on August 24, 2009 10:11 PM
Sunday morning I'm chilling on the couch, watching the pundits tell me what a selfish redneck I am, when Hsoi calls me up asking me if I want to go shooting.
He had a match at ARC get rained out, so he gave me a call since I only live a few minutes away.
We were doing some kind of unnamed drill where we each had 4 paper plates on a target stand, and then shot 'em all up in various orders and round counts. I tried every combo I could think of.
After about 50 rounds of this (I think), Hsoi's fiber falls out of his front sight. Now, you need a little backstory: He and I have argued about so much gun related stuff it isn't even funny, and one of those arguments is about night sights. I like them, and I can't see any reason not to have them (other than cost, I guess), while he says with a fiber optic front sight it gathers in lots of light under low-light conditions, and if it's really dark, you need a flash light anyway.
So anyway, when that fell out, I couldn't resit the urge to call night sights the clear winner of that argument ... and then about 10 minutes later the roll pin on my EMP's front sight starts poking up during one of the nameless drills, by the time it's over, the darned thing is over halfway out.
I tapped it down with a magazine and it didn't bother me again after that.
So, finally getting to the point, I had to go to the server colo this afternoon so I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and I picked up a couple of roll pins for my front sight.
I attempted the install tonight and for the most part it worked out ok. The roll pins I got are about 3x as long as the OEM roll pin. I decided to tap one in and mark it, and then just cut it to size. Well, that didn't work out quite like I wanted. Once I finally got it in, that sucker wasn't coming out, so I trimmed it off VERY CAREFULLY with my Dremel. It's as near to flush as you can get without getting into the metal of the front sight.
I think the end result is that the roll pin won't be coming out again. Cosmetically, the ground off roll pin doesn't look that great, but I think a little dab of black paint will fix that.
He had a match at ARC get rained out, so he gave me a call since I only live a few minutes away.
We were doing some kind of unnamed drill where we each had 4 paper plates on a target stand, and then shot 'em all up in various orders and round counts. I tried every combo I could think of.
After about 50 rounds of this (I think), Hsoi's fiber falls out of his front sight. Now, you need a little backstory: He and I have argued about so much gun related stuff it isn't even funny, and one of those arguments is about night sights. I like them, and I can't see any reason not to have them (other than cost, I guess), while he says with a fiber optic front sight it gathers in lots of light under low-light conditions, and if it's really dark, you need a flash light anyway.
So anyway, when that fell out, I couldn't resit the urge to call night sights the clear winner of that argument ... and then about 10 minutes later the roll pin on my EMP's front sight starts poking up during one of the nameless drills, by the time it's over, the darned thing is over halfway out.
I tapped it down with a magazine and it didn't bother me again after that.
So, finally getting to the point, I had to go to the server colo this afternoon so I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and I picked up a couple of roll pins for my front sight.
I attempted the install tonight and for the most part it worked out ok. The roll pins I got are about 3x as long as the OEM roll pin. I decided to tap one in and mark it, and then just cut it to size. Well, that didn't work out quite like I wanted. Once I finally got it in, that sucker wasn't coming out, so I trimmed it off VERY CAREFULLY with my Dremel. It's as near to flush as you can get without getting into the metal of the front sight.
I think the end result is that the roll pin won't be coming out again. Cosmetically, the ground off roll pin doesn't look that great, but I think a little dab of black paint will fix that.
Actually, the fiber came out after my first shot... I believe. After my first shot I was eating your ejected brass so I didn't get off more than one shot at first (why I always end up to your right I don't know). :-) I think that's when I noticed the fiber fell out. Found it, stuck it back in, shot again, it went bye bye for good.
The fiber was loose and has been for a while, but the little "mushroom cap" on the end appeared to hold it in. In fact, it appears that's all that ever made it stay in so I figured that's just the way it was.
http://hsoiblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/front-fiber-fix/
Looking at Dawson's instructions for fixing, it seems there are 2 fibers you can get, one that's pre-formed and appears to only have one cap on one end. The sight was installed by Springer Precision, so I can't help but wonder if maybe it was the "one cap end" fiber and was just destined to fall out eventually. What I have now is a longer piece that I had to cut and burn to fit, so it's capped at both ends and hopefully will not fall out... but we'll see.
Regardless, it didn't really matter. You don't use the fiber (or even the glowing dots of night sights) to actually aim.... you use the tops of the posts and "airspace" around the front post through the rear notch. Any sort of glow, be it tritium or fiber optic, is just to draw your eye. That why I found what I really like is having the rear sights be plain black and the front being something that stands out... I'm even looking to get some red paint or some such for my snub's front sight ramp... anything to help draw the eye.
And on that note.... you should give KR Training's Low Light shooting class a try. You'll see that night sights well... they don't really hurt, but they don't really help. If it's too dark that you need night sights then it's too dark to properly identify your target. If there's enough light to identify your target, you've got enough light to see your sights. So what night sights end up being is spending money to solve a non-problem. Plus, they don't necessarily help you acquire the sights during the daytime. That's all.
I actually am signed up for that class.
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:)-~
What you are saying regarding their usefulness may be true in the confines of that class. I'm not convinced it is true in every situation.
[Long list of thought experiments omitted]
Night sights are just a little extra insurance. Your flash light can get knocked out of your hand, fail, etc.
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