Seems they are all the rage these days. Count me as one who prefers simple irons.
There are a couple of tricks, however. For a fiber optic front sight, it is "usually" a simple task to remove the fiber optic pipe, often leaving a very small front aperture at the top of the post. This can be a real advantage for open sight shooting, especially with a rear peep or target aperture sight. Or if you prefer a more traditional front post, trim a small piece of round toothpick in place of the fiber optic pipe, and black it out with a Sharpie.
Most rear fiber optic sights are a traditional notch sight with two fiberoptic dots on either side. The simplest way to defeat these is a couple of well-placed dabs of flat black paint on the glow dots. Removing the fiber optic pipe usually leaves two holes of daylight, which can obscure the notch. I have on occasion gone full-on removal, but I filled the holes with carefully trimmed pieces of round toothpicks, followed by liquid superglue and a Sharpie.
Fiber Optic sights seem to be a selling point these days, but you don't have to live with them if you don't like them, and you don't have to shop for replacement sights.
Seems they are all the rage these days. Count me as one who prefers simple irons.
I do hear you Jim. Those skinny pieces of plastic have always struck me as being too-flimsy. But, I found a way around it on the RWS/Diana rifles.
I solved the problem on the RWS 34 Panthers I worked on by encasing the rods on the front (1 rod) and rear (2 rods) sights with clear epoxy. Light transmission was still very-good, and it allowed me to get a great sight picture. In fact, once I had them durable-enough to trust, I DID in fact find that obtaining a good sight picture with fiber optic sights might possibly even be preferred! That being said, if I was like RB708 and seeing nothing but blurs, I'd probably just stick to using a scope.
Anyway, my epoxy fix basically turned the front and rear rod areas into solid blocks of plastic--no more breakage unless you purposely took a hammer to them--and even all-steel sights wouldn't hold-up to that kind of abuse.
Diana has since solved the problem on the rod of the front sight by surrounding it with a full-globe-style enclosure. Look at any of the RWS/Diana models with open sights that have been sold in the last few years, including currently, and you'll see the nice difference.
Too bad for me--that upgraded front sight WILL fit my older RWS 34 Panther, but I've been trying to buy one from Umarex USA for the last several months and they're still out of stock. I hate when that happens. But, that's a little of my OCB/OCD kicking in. What I already have with the solid plastic blocks is pretty bullet proof. I'll try to take a couple of pics of my 'solid plastic sights', and add them here.
You can get a good view of that globed, protected, red fiber optic front sight here:
https://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Diana_240_Classic_Air_Rifle/4163
Or, here:
https://www.amazon.com/RWS-Model-Caliber-Pellet-Airgun/dp/B001R67M3O
With both photos that appear when you click on those 2 links, at first you might think the view doesn't tell you much. But, just use your mouse to hover the cursor over the front sight, and you'll get a very-nice good close-up of the sight and the red F.O. rod inside.
Ekmeister,
You are soooo wise and timly. I will very soon be the proud owner of a TWS 34p.
This is new. Will I still have to use your fine and excellent epoxy trick.
Thanks a lot for your great advice.
I think you only really NEED to do the epoxy trick to the rear sight. Like I posted, the front sight now comes with a cylindrical globe that completely-surrounds the red fiber optic rod, so it should be safe. (Click on the 2 links I posted if you haven't done so yet, and you'll see the globe).
However, admittedly, sometimes I tend to lean a little toward being overly-cautious, just in case. If you just can't stand seeing that red rod 'suspended' and unsupported, you can apply the epoxy to the underside of the rod (you leave the top of the rod open so light can still enter, and so you can still see it to put it on---or just-barely UNDER your target.
The latter front sight placement describes what is done when you're using the 6 O'clock sighting method with open sights. When I changed to that method as recommended to me by one of my tuning customers, my accuracy improved a lot! And, I'm not talking about using aperture sights, I'm talking about standard iron sights, as long as the rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation.
