Front sight / rear sight color contrast [Archive]

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HES

06-24-13, 15:33

NeoNeanderthal

06-24-13, 16:05

My eyes are kind of jacked up. So for me personally, I like a very plain (black) rear and a very very bright front sight. Orange/red works better than yellow/green for me and is consistent with my reddot on my AR. Any sort of markings on the rear tends to really slow me down. My eyes are drawn to it, then i have to refocus them on the front sight before shooting.

bzdog

06-24-13, 20:28

I run day-glow yellow in front and day-glow orange in rear. I tried it the other way around and it didn't work as well. I think you want the "brighter" color on the front. OTOH, it seems which color appears brighter may vary a bit from person to person.

I do find it helps me index the front sight faster.

-john

G19 Driver

06-24-13, 21:24

I have always hated 3 dot sights and the only time I ever really had any on a carry gun were night sights. Green front and yellow rears was my combo till I settled on a single tritium vile on the front sight.

Now I'm older and my eyes are not what they used to be. I am currently using black rear sights and a Dawson F/O front sight. My eyes prefer a red small fiber on the front sight. Wish I would have gone with this combo 15 years ago.

kevN

06-25-13, 00:02

I had a black water sig p226 with yellow rears and orange front and those sights were really hard for me. You really don't need color on the rear, tritium is nice in back like the trijicon hd rear works for me at night but probably not necessary. I see the yellow outlined trigicon HD best for night sights, and red for fiber optic sights.

Also, remember that when taking a precise shot you should be aligning the tops of the posts and not the dots generally (some guns have different sight pictures).

BadgerMan

06-25-13, 04:35

On my G19 I've got Green front/yellow rear warren tactical three-dots. During the daytime I can't really see the rear dots, which is fine, but at night it does make a positive difference over same color or front-only tritiums.

tmanker

06-26-13, 07:32

OP, what is the purpose of the weapon? IDPA, target, CCW? That makes a big difference for what I prefer/what is best for me.

Failure2Stop

06-26-13, 07:36

For anything but dedicated bullseye shooting I prefer an orange front sight in lighting conditions that allow me to see the front sight and in darkness I like a bright green front. The big reason for this is that it allows me to have a target focus with acceptable accuracy out to 15 yards or so.

Psalms144.1

06-26-13, 21:51

I read some research a while back (please don't ask me to quote, I'm on the road, and whipped tired right now) that stated that the human eye sees green as "brighter" than any other color. That's why I've always opted for a green front mated to an amber or orange rear.

Now, when I tried the CAP sights with the "green" front outline, I found that, in a lot of settings (think grass and foliage backdrops) the green front would get "lost" when it wasn't on a sharp contrasting color. I switched to the "red" painted outline with the CAP sights, and couldn't be happier.

Mate that sight to an "Operator" rear sight (standard notch width, amber tritium vials with no outline) and you have what I consider the best sight combination on the market today. I've tried just about EVERY other combination imaginable, and simply haven't found anything that gives as good a balance of front sight acquisition speed and precision sight picture.

Now if Ameriglo would only stop hating on HK and make some of these for the P2000 and P30...

Regards,

Kevin

HES

06-27-13, 01:51

OP, what is the purpose of the weapon? IDPA, target, CCW? That makes a big difference for what I prefer/what is best for me.
Turning 43 soon and my eyesight is starting to give me problems. I'm finding it just a wee bit harder to get my sight alignment down now. Now keep in mind, my eyesight has just now dipped to the low side of 20/20 so I'm sure a lot of folks will just groan. But for me it's a huge thing especially considering how button ugly I am.

Oh and for not feeling the ameriglo love, they must hate the Germans because they ain't doing squat for the PPQ either :(

tmanker

06-27-13, 15:22

Turning 43 soon and my eyesight is starting to give me problems. I'm finding it just a wee bit harder to get my sight alignment down now. Now keep in mind, my eyesight has just now dipped to the low side of 20/20 so I'm sure a lot of folks will just groan. But for me it's a huge thing especially considering how button ugly I am.

Oh and for not feeling the ameriglo love, they must hate the Germans because they ain't doing squat for the PPQ either :(

I run warren all black rear, fiber front on my G34 for IDPA which I prefer for this use. One of my ccw G19's has a set of Pro i-dot's with hack front, another has a set of RB1 sights which I prefer for this use, and I have a backup G17 for IDPA with warren all black sights. I have removed all 3-dot sights and will likely never go back to them again. It has become natural for me when presenting the weapon on target, so I don't notice the rear sight much at all. If you are target shooting and don't mind glocks, you should try a 17L or 34 with a longer sight radius and see if that helps. The fiber front sights are very fast, but there are times when it's almost too bright. Go to a range and try several different options before you break the bank on trial/error.

Alaskapopo

06-27-13, 16:28

I don't believe we've ever had a thread specifically about contrasting colors between the front sight and rear sight. I believe it is generally agreed that when using 3 dot sights on a pistol, having contrasting colors between the two rear dots and the front dot aids in sight alignment. With that in mind, do you find any combination of colors to be better than another? If so why?

I am not against different contrasting colors but I have had both and don't think it matters. If you manage to get your sights misaligned to where you confuse the front sight with either dot on the rear sight you have such a poor grip that there is no helping you. It don't hurt and if you like it use them. But does it really help no. I prefer Truglo Tritium Fiber optic sights. I have found nothing faster for me anyway. http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g299/355sigfan/Semi%20auto%20pistols/Glock17Dutygun.jpg (http://s59.photobucket.com/user/355sigfan/media/Semi%20auto%20pistols/Glock17Dutygun.jpg.html)
Pat