Fire in my eyes

It's not news that I'm a firearm enthusiast. One of my favorites is my Rossi model 92, 20 incher in .45 Colt. It is a great, fun little gun, and is perfect for plinking or use as a brush gun or ranch gun. It's a popular favorite for something folks in my neck of the woods like to call a "truck gun." It is a very nice, but inexpensive replica of a Winchester model 1892.

Rossi model 92. 

My eyesight is not the best in the world, despite the awesome job my contact lenses do to correct the problem. Iron sights, or open sights on most rifles and shotguns can be a bit of a problem for me at ranges past about 50 or 60 yards, unless I am shooting at a pretty big target. I just have a hard time keeping a sight that looks huge on a target that looks small, especially when everything seems dark on dark in color. I will, often, put some bright flourescent orange paint on the front sight to make it stand out more, but this isn't always ideal.

Fire Sights.

For my 92, I heard from a buddy who likes to shoot Cowboy Action that there were several companies that made aftermarket sights. One of them is Williams, who make a set called Fire Sights. These are fiber optic sights; they have little fiber optic rods which gather ambient light and amp it up big time. The stick out with bright colors, even in low light, making them much easier to see. I picked up a set of these, called my gunsmith to see if he would take a look at putting them on, and took the rig out to him.

It took just short of two weeks, which was cool with me, for the gunsmith to get the sights on. I had checked ahead, and found that my Rossi might be one of the guns that had some quality control issues when it came to the dovetail machining not being 100% Grade A. Turns out mine did suffer from some problems. The front dovetail is seriously assed up. It is crooked, too large, etc. The rear is also on a cant, and not level. So in short, the smith had to do some mojo to get the sights in, but he's a wizard and got them in and lined up. The sight picture is great. The fiber rods glow like Chernobyl and are super easy to spot. Even with the caddywhompus fit they are super,and much better than the stock setup. I'm not a "purist" when it comes to this particular rifle, so I didn't care about keeping period correct sights on it, I want it to be a good shooter and easy for me. I need to be able to see what I am aiming at with this gun, and these sights should do the job and then some.

After taking the gun to the range one evening, about an hour before sunset, I got to see the sights in action. They weren't as dead on after install as I had hoped, most likely due to the issues with the dovetails on the gun itself, and so I spent a good bit of ammo and time trying to get the gun sighted in. Having said that, the sights themselves looked great. I was a little caught off guard by how delicate the rear windage adjustment is, and therefore had to start all over once the sight was wiggling freely because I loosened the set screw too much. Other than adjustments, the sights seem fine and were bright as hell well after sundown. If I slow the hell down, and get this thing dialed in before I burn all my ammo up, I think it will work as well as I had hoped. I am certainly more than pleased with the sights. If you are in the market for a good set of fiber optics for your rifle or shotgun, Williams seems to make a fine set.

-Owen