Sights for old eyes?

HawgBonz

HawgBonz

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This is in reference to a 1911 type pistol if it matters.
Have any of you older guys noticed a set of open sights that ya felt like rejuvenated yer ability to effectively use them?
I've just recently started to piddle more with handguns. But some health issues concerning my eyes (not cataracts) that ain't immediately correctable have shown up to make things more difficult. I know optics work and I'll get somethin cut if I hafta. But it'd make things a whole lot simpler if there was an open sight solution.
The fibers on the 22/45 are decent but they look kinda tiny and fragile. Which is fine in that application I reckon (still gotta dot on it).
I ain't high-speed nothin and no plans for competition. Just klangin some steel in the back yard and plinkin around the club.
Curious what my fellow geezers have learned that may be of help. Thanks much.. šŸ¤ 
 
The fiber optic is the best Iā€™ve found. Honesty, you are fighting a losing battle. Why prolong the enviable, go ahead and put some type of optic on your handgun.
 
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Yeah, prolly so. But I'm early on in the treatment and seem to have stabilized. I'll know more after the next appointment.
The FNX sports the Venom that came on it for now.. And it's great for that application.
The 22/45 Lite sports an el cheapo that works great for me.
I still wanna explore options before I give it up completely and submit to my geezerness.. šŸ‘“šŸ˜®ā€šŸ’Ø
Tryin to find a 1911 with an optic cut narrows the field a good bit, too.
 
I don't have the ability to hard focus at arms' length with my contacts. Unless I am shooting bullseye (I have +0.50 and +0.75 shooting glasses for that), I'm not able to get a "front sight focus."

I relearned to shoot a pistol by shooting "through" the iron sight picture like it was a red dot. Eyes target-focused, looking through a black rear with a wide notch and a skinny black front sight with a fiber on top. It even works with a plain back front sight. You just superimpose the blurry black things in front of the target with equal light bars and a flat top profile. But, a front fiber is a huge help.

Try a wide notch and a narrow front. I have run everything from .150-.130 gaps in the rear with .110-.090 fronts. Blurry "equal height, equal light" is still "equal height, equal light," and it's nice and fast.

Fiber optics are pretty tough when they're (i) installed correctly and (ii) not soaked with caustic solvents and crap. I just changed the tube out on one of my carry 1911s after three years.
 
HawgBonz said:
Yeah, prolly so. But I'm early on in the treatment and seem to have stabilized. I'll know more after the next appointment.
The FNX sports the Venom that came on it for now.. And it's great for that application.
The 22/45 Lite sports an el cheapo that works great for me.
I still wanna explore options before I give it up completely and submit to my geezerness.. šŸ‘“šŸ˜®ā€šŸ’Ø
Tryin to find a 1911 with an optic cut narrows the field a good bit, too.
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Get a reputable company to direct mill your 1911 is best mounting for a dot anyway I even run optics on carry gun now

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HawgBonz said:
I still wanna explore options before I give it up completely and submit to my geezerness.. šŸ‘“šŸ˜®ā€šŸ’Ø
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If it helps your ego, Jerry Miculek said he has gone to an optic at his age - 67 - which is one year younger than I am.
 
Springfield releases their new New 1911 ds prodigy soon. Maybe tomorrow, that comes with a red dot, if that's in your price range. I know it's way outta my price range atm.
 
Average Joe said:
Donā€™t want to highjack the OPā€™s thread. So Iā€™ll keep this short. WOW, love that CZ!
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impact machine is amazing but their turnaround time reflects that hexprecision did mill work on shadow and did an amazing job with like 10 day turnaround

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dmarbell said:
If it helps your ego, Jerry Miculek said he has gone to an optic at his age - 67 - which is one year younger than I am.
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Any ego that may have been there got stomped down a long time ago with
knee surgery, inguinal hernia surgery and 2 ablations.. šŸ„“
I'm sure many of you know too well that of which I speak.. šŸ˜‚

@JRV - I do seem to do a bit better with a gap between the rear notch and the front post ala the factory FN sights.
But it's still kindofa guess as to when the sight picture is good as they do blur together behind my "anomaly". šŸ˜µ
The condition of my right eye, while def influenced by regular eye aging, is the result of an attack by my own immune system. The result is a dirty, floating and variably opaque "windsock" with floaters. Sometimes it looks like someone smudged vaseline across my eye. When I can "flip" that distorted area very briefly off to one side I can see ok for about .001 of a second. šŸ„“ I know that description is wonky but it's best I can come up with right now.
The left eye is just SOP "old age" and that's what I've been trying to use when not properly "dotted". The both eyes open with the reflex works well but I still catch myself "switching eyes" a lot.

yankfromthehills said:
Get a reputable company to direct mill your 1911 is best mounting for a dot anyway I even run optics on carry gun now
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That seems like a reasonable option and would def open up the selection. I'd hafta figger out if I love whatever I end up with first cause I'm bettin that doesn't come back at resale in the event of a flake-out. Guns kinda come-n-go round here till one "clicks into place" and then it stays forever. It'd take some serious weighing in on gettin it done vs came that way.. I could see that niceness of a custom fit vs plates fer sure..
And that critter in the "glamour shots" is ballistic sex on display... šŸ˜
 
Buy a quality fiber optic & have it installed. I like Hi-Viz. Many, many serious competition shooters rely upon them. Then,, the next thing is to get your eye Dr. make you glasses JUST for shooting. (Extended focal point for the front sight.)
 
JRV said:
I don't have the ability to hard focus at arms' length with my contacts. Unless I am shooting bullseye (I have +0.50 and +0.75 shooting glasses for that), I'm not able to get a "front sight focus."

I relearned to shoot a pistol by shooting "through" the iron sight picture like it was a red dot. Eyes target-focused, looking through a black rear with a wide notch and a skinny black front sight with a fiber on top. It even works with a plain back front sight. You just superimpose the blurry black things in front of the target with equal light bars and a flat top profile. But, a front fiber is a huge help.
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This is great advice. After LASIK, I couldnā€™t clearly see the sights on my handguns and transitioned to this type of shooting. And, as an added bonus, I feel it is helping with my transition to RDS on a pistol
 
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HawgBonz said:
Any ego that may have been there got stomped down a long time ago with
knee surgery, inguinal hernia surgery and 2 ablations.. šŸ„“
I'm sure many of you know too well that of which I speak.. šŸ˜‚

@JRV - I do seem to do a bit better with a gap between the rear notch and the front post ala the factory FN sights.
But it's still kindofa guess as to when the sight picture is good as they do blur together behind my "anomaly". šŸ˜µ
The condition of my right eye, while def influenced by regular eye aging, is the result of an attack by my own immune system. The result is a dirty, floating and variably opaque "windsock" with floaters. Sometimes it looks like someone smudged vaseline across my eye. When I can "flip" that distorted area very briefly off to one side I can see ok for about .001 of a second. šŸ„“ I know that description is wonky but it's best I can come up with right now.
The left eye is just SOP "old age" and that's what I've been trying to use when not properly "dotted". The both eyes open with the reflex works well but I still catch myself "switching eyes" a lot.


That seems like a reasonable option and would def open up the selection. I'd hafta figger out if I love whatever I end up with first cause I'm bettin that doesn't come back at resale in the event of a flake-out. Guns kinda come-n-go round here till one "clicks into place" and then it stays forever. It'd take some serious weighing in on gettin it done vs came that way.. I could see that niceness of a custom fit vs plates fer sure..
And that critter in the "glamour shots" is ballistic sex on display... šŸ˜
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Yea sheā€™s purdy I think hex milled and coated for around $100 donā€™t remember right off but they even angled cut for the shadows barrel and dots are so popular now Iā€™ve had good luck with resale direct mill jobs
 
yankfromthehills said:
Yea sheā€™s purdy I think hex milled and coated for around $100 donā€™t remember right off but they even angled cut for the shadows barrel and dots are so popular now Iā€™ve had good luck with resale direct mill jobs
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Looks like Hex is currently swamped and not takin any new orders.. I'll hafta look and see if there's any options here in the Piedmont.

contender said:
Buy a quality fiber optic & have it installed. I like Hi-Viz. Many, many serious competition shooters rely upon them. Then,, the next thing is to get your eye Dr. make you glasses JUST for shooting. (Extended focal point for the front sight.)
Click to expand...
I've got a pair of minimal prescription shooting glasses. But I don't know if they would qualify as "JUST" shooting glasses. Didn't know there was such a thing. I'll hafta check next time I go in. Still gonna have the anomaly in my right eye, tho'.. But it might help focus..

Anybody ever fiddle with the "U" dot type open sights? I saw tritium but no FO so far.
Looks kindof interesting and mebbe easier to discern.
Ima dig around in the pile and see if I have a set of sights similar to what @JRV was describing and giv'em a test run.. :cool:
 
When I started getting glasses years ago,, I'd get a second pair. I'd ask my optometrist to make a set that allowed a sharp focus on my front sight. She allowed me to bring in a handgun to get the proper distance for the focal point. When I'd go to get my glasses,, I'd take the gun in as well, and make sure I could see the front sight easily.
 
At normal handgun distances, I found that shorter barrels and coarser sights have helped me. Of course, optical sights are great. I have not put them on everything but am heading that direction. In 1911 type handguns I am looking for an Officer's model currently.
 
So over the course of the day I've been out piddlin with different pieces to see if I can use the irons and comparing it to muh dotted FNX which is currently the gold standard at Casa de Jake.. Here's what I ended up with. All were shot from my "high-speed" mobile rifle rest re-purposed for peestolas.. I tried a coupla different rests. Settled on my Crappy Rest and discarded the Crappier Rest. All fire was very slow.
Target squares are 2". Trying to test them all the same way and keep "me" out of it much as can be and see how the aiming of it compares.
I know it ain't thorough but I gotta start sommers. I figger sights are the same no matter what they're perched on.
You'll please note that I kept my Fred Flintstone's out of all the pics.. šŸ˜

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The first 2 contestants were the ol lady's Walther P99 and a Springfield somethin-r-other.. Both had 3 dot type sights with "air" on either side of the post. The Stringfield has suppressor height sights.

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Next up was the Cajun P-09.. I managed to get my prerequisite flyer in with the 124 EV's as per usual.

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Next was the X5 with the dot.. It really didn't like my 124 EV's but suffered thru the handload 147's and WWB 124's ok..

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And here was muh boy.. Couldn't leave that grip alone and managed to pull one on the 50 yard gong.. :rolleyes:
But good enough to make a hog's day go sideways, anyhow.. šŸ„“šŸ˜

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So I dunno.. My experience with handguns has pretty much been as somethin to tote strictly as just a sidearm. Make sure it's sighted in with whatever loads I have for it and fare-thee-well.. I think I might try one of the suggested FO options on a 1911 of decent quality so's that if I felt I needed to goto a reflex it wouldn't be the proverbial "lipstick-on-a-pig" if I had the slide milled.. :cool:
 
To me it is all about what kind of shooting you are looking to do. If you are looking to draw shoot and speed something like fiber optic front will work just fine. If you are looking to do precision work at distance a dot is going to be the answer. IMHO
 
Red dot everything! The future is now.

Edit: in all seriousness I think red dots are superior in every way. The ability to be target focused, the reduction of the issue of trying to focus on multiple visual planes, and the potential for real precision. The only thing that is a real con; is the ability to aquire the dot quickly. Which definitely takes quite a few reps.
 
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Cole_McD said:
Edit: in all seriousness I think red dots are superior in every way. The ability to be target focused, the reduction of the issue of trying to focus on multiple visual planes, and the potential for real precision. The only thing that is a real con; is the ability to aquire the dot quickly. Which definitely takes quite a few reps.
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wvsig said:
If you are looking to do precision work at distance a dot is going to be the answer. IMHO
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Agreed. That's why I was so adamant about the dot on the FNX..
I wanna be able to pull CNS/Structure shots on hogs at the club for ~50ish yards inna woods while I'm doing my rummaging about.
For this 1911 gig, really just a range toy with a side of "joy of ownership" for the most part. But I would like it to have potential for helpin me learn to shoot better quicker. If that makes sense...
 
I'm not the most knowledgeable on the 1911. But I know that a lot of guys in the know really dig Chambers Customs - proprietary optic mounting.

They're truly a custom shop though, and probably carry true custom pricing.
 
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