Better sights for Ruger Blackhawks?

[franklin!]

My eyes don't pick up Ruger Blackhawk factory sights as well as they once did. Know of anyone who makes a rear sight blade with a shallow V notch rather than the traditional notch? Anyone make a front sight with a gold (or white, or some other color) bead inset into the sight itself? I see sights like this for semi-autos, but can't find any like that for Blackhawks, at least where I have have looked. Not really interested in tritium. Help, advice, information sincerely appreciated.

[possom813]

what I do/did on mine. The front blade, where the grooves are on top, I took a toothpick with a bit of white paint and just ran it up the grooves and turned them white.

It's faded out now, just has the paint in the bottom of the grooves, but it's worked well for the past couple of years.

I've got no ideas for he rear sight, it was never a problem for me

[contender1]

On the Blackhawks,,, the front sight base is not removable or replaceable except by a gunsmith. UNLESS it is a stainless steel gun with the blade insert. If it is a stainless model,, then Hi-Viz makes a replaceable front blade in fiber optic. If you gun is a blued one,,, then it'll take some gunsmithing to give you a bead etc. I would suggest the painting of the front sight with white, red, orange or green fingernail polish. Easily removable to change colors, and doesn't modify the gun in any permanent, irreversible way.
As for the rear,, yes, there is a V-notch rear blade that can be installed. Look for one for the Redhawk. Ruger made a Redhawk set of sights,,,gold bead front, with a V-notch rear blade. The rear blade will interchange with the Blackhawk one. (I know,,, as I've done some of the swapping around stuff.)
However,,, it may be a bit hard to find the Redhawk set,,, as I think they were discontinued. You may have to do some hunting to find one.

[MT Gianni]

Nail polish is your friend. Experiment with red, white of green dot on the front sight.

[BRobertson]

Look at Bowen Classic Arms for the rear sights


Bob

[oscarflytyer]

There is a V notch rear - but not sure who makes it. Sorry. For the front sight, you can put gold/brass model paint in one (or more) of the fine sight grooves for diff elevations/long range shooting. The gold/brass helps me.

[Lloyd Smale]

I detest a v notch rear sight on a six gun. It may make a good express sight for a rifle but its just not precise enough for accuracy work in a sixgun. My favorite sight set up and one that most of my sixguns have is a bowen target rear and a clements flat front blade thinned to .10. It is in all actuality a better sight even in low light then any painted blade or white line rear blade. The thinner blade allows light on both sides when looking through the rear sight and the flat profile doesnt allow for sun glare in bright light.

[Tatume]

In addition to trying colors, you should also try a good, old-fashioned black. My favorite is the black pen sold as bluing repair. It does a wonderful job on both front and rear sights, making them much easier to see.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/379148/birchwood-casey-super-black-touch-up-pen-flat

Take care, Tom

[winelover]

Ruger offered the v-notch rear and a gold bead front for the Redhawk and I like the set up. That being said, I'm pretty sure that the v-notch blade will fit in the Blackhawk. Your on your own, trying to come up with a suitable front sight. BTW, I did the fingernail polish trick using, florescent red, and it made a big difference for my old eyes on a ROA.

Winelover

[Sasquatch-1]

Before you go using something that will be hard to remove on the front sight try white crayon. I have been using it for years and it is easy to remove if it doesn't work. It also looks nice rubbed into the lettering on the gun.

[paul h]

It's really tough to improve on a good patridge sight. I've shot insert sights and find that the color tends to blur the sight picture vs. having a nice crisp sight picture. Unforunately there is no magic iron sight that will help aging eyes. If you really want to improve the sighting for aging eyes your best bet is to have the frame d/t'd for a weigand base and plop a red dot on it. I know, sacralege to put an electronic sight on a single action.

[Norbrat]

A Merit device on my shooting glasses has made a huge difference to how I see open handgun sights. http://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

[jmort]

I like these a lot, but I like "peep/ghost ring" sights in general.

http://www.warrencustomoutdoor.com/ohs-ruger.html

[shorty500M]

20 odd years ago when wanting to put express sights on a SBH, i used the ruger V-rear blade from the Redhawk and after cutting the blade down flush with base up front i dovetailed the base and used the bead for a rifle, experimenting til got the size bead and POI desired

[W.R.Buchanan]

I had a Weigand front sight installed on my SBH when the barrel was cut off to 5" It has easily interchangeable blades so you can easily compensate for low or high power loads.

For a rear sight I used a Bowen rear sight. It has a white line around the notch which makes picking up the front sight much easier.

In my front sight insert I cut a groove and filled it with white paint.

Unfortunately the Weigand front sight requires being silver soldered in place which in turn means re-bluing the barrel and it is virtually impossible to re-blue the barrel and get it to match so you will have to re-blue the entire gun and you might as well do the trigger job and free spin pawl while it's apart. Note bead blasted finish on the gun as well.

A stainless gun eliminates most of these problems because the front sight blade is pinned into the base and can be changed out fairly easily.

I also have a BH Bisley in .44 Special. It is going to get the front sight painted white with a Bowen rear sight. This will be a $40 conversion as opposed to the $400 conversion of the SBH Bisley.

Randy

[LUCKYDAWG13]

I like these a lot, but I like "peep/ghost ring" sights in general.

http://www.warrencustomoutdoor.com/ohs-ruger.html

i had a peep sight like that they didn't work all that great for me put the old rear blade back in
used white paint

[Wolfer]

Brownells sells sight paint. Mine cost 14.00 back when I bought it. It works really great, the colors are bright and last a long time. I like the orange front and a thin border of the Mtn dew color on the back.

I like the Bowen rear sight but ain't giving what their asking.

[Southpaw 72]

I'll second the rear aperature peep sight. I also recommend a fiber optic front sight to go along with it.

[shorty500M]

Brownells sells sight paint. Mine cost 14.00 back when I bought it. It works really great, the colors are bright and last a long time. I like the orange front and a thin border of the Mtn dew color on the back.

I like the Bowen rear sight but ain't giving what their asking.

the paint was still about 14bucks last year when i resupplied. its good durable stuff for experimenting

[DougGuy]

Ruger makes white outline rear sight blades for their .22 cal mk I, II, and III pistols as well as the SP 101, they are interchangeable with the Blackhawk. Check the height of your existing blade as they are made in different heights. Usually the .22 rear blade is a bit shorter. For the front, a little white or orange paint would help.

[Sasquatch-1]

I had to replace a rear sight blade on an older New Model BH. Just a bit of warning the newer sight blades have a small bump on the side of the base that needs to be filed off so they will slide in the rear sight base.


Ruger makes white outline rear sight blades for their .22 cal mk I, II, and III pistols as well as the SP 101, they are interchangeable with the Blackhawk. Check the height of your existing blade as they are made in different heights. Usually the .22 rear blade is a bit shorter. For the front, a little white or orange paint would help.

[Lefty SRH]

I have Bowen notch rear sights on most of my Ruger revolvers. But on my GP100 I used Bowens V-notch rear and it's great. Plenty accurate for my purposes. I have it paired with a Hi Viz front FO sight.

[sixshot]

I've been narrowing the front sight to .100" since the sixties, it helps a lot. Another thing about color is that black works fine in good light but when you are hunting many times you are in shadows, also your target (deer) might be in shadows, in these cases that black sight is worthless. After narrowing the front sight I paint them white, let it dry then paint it bright orange, red, green, etc. & it will jump out much better than black.
I have some rear peep sights for Ruger handguns, both the 7/32" size & the 9/32" size & they work great.

Dick

[C. Latch]

I had a local gunsmith cut a front sight for my SS Blackhawk (with the pinned blade sight). He charged $100 for what ended up taking him several hours of work to produce a sight to the dimensions I asked for. I wanted something the same height as the factory sight, but undercut to reduce glare during daylight shooting. Admittedly, it will be a poor sight for low-light situations.

[W.R.Buchanan]

C. Latch: Brownell's sells replacement blades for many different sights including the Ruger ones. Weigand also makes blank blades for their sights that can easily be filed to fit a Ruger pinned base. They are about $15-20 for any of them.

The front sight on my SBH pictured above was one of those blanks and it took about 10 minutes to profile it to the Partridge Style that I wanted. It took longer for the paint to dry.

Randy

[franklin!]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. At present, I will try a Warren rear peep to see how it works out, but there are enough suggestions to keep me experimenting for quite some time. It's always helpful to know what others have done and how it worked. I think I'll start with my .45 LC Blackhawk b/c it's sort of my "default woods loafing piece."

[double bogey]

With regards to the MKIII sights, my hunter model has a shallow V rear sight. My super blackhawk sight looks like it would use the same blade. I have read where some guys don't like the shallow v, and ruger has sent them the notch. My hunter also has a firesight on the front, I haven't compared heights, but I don't like the firesight, am looking for the cutback type. My SB has the cutback front sight, with one screw holding it on, so it would be easy to change. Sorry for the rambling post.