As some have been following, I've been doing my own homebrew clone of the "Hexsite" concept using a single action Ruger New Vaquero in 357 as a testbed.
Which took me here:
I modified this one more time by pulling out the fiber optic core. It was more of a distraction than anything else. I still had problems with "light glinting" on the front sight throwing my aim off, and the front "mini-hex" wasn't all that useful. What I really needed was a dead conventional front post, as black as possible.
I pondered how to get there for a long time, and then I got it - bigtime. Blacken the front sight with shadow, not paint or similar:
This is THE answer for me!
The front sight is based on the same vertical post as before, with the "minihex" pulled off and high-grade putty epoxy used to form a perfect square conventional front post. Normally that wouldn't hold up to holstering and such but the same brass tube that's creating dead black shadow is protecting the front sight from any harm.
While sighting, the inside of the brass tube is actually invisible. The same hex rear as before is in there and obscures my view of the inside of the tube. The only difference is that the front post is dead black at all times.
There's a slot cut in the face of the original metal post that the tube dovetails into, and then it screws down at the rear.
This setup is actually closer to Tim Sheehan's theories than the last try, even though it looks even less like his sights. He uses a high-tech polymer front that's very "glint resistant" to get as black a front as possible while still being compatible with conventional holsters, whereas my setup HAS to have custom holsters...since I make my own holsters, no problem for me
.
As a bonus, this looks more "sorta period correct", kinda like those full-barrel-length brass sights seen on 19th century rifles:
Besides a much-improved front sight and general alignment, this latest concoction is also fast as hell out of the fanny pack draw, much more snag-resistant.
I don't yet have a good down-the-sights pic - I hope to get that tonight or tomorrow. But it's basically "conventional post within hex".
Regarding the whole Hexsite concept:
Tim forwarded an EMail to me today from a cop in Colorado who had to pull a gun on a crook in extreme low-light conditions - with a Hexsite-equipped S&W 9mm auto of some sort. No shots fired, but his notes on sight alignment and target ID under these conditions is worth paying attention to:
The burglar ran off and made an escape - but NOT on a stolen bicycle. :neener: And the cop says he's pretty sure they'll get the guy later.
The real point here is that the officer could tell the guy was unarmed and make the no-shoot decision in poor lighting, while holding the sights dead on the guy at the same time. He had perfect confidence in his ability to shoot AND do threat-ID simultaneously. With normal sights, you have to switch from target-focus to ID the threat and then to front-sight-focus to shoot, messing up your speed and confidence.
The Hexsite lets you do both at once. And the target-focus nature lets you easily hold both eyes open - it's far more natural than doing so with a front-sight-focus hold.
The cop was referring to this thread on TFL:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358915
If it's not clear yet: this setup is BETTER than anything involving light-emitting sights (mainly tritium) because it doesn't interfere with what's in the background: the target. When you shine a flashlight in somebody's eyes in the dark, they can't see what's behind the flashlight. Same thing with tritium on a smaller scale.
For a while I tried fiber optic because it auto-dims as the light drops, but in all lighting conditions it's still more of a distraction than a help.
In the instance this cop talks about, this was the fifth time in his career he'd drawn down on a potential criminal threat and the first with the Hexsite. What shocked him was how much of the target he could see and ID, due to both the target-focused nature of the Hexsite and the lack of obscuring light between him and the target.
REAL Hexsite availability:
Tim has these in stock for Glocks right now as a user-bolt-on option at prices ($130) less than most tritium setups, and easier to install yourself as there's no glass vial to break. The same for XDs is coming soon. Custom setups involving shipping him your gun are possible for most others, esp. autos.
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm
Autopistol (incl. Glock) details:
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/pistols.htm
The Hexsite is a patented thing. Tim has given me a one-off permission to do independent testing of the concept to replicate the viability of this idea, and it's worked out OK because of how much I've talked about it after building and using it, but he doesn't want to see a flood of weird homebrew copies out there. Tim supported what I was doing because one, I was first to go homebrew and two, I'm testing it on something oddball as far as CCW goes.
(Sidenote: from this latest pic of mine you can see my "radical pinkie-under" grip, sorta. With my hand bent 90deg. off it's a little screwy. You can still make out how my pinkie bends way out and then curls under and up the other side...I have flexible hands. This is also why I round the bottoms of my grip panels.)
Which took me here:
I modified this one more time by pulling out the fiber optic core. It was more of a distraction than anything else. I still had problems with "light glinting" on the front sight throwing my aim off, and the front "mini-hex" wasn't all that useful. What I really needed was a dead conventional front post, as black as possible.
I pondered how to get there for a long time, and then I got it - bigtime. Blacken the front sight with shadow, not paint or similar:
This is THE answer for me!
The front sight is based on the same vertical post as before, with the "minihex" pulled off and high-grade putty epoxy used to form a perfect square conventional front post. Normally that wouldn't hold up to holstering and such but the same brass tube that's creating dead black shadow is protecting the front sight from any harm.
While sighting, the inside of the brass tube is actually invisible. The same hex rear as before is in there and obscures my view of the inside of the tube. The only difference is that the front post is dead black at all times.
There's a slot cut in the face of the original metal post that the tube dovetails into, and then it screws down at the rear.
This setup is actually closer to Tim Sheehan's theories than the last try, even though it looks even less like his sights. He uses a high-tech polymer front that's very "glint resistant" to get as black a front as possible while still being compatible with conventional holsters, whereas my setup HAS to have custom holsters...since I make my own holsters, no problem for me
.As a bonus, this looks more "sorta period correct", kinda like those full-barrel-length brass sights seen on 19th century rifles:
Besides a much-improved front sight and general alignment, this latest concoction is also fast as hell out of the fanny pack draw, much more snag-resistant.
I don't yet have a good down-the-sights pic - I hope to get that tonight or tomorrow. But it's basically "conventional post within hex".
Regarding the whole Hexsite concept:
Tim forwarded an EMail to me today from a cop in Colorado who had to pull a gun on a crook in extreme low-light conditions - with a Hexsite-equipped S&W 9mm auto of some sort. No shots fired, but his notes on sight alignment and target ID under these conditions is worth paying attention to:
The burglar ran off and made an escape - but NOT on a stolen bicycle. :neener: And the cop says he's pretty sure they'll get the guy later.
The real point here is that the officer could tell the guy was unarmed and make the no-shoot decision in poor lighting, while holding the sights dead on the guy at the same time. He had perfect confidence in his ability to shoot AND do threat-ID simultaneously. With normal sights, you have to switch from target-focus to ID the threat and then to front-sight-focus to shoot, messing up your speed and confidence.
The Hexsite lets you do both at once. And the target-focus nature lets you easily hold both eyes open - it's far more natural than doing so with a front-sight-focus hold.
The cop was referring to this thread on TFL:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358915
If it's not clear yet: this setup is BETTER than anything involving light-emitting sights (mainly tritium) because it doesn't interfere with what's in the background: the target. When you shine a flashlight in somebody's eyes in the dark, they can't see what's behind the flashlight. Same thing with tritium on a smaller scale.
For a while I tried fiber optic because it auto-dims as the light drops, but in all lighting conditions it's still more of a distraction than a help.
In the instance this cop talks about, this was the fifth time in his career he'd drawn down on a potential criminal threat and the first with the Hexsite. What shocked him was how much of the target he could see and ID, due to both the target-focused nature of the Hexsite and the lack of obscuring light between him and the target.
REAL Hexsite availability:
Tim has these in stock for Glocks right now as a user-bolt-on option at prices ($130) less than most tritium setups, and easier to install yourself as there's no glass vial to break. The same for XDs is coming soon. Custom setups involving shipping him your gun are possible for most others, esp. autos.
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm
Autopistol (incl. Glock) details:
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/pistols.htm
The Hexsite is a patented thing. Tim has given me a one-off permission to do independent testing of the concept to replicate the viability of this idea, and it's worked out OK because of how much I've talked about it after building and using it, but he doesn't want to see a flood of weird homebrew copies out there
. Tim supported what I was doing because one, I was first to go homebrew and two, I'm testing it on something oddball as far as CCW goes.(Sidenote: from this latest pic of mine you can see my "radical pinkie-under" grip, sorta. With my hand bent 90deg. off it's a little screwy. You can still make out how my pinkie bends way out and then curls under and up the other side...I have flexible hands. This is also why I round the bottoms of my grip panels.)
