This is a guest post contributed by one of the members of my historical handgun research team.

History of Iron Sights

Until the mid-nineteenth century all rear sights were either of the V-notch or the peep type. In the 1880s the then-famous singer and shooter, Ira Albert Paine replaced the typical V-notch rear with a U-notch. In the 1880s and early 1890s Ira Paine was the top pistol shooter in the world. Because of this, many shooters adopted his design. In 1898 another American pistol shot, Eugene E. Patridge developed yet another sight and notch shape. His system consisted of a flat-topped front sight combined with a rectangular notch in the rear sight blade. The notch was made wide enough to allow light to pass along side of the post when viewed through the notch, making it very simple to allow for windage. For the past 125 years, Patridge sights have been the most popular, although you can still get Paine sights with a U-notch rear.

    from Major Julian S. Hatcher's 1927 Book, Pistols And Revolvers, page 140:

Today we have two contrasting styles of handgun sights: a square post with square notch or “ball in a bucket” with U-notch rear. Current examples are shown below:

THE MEN BEHIND THE SIGHTS

Ira Albert Paine (1837 – 1898)

The Rifle magazine, which would later become American Rifleman, provided an extensive history of Ira Paine in 1888:

For several years Chevalier Paine has appeared in every large city in America, in all the great and prominent cities of Europe, before the nobility arid the masses in the old country, delighting all who have seen him shoot, winning fame and fortune, making warm friends of all sportsmen, entertaining, pleasing and instructing kings and nobles, proving the possibilities of firearms when in the hands of experts, occasionally shooting matches with some unknown individual, who has been put forward by parties who believed they could produce a superior to Chevalier Paine—but have yet failed to find one—and each year showing himself to be thorough master of the weapons he handles so gracefully but with such wonderful and unerring accuracy.

At first he gave exhibitions with the shotgun exclusively; but when in the woods, deer shooting, he handled the rifle with such marvelous skill as to fill his hunting companions with awe, and when pistols and revolvers were placed in his hands by friends he performed feats with these arms which were hitherto considered among the impossibilities; and, as these arms are so difficult to shoot accurately, men who had supposed they had acquired considerable skill in pistol shooting when they saw the marksmanship of Chevalier Paine with a Stevens .22 pistol and with revolvers stood dumbfounded and applied to him the appellation, “King of the Pistol.” Those who saw his brilliant feats of marksmanship urged him to add these weapons to his exhibition tools, which he decided to do. He handles them all with the greatest skill, and, being ambidextrous, shoots with, either right or left hand in a manner which rouses the audiences before whom he appears to a state of the greatest enthusiasm.

The National Police Gazette from July 21, 1888, has this to say about Chevalier Ira Paine: Ira Paine was born in Hebronville, Mass. In his early days he sang tenor in a quartet with Dave Wambold in the old San Francisco minstrels. He developed into a crack shot and adopted it as his profession. He was created chevalier by the King of Portugal during a tour of Europe. He established his title of champion all-round marksman with the Winchester rifle, the 16-bore Greener shot gun, the Stevens .22 pistol and .44 Smith & Wesson revolver, and was looked upon as invincible.

Mr. Walter Winans, author of the The Art of Revolver Shooting, 1911 and The Modern Pistol – And How to Shoot It, 1919, was a contemporary of Ira Paine and joined him in pistol shooting matches both in the USA and Europe. Mr. Winans was an American who lived in England and frequently shot at the then-famous Pistol Gallery in Paris with Paine. In his 1919 book Mr. Winans has this to say: “I was a pupil of Chevalier Ira Paine, who was an incomparably better shot than any of us at stationary targets, and unique in that I never saw him make a bad shot. (italics added) One of his most sensational feats was for his assistant to hold a playing card, the three of hearts, horizontally. Paine hit the outside pip first, then the middle one, and finally the one next the fingers, which were about a third of an inch from it. This, in artificial light and reserving the most dangerous shot for the last, required nerve, and he did this the night before he died, when he knew his case was hopeless.” (p.137)

Incidentally, Mr. Winans had been modifying pistol sights to suit his own taste for many years prior to shooting with Mr. Paine, but after working with Paine in both Paris, France and Boston, MA, Mr. Winans adopted Paine “ball in a bucket” sights on his own handguns.

Eugene E. Patridge (1847 – 1933)

In 1903 Mr. Patridge provided an lengthy explanation for his pistol sights that subsequently became ubiquitous:

The front sight will probably appear to many as unnecessarily coarse, but exhaustive experiments have convinced me that it is none too broad, and Dr. Bell and other experts have arrived at the same conclusion. My theory is that a proper open sight is one which the eye can grasp definitely without straining and which will inform the shooter instantly of any error in holding. The eye with this sight sees, when the weapon is perfectly held, a straight black bar with two narrow lines of light pointing up to the black spot (the bullseye), and one soon finds that if either line of light disappears as the trigger is pressed the shot will be found on that side of the target. Any break in the symmetry of the top line of the bar will also result in either high or low shots, a “jag” or projection producing the former and a “sag” the latter. Some want to see a space between the bar and the bull, but I like to hold close to it, feeling safe if the circle appears intact, and knowing that if it gets irregular I am holding up into it.

Until I devised this combination I used to occasionally lose my front sight or mistake some shadow in the rear sight for it, but now I never have this trouble. Although my eyes are not sharp in looking off, I can get good results when shooting at dusk when others have been unable to distinguish their fine sights.
The individual shooter should adapt the opening in his rear sight to his own peculiarities of sight and holding, as if he finds the opening too narrow so that it rattles him trying to keep both lines intact, he should make it wider, and when his holding improves he can reduce it until he finally has as fine a sight, judged by the accuracy of the definition, as any made. If the rear sight is a thick bar the opening should be beveled, leaving the flat side toward the eye, but without disturbing the rectangular shape of the opening. Be careful to have the square end of the front sight toward the eye, and not the rounding, as is generally found on factory sights, as the first method gives a sharp, well-defined line while the latter leads to uncertainty and vexation.

When sights get worn and gray, blacken them with smoke from burning a lump of camphor gum. I trust these points will help some one to raise his scores.

JUNE 1899 at Massachusetts Rifle Association in Walnut Hill

JUNE 1899 50 Yard Pistol Targets by E.E. Patridge

When E. E. Patridge came up with his concept for handgun sights, he turned to fellow Massachusetts Rifle Association member and famous gunsmith Adolph O. Niedner, who made the very first sight for Mr. Patridge himself at Niedner’s workshop in Malden, Massachusetts.

Adolph Otto Niedner (1863 – 1954)

Mr. Niedner enlisted in the United States Army in 1880 and fought against the Apache uprisings led by Victorio and Geronimo. He was discharged in 1883 with a scar from a scalp wound and subsequently found his way to the Boston MA area. He was an active member of Mass Rifle for more than twenty years. In addition to building Patridge’s first sight, Niedner also experimented in developing and improving rifle cartridges. Once Niedner complained to Major Dooley of the U.S. Cartridge about the lack of accuracy of the .22 long cartridges available at the time. Major Dooley provided Niedner with 10,000 primed .22 long cases and 25 pounds of powder. Niedner’s subsequent experiments led to the eventual development of the .22 long rifle cartridge, one of the most popular calibers ever invented. Niedner also developed the “25 Niedner” around 1920 (more commonly known today as the “25-06 Remington”).

When the enterprising Stevens Arms and Tool Co., aided by the Union Metallic Cartridge Co., originated the .22 long-rifle cartridge (brought to UMC by A.O. Niedner), it was necessary to quicken the twist in the rifles in which this cartridge was shot, from one turn in 25 inches to one turn in 16 inches, to spin the extra ten grains of lead. By increasing the bullet from 30 to 40 grains, and shortening the twist from 25 to 16, the range and accuracy of the cartridge were wonderfully increased, so much so that shooting declared to be impossible with the old .22 short cartridge was readily performed with the new .22 long rifle. As the increased accuracy secured by this change became known, calls came for other makes of rifles to take the new cartridge… and the world’s most popular cartridge was born.

-Gould, Modern American Rifles 1892

So, now you know… if you have a squared-off front post and rear notch, you’ve got sights designed by E. E. Patridge… your round front & U-notch rear “ball in a bucket” sights are from Ira Paine… and Mr. Patridge’s gunsmith—A. O. Niedner—created .22 long rifle after being dissatisfied with both .22 short and .22 long.

Sources:
The Modern American Pistol and Revolver, A. C. Gould 1888
The Modern American Rifle, A. C. Gould 1892
The Art of Revolver Shooting, Walter Winans 1911
The Modern Pistol – And How to Shoot It, Walter Winans 1919
Pistols And Revolvers – And Their Use, Major Julian S. Hatcher 1927
Massachusetts Rifle Association history from www.massrifle.com & archive.org

About the Author

Morgan Goring, coach of the Central Florida Scholastic Action Shooting team (shown in the picture below), is a retired Army Major and a member of my historical handgun research team.