New idea? Well, not really.
Back in ancient times (mid to late '70's) when I carried a badge I used a hardened Colt Gold Cup as my carry weapon for awhile. Conveniently, the GC has serrations running the length of the top of the slide. I used these serrations as a guide and painted a thin white line (the width of the front sight) front to back along the top of the slide. When using the weapon in low light I used it as a sighting guide.
Originally, I thought I would be able to look at the target and pick up the line in my peripheral vision. However, I find it works best by actually looking at the gun and pointing the white line at the target which is slightly out of focus (just like when you focus on the front sight but in this instance your focus on the line does not have to be as acute). While it's not as precise as using a front sight, the conditions when one would use this technique is not a situation lending itself to precise shooting, anyway (low light, etc).
Along comes my little darling, the P3AT. I find that due to their small size even in daylight I essentially have no sights. I decided to give my old idea a try.
![]()
Since this little gun is not a target pistol and is used with targets that are large and generally close this little system works pretty well anytime.
Here's a picture to give you an idea as to what it looks like in use. I know the laser negates the use of the white line but not all of us have lasers and being battery operated it may fail.
![]()
To do this I merely taped off what I didn't want to paint making sure the entire gun was protected. This was after I had degreased the top of the slide with Break Free Gun Blast Gun Cleaner (there are a bunch of other products to do the same thing). I used Krylon flat white as the paint (one might even consider using luminescent paint).
This is point shooting with a reference.
A simple idea and easy to do!
Back in ancient times (mid to late '70's) when I carried a badge I used a hardened Colt Gold Cup as my carry weapon for awhile. Conveniently, the GC has serrations running the length of the top of the slide. I used these serrations as a guide and painted a thin white line (the width of the front sight) front to back along the top of the slide. When using the weapon in low light I used it as a sighting guide.
Originally, I thought I would be able to look at the target and pick up the line in my peripheral vision. However, I find it works best by actually looking at the gun and pointing the white line at the target which is slightly out of focus (just like when you focus on the front sight but in this instance your focus on the line does not have to be as acute). While it's not as precise as using a front sight, the conditions when one would use this technique is not a situation lending itself to precise shooting, anyway (low light, etc).
Along comes my little darling, the P3AT. I find that due to their small size even in daylight I essentially have no sights. I decided to give my old idea a try.
Since this little gun is not a target pistol and is used with targets that are large and generally close this little system works pretty well anytime.
Here's a picture to give you an idea as to what it looks like in use. I know the laser negates the use of the white line but not all of us have lasers and being battery operated it may fail.
To do this I merely taped off what I didn't want to paint making sure the entire gun was protected. This was after I had degreased the top of the slide with Break Free Gun Blast Gun Cleaner (there are a bunch of other products to do the same thing). I used Krylon flat white as the paint (one might even consider using luminescent paint).
This is point shooting with a reference.
A simple idea and easy to do!
