Period sights and worn out eyes

[Limey]

I shoot an Ubert Cattleman in our local CAS style shoots.......the gun is good..... well made, looks good, feels good, great finish.....and very accurate IF I can see the sights well enough....not always easy in poor light conditions or poor colour contrast on the target....

It's a very good a reproduction.....right down to the sights being very period....that means minamilistic and really hard to see...espeacially for my old eye's....

I have put some highlighter paint onto the front sight to help out a little but it could still with something better....

What are other people using or doing to get a better sight picture....

Straight shootin'

Limey

[H-Marlin]

I don't know how this will set with your CAS shooters, but using a pair of 1.0 reading glasses works great for me. Clears up the sights real well, makes the targets a bit fuzzy but that is not a problem out to 50 yards or so.

[bhn22]

Try flat black on the front sight. This may help with definition.

[Doc Highwall]

I don't know how this will set with your CAS shooters, but using a pair of 1.0 reading glasses works great for me. Clears up the sights real well, makes the targets a bit fuzzy but that is not a problem out to 50 yards or so.

I think this is great advice you might even be able to use a +.75. Go down to your local drug store that sells these and try on a pair and look at something that is about the distance to your front sight and get something that clears it up but not too much as the distance will be blurred out. If you wear glasses already you could consider a pair with metal frames and cut them up and use one lens attached to your glasses. Some place I saw where they had stick on plastic lenses that you put on your regular glasses but this is not an option if the glasses are your every day glasses.

[MT Gianni]

There are safety glasses out there with a magnifier bi-focal. I got a pair from work that make a difference in many things.

[runfiverun]

since the targets are only 3 feet away i just point shoot them in caS.
HI VIS MAKES PAINTS FOR SIGHTS, and some of them glow in the dark

[jh45gun]

I bought some bright orange fingernail polish and put a dab on the top front of my sight it works for me.

[Limey]

....guy's....

I tried the magnifyer glasses....no joy for me....

...I am currently using sky blue as the highlighter colour on the front sight blade.......but I'm going to try the hi viz dayglo orange next.....

...old eye's and poor sights?....no wonder most ol' time gunfighters died young!......

Straight shootin'

Limey

[Limey]

...by the way....


...I forgot to mention......our CAS type events....revolver targets are at 25 metres....that's 27 yards in old money....

....usually there are a couple of targets, about a foot square to pop....no probs with them..... then there are a couple at 3inches diameter targets with a no shoot 3ins diameter touching one of these......these I do have probs with......

...also , I refuse to use pip squeak loads....I'm shooting CAS style events to experience the reality of old time frontier shooting....NOT.....just to get the fastest time...I watch those U-Tube videos and in most cases the hand gun and lever actiion sections have NO recoil at all.....I guess they must be using just primers and no powder at all!!!.....

....I reckon they ought to start ACS shooting....that'd be ''Authentic Cowboy Shooting'' where only full power loads were allowed in all disciplines.....is it just me or am I missing something?......

Straight shootin'

Limey

....but all the levergun and shot gun targets are dead!.....

[waksupi]

I saw an idea by I believe one of our board members, on the American Long Rifles site. He suggested making a small 45 degree edge on the rear of the sight. I tried it, and I could see a big difference immediately. Total area I filed was maybe 1/16".
For rear iron sights, I have been widening the groove, until I get a clear front sight picture. Also made a heck of a difference.

[gon2shoot]

I agree with Waksupi about making the rear notch wider, been doing it for awhile and it helps.
In poor light conditions I often just sight down the side of the barrel.

[Doc Highwall]

Here is a few pictures of apertures that you can attach to your glasses to see better.

[Limey]

Waksupi......that sounds like a good idea!.....I'll try filling the flat on the rear of the front sight and widening the rear notch....plus I put on some high viz paint on the front sight flat....

.....Doc....thanks for the heads up on the stick on peep sight.....I'll try that for our normal pistol shoots....but when we do CAS style shooting it'd look a bit weird....

....I know....I know....at my age I should not be such a fashion victim!.......


Thanks for all the helpful and constructive feed back guy's....

Straight shootin'

Limey

[Doc Highwall]

Limey, you could even put a small piece of black plastic tape on your aiming eye with a small pin hole in it about 1mm or .040". The hard part would be to get a round hole with sharp edges, maybe use a punch.

[Jal5]

I picked up a simple cling on plastic piece that sticks to your glasses and it has the pin hole in it. Focuses your eye on that front sight immediately and it becomes clear. www.clear2target.com I think is the name. My groups tightened up considerably at the 25 yd. distance! 10 in the pack and cost $11 shipped. Well worth it since they are reusable.

Joe

[ironhead7544]

Get some 1/4 inch stick on black marking dots and a 1/16 inch paper punch. Punch a hole in the dot and find the right spot your glasses. Works for my 61 year old eyes and is cheap. Doesnt look too bad. Might have to experiment with the dot size.

[Limey]

Guy's....

....I greatly appreciate all the good advice and feed back......clearly I'm not the only 'old gun' around here with eye's that ain't so good any more!......getting old's a bitch.....

...anyway, here are some pics of my gun, an Uberti cattleman 1873, before and after I took the file to it to open up the rear sight notch....


http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/lambris/P1030122.jpg

...before


http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/lambris/P1040465.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/lambris/P1040461.jpg

...and after


....you can see how as supplied by the factory the rear sight groove in the top strap pinch's down into a square notch about the width of your thumb nail making it nigh on impossible for me to see the front sight especially in poor light or poor colour contrast situations.

Firstly I wrapped the gun in cling film so no metal filings could get into the mechanism. Then using a new, 5mm diamter fine cut file, I gently eased open the square notch to be the same profile as the groove in the top strap. I polished up the work with some fine wire wool, broke any sharp edges and then re-blued the new wide groove.

While at it I filed the 45 degree angle onto the back of the front sight and then painted it fluorecesent orange.....NOW I can see the sights OK......looking forward to trying it out but outside it's blowing a gale and chucking it down with rain so I guess it's brew up some more coffee and break out the reloading dies!....

Straight shootin'

Limey

PS:....and yes the front sight does look bent to the right......'cus it is!.......the gun was shooting way to the right from new so I wrapped up the sight blade in tape and then tweaked it in a vice...

.....remember you move a front sight into the direction of error to move impacts in the oposite direction and with a fixed rear sight it could only be adjustments at the front sight....

...I've read that this was a regular tweak by cowboys in the old days to get their guns to hit where they were pointing it so I am comfortable that with a bent front sight my gun is an even better reproduction of 'how it was' in the day!.............

[EDK]

Are painted sights legal for CAS/SASS? I thought they only allowed sight black.

I've got a "herd of VAQUEROS" in blue and stainless, 357 and 44. I got a black fine line metal marker from work and color both front and rear sights...makes a lot of improvement even on the blue/cch guns. When I start getting the guns re-finished, I will add POWER CUSTOM front sights in .125 width and the height to file to point of aim/point of impact more closely AND either file or mill the rear sight groove wider.

"Gettin' old ain't for sissies!" BUT switching from adjustable to fixed sight guns when you're on the high side of 55 wasn't one of my brightest moves either.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[jh45gun]

Limey if it was me I would only paint the top third or fourth part of the sight which is what I did with mine so now when I look at it I got a orange dot I put between the rear opening.

[Grapeshot]

I shoot an Ubert Cattleman in our local CAS style shoots.......the gun is good..... well made, looks good, feels good, great finish.....and very accurate IF I can see the sights well enough....not always easy in poor light conditions or poor colour contrast on the target....

It's a very good a reproduction.....right down to the sights being very period....that means minamilistic and really hard to see...espeacially for my old eye's....

I have put some highlighter paint onto the front sight to help out a little but it could still with something better....

What are other people using or doing to get a better sight picture....

Straight shootin'

Limey

I know what you mean. I replaced the front sight on an old Dakota, EMF Model, and used a jewelers file to open up the rear sight. I also replaced my other Uberti with a Great western II. The sights are made for us with tired eyes. The new Smoke Wagons from Taylors and the Evil Roys from Cimmeron also have the larger sights. They are all good, I prefered the GW2 as a matter of personnal choice.

[Limey]

Hi EDK....

...is an orange front sight legal for CAS?......maybe not in the 'States at a formal CAS comp....here we shoot CAS 'style' not CAS rules at my local shooting club in France.......so until they say no I'll carry on using it .....when they say 'non' I'll have to just shoot the rifle and shotgun sections of the comp....

and jh45gun....

I agree a dots good to look at, on my gun, to hit at 25 metres (27 yards) the very top tip of the front sight must be level with the top of the top strap so whether if it's all painted or just the tip it still looks like just a dot in the sight picture.......and then when I am shooting at 50 metres or longer I can raise the front sight and because it is all painted I still have something highlighted for my old eyes to see.

...a jewelers file Grapeshot?......I was using a lovely, brand new, 5mm diameter fine cut chain saw sharpening file!.......I took it real slow and had the rest of the gun covered in insulating tape and cling film to prevent accidental scratch's and filings getting into the works.....a bit cruder than your jewelers file!....but the top strap steel was softer than I expected an it did a really nice job....I fine finished with wire wool and a worn, green washing up scouring pad then I cold blued the work.....pleasingly it coloured up to match the rest of the top strap.

I wish everybody good shooting and a great W/E.

Limey