What Color Front Sight is Best?

[Elderberry]

Shooting Illustrated 6/2/2020


Red has the widest band, and green is in the middle of the visible-light spectrum, so it stands to reason these
would be popular as color options for a front sight.


A black front sight provides the traditional textbook sight picture, but that tome was written years ago. Is it still the ultimate solution? Experts at TruGlo and HiViz explain why their palettes don’t rival Sherwin Williams, but let’s start with the basics, first.

“A black front sight on a carry/self-defense handgun is not necessarily ideal as it does not help front-sight focus in all lighting conditions, especially in a situation of increased stress,” according to Trevor Young, director of sales at HiViz. “Adding contrast is key as it helps acquire the front sight in your peripheral vision long before a solid-black sight would. The result is that you can maintain a full view of the target and your front sight while moving the firearm into a shooting position and then transition into a sight picture in one fluid motion.”

“Simply put, bright dots attract the eye,” Pinny Gale, TruGlo marketing manager explained. “A bright-colored sight is easier to find in low light. Even in full daylight, the increased contrast of a bright color makes it easier to properly focus on the sight. Bright-white lines or dots increase contrast, but certain colors can improve visibility even farther.”

“Bright paint is great, but with a single reflective surface it will only be as bright as the light around it,” Gale explains.

“While paint will be better than a plain-black sight typically, it would not work in all shooting conditions and has a limited life span,” Young warned. “However, with few exceptions, a tritium/fiber-optic sight will get the job done.”

More: https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2020/6/2/what-color-front-sight-is-best/

[Lando Lincoln]

Me?  I'm partial to the green or yellow part of the spectrum.  Red is okay.  I have never seen a blue front sight and I can't imagine one. 

[Cyber Liberty]

Any color that does not occur in nature works for me. 

[EdinVA]

 front-sight focus??  That ship has sailed for me... lol

[Cyber Liberty]

front-sight focus??  That ship has sailed for me... lol

LOL.  I have that trouble with the rear sights.

[Elderberry]

Me?  I'm partial to the green or yellow part of the spectrum.  Red is okay.  I have never seen a blue front sight and I can't imagine one.

Your eyes can't focus blue light as sharply as the other colors.

Why Are Blue Lights Harder to See?

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/questions/why-are-blue-lights-harder-see

Answer

Izzie Clarke put this question to George Dobre from the University of Kent.

George - the cells in our eyes that process colour are called cones. It’s easy to remember - cones for colour, and they can be found at the back of our eye called the retina. These cones really detect just three colours - red, green and blue. We then build other colours based roughly on the amount of red, green, and blue the cones report to the brain. However, the blue cones are a small minority: only about 10% of the total.

Izzie - So each cone is set to tell the brain about mainly one of these three colours, but as more cones register red and green light, blue is at a slight disadvantage. But why does blue light appear blurry?

George - To be able to see a tiny dot of colour, like a blue LED in detail, the eye needs to be able to focus that LED light on just a small number of cones. The smaller this area can be, the more detail we can see, but for a blue dot that’s difficult to achieve. The eye automatically adapts to see red and green with the sharpest focus, which leaves the blue unfocused and fuzzy. This is called chromatic aberration.

Izzie - The human eye has evolved towards a compromise. We still see sharp images most of the time, except for when we look at tiny blue dots or lines, and that’s because it’s a relatively rare occurrence in nature. That’s the anatomy of physiology part covered. Come on George - hit me with some physics...

[roamer_1]

Pink light-gathering works best for me, particularly in dusky conditions where green dissolves quicker into the background.

But it has its price - I can have a hard time looking past that sight, tending to look at it instead... A focus problem I can remind myself of and fix, but a tendency where a snap-shot is necessary, that might make a difference.