rear sight notch

[ddoyle]

 Waksupi,

some very nice people many of which can shoot with the best could not be dragged to a range for any reason. Lots of justification for thier abscece none of which reflects on thier abilities or sportsmanship or penchant for friendly comradery. Muzzle brakes, idiots, bad light, a general dusty and loudness. To some a range is about as appealing as a walmart parking lot.  On top of that some folks might have prefered or needed (kids or work) a couple decades of doing something else on the weekend, A guy also could have spent 30 years learning, experimenting, filling notebooks with lessons learned and then spent the next 30 unable physically to leave the house, Or heck I bet not everyone's job lets them mingle at a range.

 Ranges/competition are great for lots of reasons and are a resource we should have more of but I can understand why some shooters would rather watch golf (or have some other torture)then attend a range/competition.




 

[Daryl]

Daryl: your sight, front and rear are very close to what I use except my rear sight is tilted forward not back and the rear of the rear sight blade has a triangle/pyramid of silver solder with the apex point right at the bottom of the notch. Real quick to pic up and see in low light situations. Helps tremendously for my old eyes.

I understand fully - the dangerous game express sights, on about any of the more modern rifles from the 1880's on through to today's newly made dangerous game rifles, have the rear sight angled

 forward along with silver bars to make the centre.  The express sight on my 14 bore rifle was similar, in that I had silver solder lines marking the middle of the notches. These needed periodic

 'buffing' with a piece of denim to show brightly.

The forward angle and silver lines make picking up the rear sight quick and easy.

[Long John]

If you take a master's level course in optics you will end-up being able to prove, mathematically, that the thinner one can make the edge of a rear sign notch the more clearly it will appear.  Taylor has it right that it has to do with light scattering in the notch.

Taylor's express sights are so good for us experienced (aka "old") shooters because they allow lot's of light to pass through the sighting system to the shooter's eye.  The more light passing unimpeded through the sighting system the smaller the proportion of scattered light and the less effect scattered light has on the sight picture.

I have also found that very bold "Patridge Pattern" sights are useful.  The work on the same principles as the express sights but I think they are a little easier to maintain.  My rifle has a 1/8th inch thick silver front blade with dead-square sides and top.  The back edge is angled at 45 degrees to the barrel flat.  (For low-light conditions rub the back edge of the front sight blade with a Pink-Pearl eraser!)  The notch in the rear sight is, again, dead-square as wide as 3 times the appearance of the front sight when aiming.  This allows me to center the front sight in the rear sight notch quickly and consistently by giving my old eyes more light to work with.   My brother calls my sights "fat-boy" sights.  They are NOT "correct" for traditional guns of the 18th century but I have make a dozen sets for friends who had given-up shooting because they couldn't see their sights.  Every one is shooting again!

We have to remember that the original guns were made for teenagers and twenty-somethings.

Best Regards,

JMC
John Cholin

[Daryl]

Good post, John.