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Thread: S&W front sight insert color

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy alfadan's Avatar
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    S&W front sight insert color

    My m67 has an orange front sight insert. For many years I would paint over it with flat black paint as I felt it helped with sight picture on b3 targets indoors as most of our club matches were set up. Last year I thought the orange against a black target outdoors might be better, but now I'm not so sure.

    I'm also doing mainly steel swingers outdoors nowadays which I paint orange so that kind of doesn't work so well. Any toughts?

  2. #2
    Boolit Bub
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    https://www.amazon.com/Super-phospho...s%2C111&sr=8-2

    There are other colors. I like the green.

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy
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    Take a look at your local fishing equip store and browse their fishing lure paints. Lots of colors to include several glow-in-the-dark colors.

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy

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    Sorry! Gave up on those colored inserts 30 to 40 years ago. Serrated and BLACK is the only thing I use. GW

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    I prefer anything but a black front sight. Ambient lighting makes all the difference. So does old tired eyes. Especially, in low light and a dark target. I use florescent orange fingernail polish over a first coat of white. Holds up pretty well on serrated front sights. Easy to redo or touch up. YMMV

    Winelover

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    That stupid S&W insert is a plague flung on the unsuspecting and the inexperienced. Just something to look good to some and a pain to the observant end user.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master slughammer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by alfadan View Post
    My m67 has an orange front sight insert...................
    I'm also doing mainly steel swingers outdoors nowadays which I paint orange so that kind of doesn't work so well. Any toughts?
    Paint your steel swingers WHITE!

    Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk
    Happiness is a couple of 38's and a bucket of ammo.

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy PJEagle's Avatar
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    I replaced all my S&W front sights with Hi-Viz front sights. They are exactly what my old eyes needed.

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy

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    Quote Originally Posted by PJEagle View Post
    I replaced all my S&W front sights with Hi-Viz front sights. They are exactly what my old eyes needed.
    Fiber optic fronts (green) are good. But many fine guns did not have pinned fronts making them difficult to replace. McGivern fronts are also good, GW

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master
    rintinglen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by winelover View Post
    I prefer anything but a black front sight. Ambient lighting makes all the difference. So does old tired eyes. Especially, in low light and a dark target. I use florescent orange fingernail polish over a first coat of white. Holds up pretty well on serrated front sights. Easy to redo or touch up. YMMV

    Winelover
    That's what I do as well. When I--and my eyes-- were younger, I preferred straight black, but now as I scurry into my 70's I find that a bright color is easier for me to pick up. I have used bright yellow and fluorescent green, but the blaze orange works best for me. YMMV.
    _________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy alfadan's Avatar
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    I may try painting it other colors. I see most people paint steel targets white so may try that, but orange is so easy for me to see. Just seemed orange sight on black target would really contrast.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master murf205's Avatar
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    Attachment 300209 I like the green too. The red S&W factory sight disappears in a LOT of lighting scenarios for me. Painting a front sight might work for some but the light pipe in the Hi Viz sights collect a lot of ambient light.
    Last edited by murf205; 05-18-2022 at 11:55 AM.
    IT AINT what ya shoot--its how ya shoot it. NONE of us are as smart as ALL of us!

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    I find the most important thing for me is blade width.

    On Smiths with < 6” barrel, a 1/10” wide post is my preference. More light around the blade.

    For integral ramps, there is no perfect color for all lighting conditions. I thought florescent lime green was the bomb, until I tried it outdoors in bright light.

    My favorite sight picture on a 4” Smith is a 1/10” wide black post with green FO insert. I get the light I need, I’ve got the FO insert for low light conditions plus a black post for bright light. It is also very fast to acquire.

    But as someone pointed out, if it’s an older gun with the integral ramp, you might need some gun smithing.

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by slughammer View Post
    Paint your steel swingers WHITE!

    Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk
    Brilliant in its simplicity.
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

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  15. #15
    Boolit Master

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    I got just a dab band of white on all my hunting magnum six shooters front sights. They are tall. Where I put the band on it allows for adjustment at different ranges. I'm 75 and 4 eyed too. Works for me,
    PS always paint your steel white.
    “You should tell someone what you know. There should be a history, so that men can learn from it.

    He smiled. “Men do not learn from history. Each generation believes itself brighter than the last, each believes it can survive the mistakes of the older ones. Each discovers each old thing and they throw up their hands and say ‘See! Look what I have found! Look upon what I know!’ And each believes it is something new.

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  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Dab of white finger nail polish on irons. Fiber I prefer red but to each his own.
    Brownells used to sell a kit of glow in the dark paint that worked quite well
    I Am Descended From Men Who Would Not Be Ruled

    Fiat Justitia, Ruat Caelum

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy
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    I have a set of plastic sheets that I got from Brownell's 20-25 years ago. You cut out a small section and file to fit the front sight cut then press and glue into place. The color that seems to work the best to my eyes was a florescent pink that a friend had on one of his revolvers. Not much doesn't contrast with hot pink. Mostly I've just gone from colored inserts to black though.
    Last edited by david s; 05-22-2022 at 08:42 PM.

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