Sights the old fashioned way...
Posted: July 21st, 2019, 1:33 am
I know a few brave souls have endeavored to add aftermarket sights to their P-64s, and many more have broken out the little bottle of Testors enamel and a toothpick and added a dot of paint to the front sight.
In the book "Shooting to live" by William Fairbairn and E.A. Sykes (the namesakes of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife) the authors indicate their interwar experience lead them to begin "silvering" the front sights of the Hong Kong police duty pistols as a kind of early night sight, and recommend the same for any carry pistol- in that era long before tritium or fiber optic sights, or even just high contrast paint or plastic sights, were available.
I imagine in 1930 it may have been easier to swing by a local jeweler, lay your pistol on the counter and ask him about silvering the front sight. Probably not a smooth move today without a little bit of spare time and bail money on hand. But, I found it easy enough to use a very shiny piece of aluminum foil (what I used) or mylar (or a large flake of craft store glitter might even do better) and a dot of epoxy to affix it to the front sight on my P-64, and not only was the result a much easier sight to find in normal to low light, but it was more durable through firing and cleaning than the paint dot I always used was. I will be following up now with a few of my other plain iron sight pistols.
As another note on the book, even though it is dealing with interwar level technology, I find a great deal of the ideology and rational behind their theories and techniques to be more authentically and better suited for the modern self-defense shooter than a lot of the para-military "tactical" doctrines that are pushed today. Great little book and perspective on the subject.
In the book "Shooting to live" by William Fairbairn and E.A. Sykes (the namesakes of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife) the authors indicate their interwar experience lead them to begin "silvering" the front sights of the Hong Kong police duty pistols as a kind of early night sight, and recommend the same for any carry pistol- in that era long before tritium or fiber optic sights, or even just high contrast paint or plastic sights, were available.
I imagine in 1930 it may have been easier to swing by a local jeweler, lay your pistol on the counter and ask him about silvering the front sight. Probably not a smooth move today without a little bit of spare time and bail money on hand. But, I found it easy enough to use a very shiny piece of aluminum foil (what I used) or mylar (or a large flake of craft store glitter might even do better) and a dot of epoxy to affix it to the front sight on my P-64, and not only was the result a much easier sight to find in normal to low light, but it was more durable through firing and cleaning than the paint dot I always used was. I will be following up now with a few of my other plain iron sight pistols.
As another note on the book, even though it is dealing with interwar level technology, I find a great deal of the ideology and rational behind their theories and techniques to be more authentically and better suited for the modern self-defense shooter than a lot of the para-military "tactical" doctrines that are pushed today. Great little book and perspective on the subject.