a technique used by many shooters, and special soot-producing lighters are sold for use by competition shooters. Even a thin layer of mud or dirt applied to the sight will help kill the glare, as long as the coating is thin and consistent enough not to change the shape of the sights. Many target sights are designed with vertical or even undercut front sight blades, which reduces the angles at which light will produce glare off the sight—the downside of these sights is that they tend to snag on clothing, branches, and other materials, so they are common only on target guns. Sight hoods reduce the chances of snagging an undercut sight and are common on some types of rifles, particularly lever-action rifles, but they are prohibited in some shooting disciplines. Contrast enhancements While target shooters generally prefer a matte black finish to their sights, to reduce the chance of glare and increase the contrast between the sights and the light bars, black sights don't offer good visibility with dark targets or in low light conditions, such as those often encountered in hunting, military, or self-defense situations. A variety of different contrast enhancements to the basic Patridge type sight and others have been developed to address this deficiency. The contrast enhancement of the front sight has to be somewhat larger compared to the contrast enhancement(s) used for the rear sight if all contrast enhancements should appear about equally large from the shooters perspective. Three-dot On semi-automatic handguns, the most common type of enhancement is a bright white dot painted on the front sight near the top of the blade, and a dot on each side of the rear sight notch. In low lighting conditions the front sight dot is centered horizontally between the rear sight dots, with the target placed above the middle (front) dot. Some sight vendors offer differently colored dots for the front and rear sights. White outline rear A contrast variation which uses a dot front sight with a thick and bright white outline around the rear sight notch. Straight Eight Heinie Specialty Products produces a variant of high visibility sights in which a single dot front sight and a rear notch with a dot below can be lined up vertically to form a figure "eight". Sight inserts Popular on revolvers, this enhancement consists of a colored plastic insert in the front sight blade, usually red or