What sight widths are you running on your 2011s?

[nikdanja]

Thinking about going a tad bigger both front and rear. 

 

Rear is a .115 and front is .100. 

I originally wanted as small as possible for precision on steel and long range paper targets. 

As im typing this out I guess I should see where my deviation is if I put that front dot as far left and as far right, (while still seeing the dot) breaking the shot and see how far my deviation is from the A zone at let's say 15 yards.  Would going bigger help keep the shot in the center because there's not as much "air" in between the rear and front sight that would induce user error while shooting faster?

What size sights do you guys run on your competition guns?

Edited December 28, 2016 by nikdanja

[CHA-LEE]

I have found that a 0.030 - 0.040 width difference between the front and rear sights provides optimal size light bars.

[nikdanja]

Thanks for the feedback and another member posted what you wrote up a couple years ago. Really helpful. 

[nikdanja]

On 12/27/2016 at 11:26 PM, CHA-LEE said:

I have found that a 0.030 - 0.040 width difference between the front and rear sights provides optimal size light bars.

Thank you. I read your write up about sites and it was very helpful

[ShortBus]

3moa 

[Jeff Phillips]

I have found a 0.100 width front is just narrow enough to allow a decent windage index on paper at 25 yards. Any wider and the sight is wider than the target.

[inkballedtarget]

I run a .110 rear and a .090 front.. I would like to try a manny dot,  but I feel like a .070 front will be too narrow with a .110 rear. Based on what cha lee said maybe not?

[CHA-LEE]

A .040 variance from front to back when using the super narrow .070 Manny front sight may be too much. I tried that setup on my gun and it was too much light bars. Use a .100 rear notch with the .070 front sight. I am currently using that and its working out great.

[CrashDodson]

When you say its too much light bars is it that you find it distracting or slower to line up the sights?  I am currently running a SVI comp rear at .110 which is the smallest they make, and the manny dot .070 up front.  I like it but I dont have anything else to compare it to as both my guns have the same setup.   

[CHA-LEE]

Everyone see's things differently so I can only explain happens to me. If the light bars get too wide I start to see and focus on things within the light bar gap. A good example would be seeing holes appear in the target while shooting at it. Another factor comes down to how distracting is the rear notch. For me, if the rear notch is too narrow my focus will actually flip flop between looking at the front sight and the rear sight blade because the rear blade is too distracting. On the other side of the street if the rear notch is too wide then I stop seeing the rear notch and don't respect the front sight within rear notch alignment enough.

What I have noticed is that the smaller the sites are the closer to a 0.030 offset it has to be. When I use bigger sights, such as a 0.100 wide front then a 0.040 offset is optimal for me.

There are a bunch of rear sights available in 0.110 - 0.150 widths. But going smaller than 0.110 really limits your options. You can have a gunsmith weld up an existing notch and cut it to whatever width and depth you want. Or order a rear blade blank that does not have a notch cut in it. The only Bowmar style rear sight that I have found that you can order with a really narrow rear blade is a Wilson off of the Brazos website. They have a 0.090 width and then you can widen that to whatever size you want. 

http://www.1911store.com/rearsightsti-adjustable-1.aspx

[CrashDodson]

Thanks for the reply.  Do you find any difference with rear blades that have the outside corners cut or beveled vs just squared off?

[CrashDodson]

12 minutes ago, CHA-LEE said:

 

There are a bunch of rear sights available in 0.110 - 0.150 widths. But going smaller than 0.110 really limits your options. You can have a gunsmith weld up an existing notch and cut it to whatever width and depth you want. Or order a rear blade blank that does not have a notch cut in it. The only Bowmar style rear sight that I have found that you can order with a really narrow rear blade is a Wilson off of the Brazos website. They have a 0.090 width and then you can widen that to whatever size you want. 

http://www.1911store.com/rearsightsti-adjustable-1.aspx

I ran the setup with the .090 blade with the manny dot front for a while on a different gun.  I did not like it and widened the notch a little.  Currently with the .110 rear and .070 front I dont find any distractions but I have eye dominance problems and run a magic dot on my glasses.  Not sure if that would make any difference.  A may play with different options.  Not sure I have the shooting experience to even know if there was a difference.  I for sure can not see holes in cardboard through the sight when front sight focused...but for close range targets where I could see holes if I looked im not really hard front sight focused anyway.   

[CHA-LEE]

From a shooting perspective, I have not found any performance difference by changing the shape of the outer portion of the rear blade. When I shoot I only see the small area around the notch its self and nothing beyond it.