Front sight discussion

[Aglifter]

By Brian Enos, from the Enos forum. (For non-USPSA/IPSC folks, Brian Enos is considered THE brain behind modern action pistol techniques.)

"Talking about sight widths with numbers - the width of the vertical light bars (on each side of the front sight) will be different for people with different length arms.

What I settled in on, especially as my eyes (not me) got older, was a front to rear sight width ratio that made the sum of the 2 light bars equal the width of the front sight. That setup is quick to acquire and easy to very accurately align. (That was around .115 - .120 for the front sight width.)

On rear sight notch depth, I used to fool around with deepening a Bomar a little, but eventually got tired of ruining sights. And then if I did happen to get one filed down perfectly, a bit deeper, then I get used to that so then I'd want all my current and future guns/sights like that. So eventually I gave up messing with notch depth altogether, and just shot the Bomars, and later Wilson's sights, the way they came.

(But if you are good with a file and you have the right one, it's not to difficult to widen a factory sight a bit without ruining it.)

On front sight height, the most important thing is that when the sights are aligned, there is not any slide visible in the bottom of the notch. I liked my front sight to be just tall enough so that, as the front sight's coming down into the notch, just as the slide disappears from the notch the front blade is level with the top of the notch.

Although I couldn't visually confirm/prove it, I always felt that relationship helped me "park the front sight" more expeditiously. "
- Brian Enos.

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