What You Can’t See …
Sights are another area for modification consideration. If you’re still enjoying iron sights, you may want to consider switching out front and rear sights for easy target acquisition. Perhaps you need a taller front sight, patridge with gold bead or bright colored insert. Depending on your eyes, barrel length and shooting application, different blade widths may make sense.
I’m past iron sights at this stage of life, so I lean toward optics. For revolvers and semi-autos, reflex sights are common on today’s hunting handguns. With a little practice, you can get on-target mighty fast. Red dots come in different sizes from 1 MOA to 8 MOA. For more precise shooting, the smaller the dot size the better. Remember, a 3 MOA dot will cover 3″ at 100 yards. For hunting in the woods where shots normally occur inside of 100 yards, the red dot sight is very practical. I’ve been using UltraDot sights, both tube and reflex models, on revolvers and semiautos with satisfactory results. Trijicon and Leupold also provide quality reflex sights.
Some handgunners prefer scopes over the red dots. Your planned hunting endeavor will determine the best power level. A straight 2X scope is fine for woods hunting. If you’re likely to encounter long shots in open country, you’ll appreciate higher magnification. I’ve been shooting Leupold’s 2.5-8x for many years. It’s a great optic for many types of hunting. Leave it on 2.5x for close-range opportunities or crank up the power for longer pokes. Burris also makes a 2-7x and a 3-12x scope, both are fine optics for hunting.
While we’re discussing optics, proper mounts and rings are a must. Many of my handguns use Weigand Machine And Design mounts and rings. Warne mounts and rings are another source for quality mounting gear. SSK Industries’ T’SOB mount is tough as nails and will
withstand brutal recoil. I refuse to mount a good optic in a cheap base mount and rings — it makes no sense. I’m in the process of installing a Leupold scope on a Freedom Arms Model 83. A Lovell mount with integrated rings will secure the optic and will not shake loose regardless of how many heavy loads it endures.
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