Square vs "U" Shaped Sight Notches

[Jon Math]

I know the “U” shaped notch is very popular with European shooters is it just a cultural thing or does it have some advantages? I know a fair amount of their shooting is done indoors and was wondering if the “ U“ perhaps makes it easier to develop a sight picture under artificial lighting.

[Rover]

I first became interested in the "U" notch many years ago when I wanted to widen the notch on my .45 to get more light around the front sight.

I knew the Russians were consistently beating the U.S. (and everyone else) at the time while using the "U" notch.

Even though I am fairly good at such things, I found widening a notch with a Swiss file was not as easy as using a round 3/16" chain saw file (they have no taper) on the sight and only cost a couple of bucks.

You are really just using the top of the sight for centering and elevation, but you can see the front sight "climb the wall" of the notch when it is misaligned.

I still use a square notch on some of my guns, but see no downside to the "U" notch.

[Owl]

I have shot with both. I know what Rover means by seeing the front sight post climb the wall -- it might well be an aid in terms of windage, but isn't something that I personally have found more effective than a judgement of equally wide vertical bars of light on each side of the front sight post A potentially interesting extension of Rover's notion might be a v-shaped notch, something I have not come across.

I continue to prefer the square notch. It's hard to measure, but I think it provides, to me at least, faster acquisition of final sight picture, maybe because it seems to be less distracting, or perhaps presents fewer data to process. One thing with my 1911 that I have found useful in rapid acquisition of elevation is painting (I used matte orange) a horizontal stripe across the base of the front sight post, the top of the stripe aligned with the square bottom border of the silhouette of the rear notch when on target. It seems to get me quicker into the ballpark range of muzzle nod for positioning the top of the front sight post. If I am right about that stripe being a help, I would guess that any advantage it might have would be lessened, at least for elevation, if used with a u-shaped rear notch.

-Marty-

[Rover]

I've used a "V" notch occasionally, usually on military rifles. I think it sucks and would never use one myself.

[Jon Math]

I have an old spring piston air pistol from the late 60’s that has the front post mounted with a screw such that you can rotate it to change the apparent width of it and the rear sight has a rotating plate with two different sizes of square notches and “U” shaped notches.

I always just used the thickest width of post and the smallest notch, but now that I’m getting older and more interested in pistols I should dig that old pistol out and experiment a bit.


I dug my old pistol out. It’s seals must have dried out (I believe old RWS ones used leather for sealing material) and it will not compress air to fire a pellet. I did experiment with the two “U” notch choices and various front post widths for a while. I see the climb the slope effect that was mentioned, and my eye also seemed to center the post pretty quickly and efficiently.
I’m not sure I’m ready to start filing my sights quite yet; but my new AP is on it’s way and I believe it too had options for different notches and I will give it a good lengthy trial.
Thanks for the thoughts on the different systems.

Jon