Brass or Steel Front Sight?

[Themoose]

Thinking of putting a Skinner sight on Henry BigBoy and need to replace factory sight. Never had a brass front sight before. Which would offer the best visibility ?

Thanks,
TheMoose

[OverMax]

Visibility. My guess. Brass is perhaps the better metal for your application. Steel _Sterling silver_ and nickel were quite popular as well. I would think the golden hue of brass is easier for the human eye to pick-up and focus on over the others.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'd use nickel silver. It shows up better than brass or sterling silver if the latter is at all dull or rounded at the edges, and nickel silver is both harder and resists tarnish better. The same applies even more to stainless steel, but it didn't exist in the great days of the lever action rifle.

[dragon813gt]

It's not a Henry but it does wear a Skinner and you can see my preference :D
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/001F0519-F1E9-4907-97E8-D3D0AB762944.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/Firearms/001F0519-F1E9-4907-97E8-D3D0AB762944.jpg.html)

Every Marlin I own wears a Skinner and they all have brass front posts.

[Kestrel4k]

I have Skinner brass front blades on a number of my aperture / ghost-ring sighted rifles, and am very pleased with them.
Definitely an upgrade from blackened blades for the sort of shooting I do.

[Themoose]

I appreciate everyone's comments...the brass does seem to stand out... thanks for the picture... nice looking setup for sure...

[HawkCreek]

I hate a brass bead on a front sight but a brass blade has worked well for me. I prefer the look of a steel blade most of all on a lever gun but it needs to be serrated for me to get the best sight picture.
I never have tried silver but I'd like to, just never got around to it.

[pirkfan]

I've got a steel skinner front sight on my big boy steel as well as a couple of rossi 92s. White paint pen makes that front sight very visible, I'm sure you could use the same white paint on a brass one too, but if you're going to paint it, why go with brass? Blued gun, blued sight (one Rossi is SS, but the sights are not)

[Bzcraig]

Thinking of putting a Skinner sight on Henry BigBoy and need to replace factory sight. Never had a brass front sight before. Which would offer the best visibility ?

Thanks,
TheMoose

I just put one on my Big Boy 44. Love the look of the 'Black Gold' but haven't been out to shoot it yet and see if it needs a new front sight. I took the advise of Andy to try before changing.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A flat-topped blade is much better than a bead or inverted V. Both of these, particularly the V, seem to alter their height with visual blurring, and the bead does it with differences in the direction of the light. But the blade top stays where it was put, and the eye is very good at judging the middle of something.

[rintinglen]

On a hunting rifle, I prefer a white dot front site. I hunt in mountainous terrain and it gets dark in the valleys long before the end of the day, especially back in the trees. A white dot gives me about 15 more minutes of hunting.

[hp246]

I've used either a brass bead or a white bead. I have a slight preference of the white bead over the brass bead.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Most people would, if only it would stay white. It needs to be a flat round disc, or it will seem to move around according to the direction from which the light falls, so many would prefer a white metal blade, angled to reflect the sky. The extremely durable white ceramic used in some kitchen knives bears thinking about.

[Blackwater]

BinS, you probably know, but I believe I once heard that boar ivory was preferred on the fine old English doubles and bolt guns because it didn't go yellow like elephant and most other ivories. Is there any real truth in that?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

What I heard was warthog ivory. which has the merit of not being CITES controlled like most kinds of ivory. Just how much less yellow it went, I don't know. It might well apply to wild boar ivory as well, especially if the choice was produced by its being fitted by the users in Africa.

My only ivory butted pistol is my Belgian Spirlet, for which I made a new hammer and trigger guard, and probably saved it from being cannibalized for its ivory. I think it must be elephant ivory, although it surely predated the unspeakable Leopold II making the Congo the worst governed country in the world in search of the stuff, for while warthog ivory might be big enough, it commonly has longitudinal cracks. But mine is still only very slightly off-white.

174649

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Track of the Wolf carries multiple styles of blade front sights -steel, nickel, copper, brass - inexpensive to try different ones. I always liked the Redfield Sourdough (?) - steel with a 45 degree brass insert.

[Themoose]

Andy from Skinner suggested fiber optic due to my age, vision and hunting sight. I did order that as well as the brass one. Thanks to everyone for your input.

TheMoose

[ironhead7544]

A shiny front sight may make you shoot toward the sun. Ideally, a black blade with a flush round brass insert would be my choice. The old Redfield Sourdough was pretty good.

The brass Skinner would be good in the shaded woods. I would like to try one in bright sunlight to see how it works.