Poor sight window

[SnakeEye]

Ive got some aftermarket night sights on my SW99. when i purchased the pistol they seemed good enough, but after putting a couple hundred rounds through her this morning ive come to the conclusion that they are of piss poor design.
My digital camera doesnt have the persepctive as it causes the front sight to go out of focus. so i had to make a couple drawings to illustrate. Ive exaggerated the issue to demonstrate.

as you can see theres a gap on the left and right hand side of the front sight in the window of the rear.

Its a sloppy sight as theres too much potential error in "yaw" to the horizontal plane to the laft and right

everything i shot this morning was off to the left or right. Clearly i need a set of sights where the front sight "locks" in taking up the entire rear sight window. as it is now its just a sloppy horizontal pie wedge to the target yielding only vertical accuracy.
any recomendations for a better set of night sights?

 

[C-pher]

[shock]

Those are some good looking drawings.

 

[dreppucci007]

AutoCAD?...Very nice

 

[Cross-X]

SnakeEye, rather than simply joining the cheering section for your marvelous drawings, I would like to answer the question you posed.

Brownells.com has an amazing selection of replacement sights for your pistol. One good choice might be Novak's Extreme Duty Adjustible sight. Here is a link:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/st...itle=SEMI-AUTO+ADJUSTABLE+EXTREME+DUTY+SIGHTS

For other suggestions, use the search feature on the Brownells web site, poke around and check out their other offerings.

If you buy yourself a sight installation tool, you can install the sights yourself, and adjust them to your heart's content.

One little warning: once you head down the road of finding the ultimate sights, you could find yourself turning into a serial sight-buyer! For this malady, there is no treatment, no cure. [lol]

 

[Adam_MA]

I can tell you, the original sights on your gun are the same design as that one...

Take it for what it's worth, your gun is designed as a combat pistol. That means that it is specifically designed to operate at combat distances ~7yds.

Jim Conway was instructing me last week, and as a drill, he had me align up my sites with the front post as far to the left, right, up, and down as was available in the sight picture. At 7yds the result was a target that had a hole along the top, bottom, left, and right edge of the 6" target circle.

If I were shooting in bulls eye competitions, first of all, I wouldn't be using my Walther, but if this were a life or death situation, no matter where the front post is in relation to the rear notch, as long as it's in there somewhere, and I can see the front post on the target (center mass) it is a good, solid, center mass hit.

Take this for what it is, but know that those sights were designed for one purpose. Rapid target acquisition! If you get a new rear sight that has a gap only large enough for the front post to fill, target acquisition with the front post of the sight in a high stress situation will be slower.

With plenty of practice, you can learn your sights, and start to shoot more consistant.

I made this target at 25' with my P99 in .40
(I got my left to right, now I just gotta get mine down a bit)
Adam

 

[SnakeEye]

SnakeEye, rather than simply joining the cheering section for your marvelous drawings, I would like to answer the question you posed.

Brownells.com has an amazing selection of replacement sights for your pistol. One good choice might be Novak's Extreme Duty Adjustible sight. Here is a link:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/st...itle=SEMI-AUTO+ADJUSTABLE+EXTREME+DUTY+SIGHTS

For other suggestions, use the search feature on the Brownells web site, poke around and check out their other offerings.

If you buy yourself a sight installation tool, you can install the sights yourself, and adjust them to your heart's content.

One little warning: once you head down the road of finding the ultimate sights, you could find yourself turning into a serial sight-buyer! For this malady, there is no treatment, no cure. [lol]

thank you very much for the point in the right direction,they dont show the rear silhouette of the sight picture, but the rear sight channel looks much narrower than my own in that shot. As it is now its like double the width of the front sight. ridiculous.

P.S. the models are done in Solidworks 06, they are not dimensionally accurate or to scale. i would love to reverse my entire 99 and have a complete solidmodel, but ill probobly wait till i have a true German Walther before i take the time to do that though.

 

[KMaurer]

One thing to keep in mind is that the size of the front sight relative to the rear notch is highly dependent on the distance to your eye. The closer the gun is held to your eye, the smaller the front sight will appear compared to the width of the notch; hold the gun further away and the front sight will fill more of the notch. Because of this simple fact of geometry, there will never be one sight correct sight image for the distributors to show. People like me who tend to shoot from a compressed Weaver will find a wider front sight blade works better than will a shooter show prefers an isosceles stance. That's the primary reason that accessories manufacturers do such a business in different width front sight blades.

Ken

 

[Chris]

I have exactly the opposite issue with my Les Baer. The highly adjustable target sights are TOO tight to quickly pick up in an action/combat manner I'm going to be looking to swap them out for something a lot less 'accurate' so I can more easily aquire the target.

I've been looking at those high-vis fiber optic front sights with the tiny tritium ring around it for low light and a half ghost ring rear setup.

I think you will find that pistol sights are very personal and really dependon the use of the gun. If I was using my .45 for bullseye, I'd have great sights now, but for more active shooting like I prefer, they are way too precise.

 

[SnakeEye]

well when i was shooting, my boss, who had his 45, just had a set of these just monolithic blocks for sights.
they locked in tight and i found them to be very much to my liking. my accuracy was much better on his 45 with those than my own 9mm with my sights. that to me speaks volumes.

 

[tele_mark]

From the Newbie perspective -

When I was researching to determine what gun I was going to get for my defense gun, which is also my first handgun, a P99 .40, the online reviews of the SW99/P99 recurringly mentioned the "problem" you're seeing. I also found the air either side of the front blade to be quite large, but Adam explained it pretty well. I'm getting used to it, but it still takes me quite a few tries before I learn where the gun is hitting when I start a session after a space of a few days, and I have to re-learn the sights all over again.

This was today, a week since I'd shot last. The first time I shot it was on the 1st, and I'm pretty much a raw beginner, this is after about 300 rounds total that I've ever shot from a handgun. I've put 250 through this one as of today. This was shot from 15 yards. I'm always low and to the left when I start a session -- Pistol Pete told me that's from flintching, and I think it's also from trying to put the target at exactly 6 o clock to the front blade -- this gun wants to hit where the blade is covering -- then I hit a few high before I learn where to put the sights. This is standing in isosceles. From my limited experience, I think these sights will become more effective with practice, but I'd like to try a gun with a big block front sight like you mentioned for comparison. Next gun on the list is a dedicated .22 target pistol.

 

[Lynne]

tele_mark - I have a couple suggestions. First - only put 10 rounds into 1 target. Second - bring a bunch of targets. Check the scores on each one after you shoot. (It will be much easier to see your improvement that way) Third - don't shoot further than 20-21 feet, and aim dead center, not at 6 o'clock. Get the basics (and your anticipation) under control first. Once you start getting better, then you can go out further.

 

[tele_mark]

Thanks for the tips Lynne! This is all new to me, so I'm pretty much figuring it all out. This was the first time there was someone else using the range next to me, so I just shot the hell out of the 2 targets that I hung up so not to bring everything to a grinding halt. Next time I'll hang a bunch of targets up. I can't do too much about the distance though -- 15 yards is the closest station they have.

 

[Lynne]

I can't do too much about the distance though -- 15 yards is the closest station they have.

Well now - that sucks. Okay then - take your time and focus on shooting. I still wouldn't go all the way to 6 on the bull tho - aim dead center. Still do 10 rounds per target. Remember to squeeeeeeeze the trigger - don't pull it, and remember to hold your breath when you squeeze. Let the gun going "Bang!" be a surprise - that should help you to get over the anticipation. Just keep thinking "front sight - trigger squeeze" Make sure your sights are lined up and focus on the trigger pull. If you keep thinking about those two things, it helps to get over the flinching.