How do you guys shape your front sight? (into what shape)

[Whiterabbit]

Hi guys,

I'm still filing my front sight to get it dead nuts at 100 yards. I'm 4" low. Anyways, I'm doing this by just taking it right off the top, and I notice my front sight is larger than typical in shape.

Looks like most folks will shape their front sight a bit as well? makes sense, he back of my sight is getting SHARP! Anyways, is there a "proper" or traditional sight shape to file? I can take off the back and front till it's right, then finish off the sighting in.

[Omnivore]

Let's look at the goals in shaping a front sight. You want a crisp, flat top that is square with the blade, and a crisp blade from top to near bottom. Therefore, to look good and crisp, the top surface of the blade, as seen in side profile, should slope lower at the front and higher at the back. If it happened to slope the other way, you'd be sighting along the length of the blade, and so it would be less sharp, or less crisp— less distinct. Likewise, the blade should be thinner at the front and thicker at the back, so there's no chance of seeing the flat surfaces along the right and left sides of the blade. You want to minimize reflection problems, and so a sight that is rounded in any way will be more of a problem, so sharp is good, optically, but sharp wears off more easily and it can even hurt you in handling, or it can wear a hole in a bag, etc. On handguns it can catch on a holster when drawing the piece. So you may have some contradictory goals. If the sun is behind you, you'll want the rear vertical surface of the sight to angle farther back, toward you at the top, and more forward, farther away from you at the bottom. That way the sun can't reflect into your eye unless you're on top of a high mountain at sunset. Stuff like that. Also a matte finish is better than a glossy finish, so I bead blasted mine before bluing it, but you can see other design features used to cut glare on other sights. A hooded front sight solves the glare problem for the most part.

[waksupi]

I like the tops pretty much as stated, with a bit of a forward slope. I do take a file and put a SMALL 45 degree cut across the back of the front sight flat. It helps to catch light, and I can distinguish the target easier. Old eyes.

[Whiterabbit]

K, got it completely minus one section, thanks guys.

So, for the back of the sight, what I actually see when I'm getting ready to shoot. Still a little unclear.

So you say make it flat, wth the top of the sight closer to me than the bottom, just slightly? like a few degrees off vertical? And straight?

[waksupi]

K, got it completely minus one section, thanks guys.

So, for the back of the sight, what I actually see when I'm getting ready to shoot. Still a little unclear.

So you say make it flat, wth the top of the sight closer to me than the bottom, just slightly? like a few degrees off vertical? And straight?


When I sight, I like to see a shiney square or rectangle at the tip of the front sight. A TINY square or rectangle. Just enough to catch light. Rounded off, with a straight surface! ;o) I don't know how to better explain it, and I am not a good enough photographer to show you.

[KCSO]

I cut mine flat faced in the back and put 50 LPI on the blade. If I black it it stands out well on the range and a little white out during deer season helps my old eyes out. As to original sights I have seen just about every shape you might want, but the old silver blade barley corn with a very fine rear notch is very common. Sighting with this setup is way different than how we do it today. You pulled the front sight up tillyou could just see the blade in the bttom of the v notch and put this dead on for a fine bead and then you held the bead hgher for longer ranges. This is per an old friend of my Granddads who was in the Klondike gold rush and learned to shoot with a muzzleloader.

[Whiterabbit]

50 LPI?

And I have to say, if the name of the game is to put the notch at the BOTTOM of the rear sight for, say, 50 yards then oh my, I have alot more filing to do on the front.

I had only planned on this really being a 100 yard gun, but at 50 yards at least it can drive nails. My eyes aren't so great sighting at 100. Is it even wise to pursue that kind of sight setup? if on at 50 its 4" low at 100 so it's already pretty flat shooting for 100 yards. Any reason not to just sight for 100 yard zero and call it good?

[fouronesix]

A lot depends on primary use, basic accuracy of both gun and shooter, type of load (will it be standardized?), ballistics, etc. If looking to shoot NO MORE than 100 yards with 50 +/- also being common- why not just file form the front and rear sights for best sight picture for ranges (and type of target black- bullseye, large game, whatever) out to 100... then zero at 75.

BTW- I prefer a longer sight radius with the rear sight placed farther back on the barrel than what most consider standard with traditional long barreled MLs which seems to be something like 8"+ forward of the tang. I like the rear 6-7" inches forward of the tang. I like a fairly shallow rear notch shaped and sized to give best sight picture with a flat, medium width front blade where the top of the blade just shows in the rear notch enough to form a windage halo for better windage alignment. One consistent, accurate sight alignment/picture, zeroed at 75 yards. Pretty much takes care of any shooting from point blank out to 100. I don't shoot past 100 when hunting.