will make believers out of any prairie dogs at that range – I miss more than I hit but I don’t miss by much.

I don’t see how you can beat a red dot with ole eyes. They’re fast and there’s no need for sight alignment – what more could you ask for in action pistol or bullseye???

I’m away from the house until next week but I could send you a couple pictures of my 1911 with the Delta setup if you want to PM me or I could post a picture here if others are thinking of spending some hard earned cash for the setup, unless they have the equipment & skill to do it themselves.

[BD]

I'm 57 and wearing trifocals. I've gone through a number of sight options for action pistol in the last ten years, settling on a small green fiber optic front, (EGW), and a plain black U-notch rear, (10-8). It's a workable set up and meets the rules for IDPA CDP, and the local Maine "stock auto". Last year I tightened the old Kimber up with a new bushing, link and pin and now using the shortest front fo sight I could find this shoots to the dot at 25 yards, a mite lower than I'd prefer, but certainly workable. I've found I really prefer the plain black rear round notch as it "goes away" under stress increasing my focus on the front sight.

If you shoot very much at all, You will break the fo front sight from time to time.

I would like to try the newer "diamond over pyramid" site system, but to date they're only made for plastic fantastic pistols, and I haven't run across one at the range to try.
BD

[Lloyd Smale]

I had a sti trojan 9mm that i shot ppc with. When i bought it it had a fiber optic front sight. 3 times that sight broke on me in competiion. For a while i carried extras with me. It cost me a couple good shoots so i just dumped it and put a real black blade on the gun. I think my scores with it actually improved when i did. With my eyes anyway i get better sight definition with a black blade. In bright light the fiber optic blade was just to bright. I also had a set of fire sights on my 444 outfitter. I was shooting one day and one shot they were there and the next they were broke. Never bumped it or anything. Could be they were patialy broke before or the recoil got them. they may have a slight advantage in some lighting conditions but i wouldnt have another set, especailly on a gun i shot in comp, a gun i had to rely on to protect my family or a gun i would take on a once in a lifetime hunt. When i had clements do my custom 4570 marlin i had him make me a front blade with a trinium bar inbedded in it. In my opinion trinium is a much better way to go although its alot more expensive too.

[BD]

Yeah, the fiber optic front sights breaking is a PITA. After several tries with HiViz and TrueGlow, I went to EGW as the sight itself is much stronger, has a flat top, and it takes a short section of small plain straight rod. The bigger diameter rod, the less steel is left around it. With the EGW, if the fo rod breaks you still have the same sight picture, just no glow. Shooting fast I just put the bright dot on the target. If I need to bear down a little I have the top of the blade and top of the front sight I can align.

Both the HiViz and TruGlow broke the sight itself, leaving no sight picture :)

BD

[bobthenailer]

Thanks Everyone !
I have 2 1911s with Aimpoints
and another one with a old orgional Tasco optima , and still ticking and another with a Pride/Fowler special ops sight which IMO is the best of the Optima style sights ! ive tried out of the Optima ,Doctor, Burris fast fire, JP & orgional Trijucon havent tried there new model but checked it out at the NRA convention in Pittsburgh last year
and 2 more with the tradtional BOMAR sights, I just wanted to try a different set up for iron sights with this one ! I went with the BOMAR style rear and a EGW fiber optic front