Painting the metal part of fiber optic sight? Good or stupid?

[Sanch]

A few months ago I painted one of my front sights using Tom Givens recommendations and I really like it. Its a steel sight plain black.

I picked up a fiber optic sight to test out and I am wondering if its a good idea for me to paint the metal part of the sight (before I install the fiber) because then in medium light sitauations where the fiber doesnt glow at least I have the orange paint.

But I guess Im worried it might look confusing under bright light if I have the glowing rod plus also the high viz orange paint. Like putting a hat on a hat.

Id lean towards using the red / orange rod with the sight and the same orange high viz model paint Mr Givens suggests. So maybe theyd look close enough in color that its not weird but before I waste a bunch of time trying to do this let me know if its stupid because maybe you tried it and it was bad. Thanks guys.

[deflave]

Only one way to find out!

[Darth_Uno]

What some call clutter, others call feedback.

It's basically free to paint it, and if it works for you that's great. If you don't love it, well now you know and it's free to paint it black again.

[peterb]

If you're worried about making a mess, you can probably find some orange tape, or paint masking tape orange and then tape the front sight to try it out.

[spinmove_]

I tried this at one point a long time ago and I didn't like how busy it make the sight picture. I've found a fiber front to be way more versatile that I thought it was going to be and just rock a green fiber and blacked out everything else.

If you've never spent time running just completely blacked out sights, both front and rear, I would highly recommend it just for testing purposes. When I moved to a fiber front and blacked out rear, I appreciated the fiber front for what it is so much more than trying to make my sights more visible.

[CCT125US]

What some call clutter, others call feedback.

Truth, and description of my preference for 3 dots.

[mmc45414]

I tried this once and expected to love, love, love it and didn't. I mean, what could be better, I thought it would be perfect.

I didn't try it long but what I found was that it diffused the prominence of the FO dot. I like green front dots and have also come to really like Dawson sights for a few subtle reasons, but their 0.040' rod in the little recessed hole jumps right out, and after I painted the blade (with almost a perfect color of nail polish) it didn't leap out at me anymore.

What some call clutter, others call feedback.

And I was one of those people that would crap all over three dot sights because of the clutter, then I tried the TFOs with green in the front and yellow in the rear. After putting TFOs on several pistols I tried the Dawson FO and put the green rods in the front and red rods in the rear, and I have really been digging that for the last few years. As I mentioned the rods are a little smaller, and I think that makes them more distinct, without a bunch of bloom. I also used to like a big wide notch and no longer do, but that is probably a different topic.

Though I might add that I continue to despise the huge white dots that came on my numerous M&Ps, with my aging (61yo) eyes it just overwhelms the whole notch. But my Shield still has them but I simply filled in the rear dots with black nail polish and painted the entire front blade with the same green I tried on my FO sight and it is a nice combo. Friends have shot it and exclaimed "I like those sights!"

[msstate56]

I tried the orange paint along with a fiber optic sight combo years ago. I ran it in a couple matches and quickly found out what other have said. I didn’t like it because it muted the brightness of the fiber optic. I have since gone back to a plain Dawson red fiber front and plain black rear. The front fiber stands out nicely.

[Zincwarrior]

Does it help You? If yes then do it. What others think is not relevant as each person is different.

[CraigS]

Does it help You? If yes then do it. What others think is not relevant as each person is different.

Yep. My first FO front I decided I like the green fiber. My wife tried mine and said get me one too. When it came it had 4 colors of fiber. I had her hold all four up at the same time and asked which one appeared brighter to her. She liked the red best.