JimMarch1
Blackhawk
(Note: this post starts out talking about the gun, which may be of limited interest. However, the holster I ended up making for it turned out exceptionally well and may be of broader interest...)
Folks,
For those new to the "Hacksite" saga, short form is I've been experimenting with an alternate sight setup based on the Goshen Hexsite:
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm
My previous homebrew version (the "Goshdarn Hacksite") involved a full-length brass tube to put the rear hex aperture into and fully enclose the conventional post:
This worked extremely well and is the best sight setup I've ever shot - but I ran into a problem when the gun in it's fanny pack slipped off my desk.
Yeah, the brass dented. I shoulda seen THAT coming.
OK, so...obvious cure is, enclose the brass tube in a steel tube. Well finding the right diameter steel tube turned out to be a pain, and when I finally did...it wasn't pretty. OK, scratch that, it was truly "drunk baboon ugly".
Sigh.
I thought of all kinds of ways to cover it, tried a couple of types of paint...nothing worked. Finally had a brainstorm: cover the whole damn thing with LEATHER, which doubles as extra padding:
It's...yeah, ODD, but not terrible
. Looks like something the Comanches got ahold of circa 1880 or so. If of course anybody ever scoped an SAA back then. And as far as functionality goes, it does NOT glint AT ALL, a major plus.
The rear hex aperture and front post are unchanged as those worked great in the Mk2 incarnation. The only functional change is a bit of a notch at the top of the front post; I haven't shot it this way yet but just dry-firing, it does appear to catch the eye and may indeed make a great system even better. The Hexsite concept is by far, without question the best sight type I've ever tried for handguns. You focus on the target instead of the front sight, yet even slightly blurry these sights work extremely well at high speed and are very accurate at all ranges. They "feel" like a red-dot sight except without the annoying red dot staring you in the face, acting as a distraction.
While the thing appears fat as hell from the rear, because this is a target-focus setup and it's both easy and natural to hold both eyes open, it's easy to look "around" the sight with the off-eye and get an unobstructed view of the target area - so I don't expect the extra bulk of this sight to be a problem.
Weight isn't too bad either, and toughness has gone through the roof.
I've also covered that funky exposed putty epoxy from the Mk2. It still isn't a visual masterpiece" but it's not quite as screwed up I don't think.
NOTE: Tim Sheehan at Goshen has asked me to tell y'all to contact him and ask permission before doing any more funky homebrew derivatives of his sights. Contact him at the link above.
Right...next step, make a new holster for this critter. The fanny pack is getting a wee bit annoying and it's much colder now so a moderate jacket isn't out of place even indoors. So I got to work on the holster.
My "mental starting point" was an old Bill Grover design, still sold by Ted Blocker as the CC1:
http://www.tedblockerholsters.com/product.cfm?pi=5C89D10E-0FB8-C3D9-74D157928572DFB9
...but I was disappointed by an early attempt along those lines. Basically, it was too loose, not enough tension, and no easy way to lock in a lean angle for either a forward-tilt strongside or backwards tilt crossdraw.
I'm *extremely* happy with what I ended up with, a holster I call the "Mark 3":
As you can see, the conchos are each a mount point for one end of the piece I call the "tilt strap". Set it to the upper concho, you have a crossdraw rig, lower means it's a strong-side forward tilt. A middle position would allow a vertical ride if you're into that. The conchos are screw-on so it's a few minutes worth of adjustment.
The double-ring buckle is secure and allows me to crank down on the tension to whatever degree I want, and the rig works fine with any width belt.
I think a lot of the ideas behind this are original to me - at least, I've never seen anything quite like it. If anybody HAS seen something similar, including the adjustable belt tension, the ability to install and remove the rig without taking the belt off and the adjustable tilt, please let me know. For now, I'm releasing the design under a Creative Commons non-commercial license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
In other words, you can make your own, please mention me if you publish details, and if you want to make them commercially talk to me and we'll work out a (very cheap) deal.
Folks,
For those new to the "Hacksite" saga, short form is I've been experimenting with an alternate sight setup based on the Goshen Hexsite:
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm
My previous homebrew version (the "Goshdarn Hacksite") involved a full-length brass tube to put the rear hex aperture into and fully enclose the conventional post:
This worked extremely well and is the best sight setup I've ever shot - but I ran into a problem when the gun in it's fanny pack slipped off my desk.
Yeah, the brass dented. I shoulda seen THAT coming.
OK, so...obvious cure is, enclose the brass tube in a steel tube. Well finding the right diameter steel tube turned out to be a pain, and when I finally did...it wasn't pretty. OK, scratch that, it was truly "drunk baboon ugly".
Sigh.
I thought of all kinds of ways to cover it, tried a couple of types of paint...nothing worked. Finally had a brainstorm: cover the whole damn thing with LEATHER, which doubles as extra padding:
It's...yeah, ODD, but not terrible
. Looks like something the Comanches got ahold of circa 1880 or so. If of course anybody ever scoped an SAA back then. And as far as functionality goes, it does NOT glint AT ALL, a major plus.The rear hex aperture and front post are unchanged as those worked great in the Mk2 incarnation. The only functional change is a bit of a notch at the top of the front post; I haven't shot it this way yet but just dry-firing, it does appear to catch the eye and may indeed make a great system even better. The Hexsite concept is by far, without question the best sight type I've ever tried for handguns. You focus on the target instead of the front sight, yet even slightly blurry these sights work extremely well at high speed and are very accurate at all ranges. They "feel" like a red-dot sight except without the annoying red dot staring you in the face, acting as a distraction.
While the thing appears fat as hell from the rear, because this is a target-focus setup and it's both easy and natural to hold both eyes open, it's easy to look "around" the sight with the off-eye and get an unobstructed view of the target area - so I don't expect the extra bulk of this sight to be a problem.
Weight isn't too bad either, and toughness has gone through the roof.
I've also covered that funky exposed putty epoxy from the Mk2. It still isn't a visual masterpiece" but it's not quite as screwed up I don't think.
NOTE: Tim Sheehan at Goshen has asked me to tell y'all to contact him and ask permission before doing any more funky homebrew derivatives of his sights. Contact him at the link above.
Right...next step, make a new holster for this critter. The fanny pack is getting a wee bit annoying and it's much colder now so a moderate jacket isn't out of place even indoors. So I got to work on the holster.
My "mental starting point" was an old Bill Grover design, still sold by Ted Blocker as the CC1:
http://www.tedblockerholsters.com/product.cfm?pi=5C89D10E-0FB8-C3D9-74D157928572DFB9
...but I was disappointed by an early attempt along those lines. Basically, it was too loose, not enough tension, and no easy way to lock in a lean angle for either a forward-tilt strongside or backwards tilt crossdraw.
I'm *extremely* happy with what I ended up with, a holster I call the "Mark 3":
As you can see, the conchos are each a mount point for one end of the piece I call the "tilt strap". Set it to the upper concho, you have a crossdraw rig, lower means it's a strong-side forward tilt. A middle position would allow a vertical ride if you're into that. The conchos are screw-on so it's a few minutes worth of adjustment.
The double-ring buckle is secure and allows me to crank down on the tension to whatever degree I want, and the rig works fine with any width belt.
I think a lot of the ideas behind this are original to me - at least, I've never seen anything quite like it. If anybody HAS seen something similar, including the adjustable belt tension, the ability to install and remove the rig without taking the belt off and the adjustable tilt, please let me know. For now, I'm releasing the design under a Creative Commons non-commercial license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
In other words, you can make your own, please mention me if you publish details, and if you want to make them commercially talk to me and we'll work out a (very cheap) deal.
