Difficulty using new Cajun Gun Works sights. Gear or technique related

[Nitrider]

I've been shooting a CZ SP-01 for the last year and finally swapped out the stock meprolight sights for a set of Cajun Gun Works fiber optic sights.

While the sights are nicely made [the front sight is made by Dawson Precision, the rear by Cajun], I'm having some troubles adjusting to the new sight picture. The rear sight notch is .125 wide by .150 deep. When shooting quickly, I seem to lose track of how deep my front sight is sitting in the rear notch and have to slow down to ensure that the top of my front blade is level with the top of the rear sight.

Should I tough it out and try to adapt to the new sights or is replacement necessary because the extra deep rear sight is making things difficult?

For what it's worth, I'm posting this in the handgun techniques forum because my technique may be the culprit and not the sights at all. I figure you guys would know what sight dimensions work best.

Thanks,

-Ian

[elguapo]

How many shots fired with these sights?

I believe that any change, no matter how minor, in how we perceive the sights will slow us down temporarily until the brain gets rewired to accept the new image.

I'd say give it some more time.

[gransport]

For what it's worth...........I do like that sight picture. It looks fast. Give it some time and work on dry fire with a focus on indexing from the draw.

+1 to what elguapo said

[cheers623]

A really nice thing about fiber optic front sights is that it's easy to experiment with them. You may be falling into the trap that many shooters do of shooting the fiber optic like a red dot sight. In other words, when you see the fiber optic on target, you pull the trigger while ignoring its relationship to the rear sight. I found that I was doing this quite a bit...especially on steel. You can simply pull the fiber optic out and replace it with a black broom bristle to make your front sight black. Then, see how your hits are. I've done this and my hits improve dramatically. I figure that I always have the option of going back to a colored rod at some point but my guns have all been blacked out for now.

What got me thinking about all of this was a statement made by Travis Tomasie once, about how fiber optic front sights are "training wheels" for new shooters. They simply help new shooters find their front sight faster. However, you still need to be aware of the rear sights as well. Many top shooters use the fiber optic front to great effect, but that's because they still have the visual patience to line up the top of the front and rear sights. Either way, you can experiment and see what effect it has. I call my shots MUCH BETTER with black sights. Your experience may be different.

By the way...every signature model "Travis Tomasie" gun I've seen for sale has a fiber front sight as standard equipment...again, options are nice. Heck, screwing around with this type of stuff is half the fun of shooting! Hope that helps some,

Cheers623

DVC

Edited October 20, 2014 by cheers623

[motosapiens]

I couldn't shoot for crap with an FO front sight. It just seemed to wash out the front sight blade and make it difficult for me to align the sights. I started by using a sharpie to dull the FO down, and that helped alot (Ben Stoeger also claimed to do this on one of his podcasts). Eventually I just switched to a plain black blade from dawson instead. Much happiness ensued.

[elguapo]

Everyone's eyes are different. My 48 yo astigmatic, myopic, and presbyopic eyes need all the help I can get them so I love FO fronts.

[Nitrider]

elguapo- I shot only 50 rounds before using them for the first pistol match [which didn't go well] and by the time I got to the next match [which went much better] I had around 400 rounds through it. There is definitely something to be said about settling into a new pair of sights.

gransport- What do you mean by "indexing"? Proper sight alignment? If so, I've spent a bit of time doing this and things seem to be going more smoothly. I'm thinking that the real culprit is my old beat up glasses. I'm having a really hard time focusing on my front sight, which makes the edges of the sight blurred so proper sight alignment isn't very distinct. In contrast, when three dot sights are misaligned it is immediately noticeable.

cheers623- Thanks for the tips and the explanation of the thought process behind running a fiber optic front sight. It's funny; I try to take the scientific approach to all things shooting, but when it came to pistol sights I figured that "it just works" and that all the pros couldn't be wrong. I wrongly assumed that it would be some magic bullet to make me shoot faster.

motosapiens- Interesting. Flat black, huh... Maybe I could give it a test run using cheers623's tip or the sharpie on the fiber rod like you suggested. This sounds dumb, but I was reluctant to switch to fiber optic from tritium because this pistol sees double duty as my competition gun and my nightstand gun. Do you think the flat black blade would slow me down in low light? [My pistol wears a X300 Ultra when it comes home.]

To all- I'm going to spend some quality time working the fundamentals at the range before I jump to conclusions. Perhaps once I get truly comfortable again, I will be able to notice the increase in speed. As of now, the sights when shooting slow are very nice. Slowfire hits at 100 yards on 12" steel are easy to come by.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Nitrider

[gransport]

gransport- What do you mean by "indexing"? Proper sight alignment? If so, I've spent a bit of time doing this and things seem to be going more smoothly. I'm thinking that the real culprit is my old beat up glasses. I'm having a really hard time focusing on my front sight, which makes the edges of the sight blurred so proper sight alignment isn't very distinct. In contrast, when three dot sights are misaligned it is immediately noticeable.

Yes, I mean "Proper sight alignment", but more than that....I mean that the sights are properly aligned automatically after the draw. You don't need to adjust, they're already aligned...indexed.

[motosapiens]

Do you think the flat black blade would slow me down in low light? [My pistol wears a X300 Ultra when it comes home.]

no idea. not much interest either. I can hit something from self-defense-range without any sights at all, so I have plain black sights on all my guns.

Plenty of top competitive shooters prefer plain black sights btw.

[Nitrider]

gransport- What do you mean by "indexing"? Proper sight alignment? If so, I've spent a bit of time doing this and things seem to be going more smoothly. I'm thinking that the real culprit is my old beat up glasses. I'm having a really hard time focusing on my front sight, which makes the edges of the sight blurred so proper sight alignment isn't very distinct. In contrast, when three dot sights are misaligned it is immediately noticeable.

Yes, I mean "Proper sight alignment", but more than that....I mean that the sights are properly aligned automatically after the draw. You don't need to adjust, they're already aligned...indexed.

Thanks for clearing that up. I figured that's what you meant but just wanted to be clear.

Do you think the flat black blade would slow me down in low light? [My pistol wears a X300 Ultra when it comes home.]

no idea. not much interest either. I can hit something from self-defense-range without any sights at all, so I have plain black sights on all my guns.

Plenty of top competitive shooters prefer plain black sights btw.

Good to know that plain black sights are so widely accepted. Maybe I'll try blacking out the fiber optic for a while.