The ordinary pistol sights, as placed even now on the latest patterns of automatics, are the worst that one can imagine.
What one wants is a front sight which shows up instantly against any object; large so that it is the most prominent object in aiming, and a back sight with so big a U in it that you instantly get the front sight centrally in it.
These conditions are fulfilled only by the French duelling sights. The front sight is a silver ball without stalk, as large as and similar to the one on a shotgun.
Shotgun men found this the best sight and shotgun shooting is snap shooting like pistol shooting is or ought to be. Now compare this with the sights on other pistols, especially military ones. They have a high knife blade, black front sight. The target pistols have a microscopic black bead on a very thin stalk which gets bent out of position at the least rough usage.
For a hind sight there is a minute indentation in the bar of the hind sight.
When added to this you are expected to see this microscopic dot, or a problematic part of the knife edge front sight (this latter worn to an indistinct grey by friction) into a slight notch which you would need a magnifying glass to find, and which is much too small to hold the front sight in, and to do all this in a black cellar so dark that you have to light a match to look for a cartridge if you drop it you can easily see that men give up pistol shooting in disgust and want some sport where there is light and air, and in which they do not have to tire their eyes out to look for the front sight and a target at the end of a coal cellar.
Whatever pistol you use, have it fitted with a big silver front bead sight placed close to the barrel, no matter how large it is, if your eyesight needs it large to see instantly in a bad light.
Have the back sight with a big U in it so that you see daylight all round it when aiming with fully stretched arm.
This front sight cannot be altered but the back sight can be made higher or lower to suit your style of aiming. At first you do not know if your bad shots are due to the sights not being suitable for you, or not being properly adjusted, or to your wobbly aim. There is no use going further into the matter now, but later I will show you how you can alter the sights to your own individual peculiarities.
What I want to impress is, that from the very beginning, you should not worry yourself with the sights you find on pistols; get your gunmaker to put on duelling pistol sights before you begin to learn. Tell him you want them for taking a full sight in daylight at twenty yards. Let him read this chapter and he will understand what you require.