Sight blackener

[Earlyriser]

Is the Anschutz sight blackener any different from an ordinary cigarette lighter?

[Ricardo]

Better. It seems to be a carbide lamp, which makes really nice black soot very quickly.

[ric1911a1]

Where can I get one? Or 3?

[hundert]

ordinary lighter does NOT leave so much black residue

lol, edited :D

[David Levene]

ordinary lighter does leave so much black residue

I presume that you mean "...does NOT leave...."

That's my experience anyway.

[Mtl_Biker]

One of the guys shooting at my club regularly blackens his sights with a lighter, but I haven't been able to talk to him about it. What does it do? Does it somehow make the sights crisper or easier to see? How come? And do world class competitors often do this?

And is it both sights you do this to or only the front?

Thanks for helping me understand this.

[David Levene]

Both front and back, and my observation is that more do it than don't.

Some use a special lighter, others use candles, carbide lamps, spray etc.

Some ranges, notably in Munich, don't allow flames on the firing point. They escort you into the allies that lead down to the targets.

[hundert]

@Mtl_Biker

Yifu Wang did, but many others don't. I'd say don't do it, it's not necessary. Most top athletes don't do it. Those who do you can see the spot around the rear sight gap that they do. Not many.

It's a different story if you have an old pistol where the sights are no longer black.

What I did I painted sights with black matte acryl colors.

[paw080]

Well early Riser, the simple and cheapest sight blackener is a length of

tan masking tape, that is tightly twisted and one of the ends lit. That

darned tape produces nice thick and black smoke. Just be careful to

keep the flame away from plastic bits!

Tony

[nglitz]

The Anschutz lighters are charged with acetylene gas, vs. the usual butane. Same gas that wet carbide "rocks" produce. Nice & black.

[David M]

A good ,cheap and hardy sight black.

Cinta Intense Colour Hair Spray Black

[Mtl_Biker]

A good ,cheap and hardy sight black.

Cinta Intense Colour Hair Spray Black

I'm guessing that is a serious suggestion... Just did a Google search and could only find it in Australia. Doesn't seem to exist here in Canada.

[wasatch]

There's also Birchwood Casey Super Black flat black touch up paint that comes in a pen like device.

[jmdavis]

I think well blackened sights are more of an issue due to glare outdoors than indoors. I use a carbide blackener called the Rayvin Super Smoker. I have used it for Rifle for the past 5 years. But I doubt that carbide can be shipped overseas.

[ric1911a1]

I would still like to know where I can buy the Anschutz sight blackener...............

[Gort]

Back in the day Don Nygord used to sell the Anschutz sight blackeners, until they became illegal to ship in the US. The lighters were not an approved DOT shipping container for acetylene.
Gort

[Shooterer]

Before I bought my RayVin for smoking my High Power service rifles front sight, we would light a plastic spoon or fork on fire and use the smoke from that. one spoon created enough soot for 3-5 rifles (if you moved fast and planned ahead)

I how shoot Match rifles and sometimes my scores look like I did smoke my front globe. :(

[continental]

ric1911a1 - i bought two from Champions Choice at camp perry last year. i believe they were $11.ea

[jenrick]

I've used most of the methods listed here. All will give you a decent black sight. I personally recommend using an acetylene blackner like the Ray Vin if you have the time to do so as it allows for a very precise application. If you're in a hurry though and don't want to mess with carbide then masking tape would be my recommendation, as it does an excellent job.

The big thing with smoking the sights is it gives you a matte black surface (and I mean a really matte black surface). It's sort of like using good quality targets that are matte black, versus running them on your printer where they're kind of shiny. It provides a lot more contrast (at least to my eyes) even indoors, and if you're shooting outdoors it's almost a necessity IMO.

-jenrick