Jump to content
n4p226r

Your preferred sighting method

Recommended Posts

please post what sights you have experiences with as well.  so we can have an idea. 

 

 

me.  i have experience with the sig "dot-bar" i sights, stock glock sights, standard 3 dot sights, 3 dot night sights, 3 dot night sights with a bright front outline (like trijicon HD) and 2 dot night sights.  by far, 2 dot night sights are night and day better for me.  i plan to eventually take a low light class, and if i come out not seeing the value in the 2 dot sights, i'll probably go all black or just a dot on the front.  i would like to try a set of fiber optic fronts and plain rear but that will have to wait.  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When I asked what are you trying to do, I meant with the sights/gun not the thread. 

 

Personally I think 3 dots sucks for everything outside tritium sights at night (which I think suck in the daytime).  2 dot sights (by which i assume you mean something like the straight 8 sights) never made sense to me because aligning a circle with a circle is not something we are that good at.

 

The only thing that makes sense to me is plain black rear with either a plain black front or a black front with a thin fiber optic.

 

If you need the gun at night, have a light on it which makes the tritium pointless and it is a lot more useful.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh. Well in general these are for self defense. I really dislike 3 dots in general. I do think a plain front/rear would be nice but I'm not sure how well that would work for a carry gun. The Kyle Defoor sights seem to be a great setup if night sights aren't needed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've tried pretty much every sight combination over the years and have decided that what works best for me is 3 dot.  Tritium, preferably with a ProGlo type front sight, for self defense and fiber optic for competition.  But my eyes are kind of strange so what works for me isn't necessarily going to work for anyone else.  All black sights are pretty much useless for me unless I close one eye, and I hate shooting with one eye closed. 

 

I've tried the 2 dot tritium and one issue with them is that it's hard to judge how high the front dot should be from the rear when all you can see is the tritium, so getting elevation correct is harder.  3 dot doesn't have the same issue.  I also find 3 dot faster than 2 dot for me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh. Well in general these are for self defense. I really dislike 3 dots in general. I do think a plain front/rear would be nice but I'm not sure how well that would work for a carry gun.

 

Try it. The type of sights doesn't matter much when you are carrying the gun, it matters when you are shooting it :)

 

Black rear with a thin front fiber up front is pretty much one of the fastest to acquire and most accurate combos out there.  Everyone is different but give it a try, and preferably use a timer to compare your performance with different sight types.

 

BTW, when I say thin fiber front, I mean it. Stay away from the huge bulbous HiVis type sights, I mean front sights like Dawson, or 10-8, with fiber diameter in the 0.040" to 0.060" range. Personally I much prefer 0.040.

 

The other thing that matters is the ratio between the size of the rear notch and the front sight width. For most people it works out best if they can see about half a front sight width worth of light at either side of the front sight when centered in the rear sight. A lot of factory front sights are a lot fatter then that which makes any kind of accuracy at speed very difficult.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I dislike the dot sights, trying to line up dots on the rear sight I don't think is beneficial, you should be focused on the front sight, and not rear, I just think it's a little busy for what you need.

 

I prefer a simple black front sight with a green fiber optic in it, and a all black rear sight.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I prefer a simple black front sight with a green fiber optic in it, and a all black rear sight.

I've transitioned to this set up, second favorite has been plain front/plain rear. With a light this combination is just as good as any night sight.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here's something to think about that Vlad touched on. When using tritium sights (3 dot Trijicon was my primary sight set on my home defense pistol) they are really only beneficial in the dark. The problem with that is, if it's dark, you can't see your target or beyond it. What's the solution to that? Using a light...which washes out the tritium anyway.

 

The only use I've been able to find for them is in one specific scenario: you hear a noise outside in the woods and take your pistol w/light to investigate. Using the pistol/light outside doesnt wash the dots out all that much and allows you to have a sight picture AND target acquisition.

 

Other than that, I haven't been able to drill a scenario that made sense for using tritium sights in the home. I've since switched to Dawson fiber front and serrated black rear. It really draws your eye to the front sight and has lowered my times in daytime shooting games. YMMV

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, maybe let her choose what works best for her as well? Giving her sights that don't work for her is not a good thing either.

 

I think on sights, everyone needs to accept that they'll spend a couple of hundred dollars or more before they learn what works for them.

She has no desire to figure that out for herself. But she did like the 2 dots more than the 3 dots for the same reason I did. so it will be an improvement over the stock sights either way. If she decided she wants to do something different down the road she can

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

For those that think tritium is useless.  What about a situation where you're in the dark, but the threat is in a more lit area so you don't need a light?  For example, you're standing in your dark bedroom and aiming into the hall where a light is on.  Could come up with plenty of other examples like this.  Not all of them are the most common situations so you need to decide whether you feel it's worth spending the extra money on tritium sights, but there are situations where you might need them.

 

Todd Green does a better job of explaining it than me here:  http://pistol-training.com/archives/7668

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

For those that think tritium is useless.  What about a situation where you're in the dark, but the threat is in a more lit area so you don't need a light?  For example, you're standing in your dark bedroom and aiming into the hall where a light is on.

 

If there is light were you are aiming, then there is contrast between your front and rear sight, specially if you don't use a blocky thick front sight.

 

You never see the light shining on your sights, that doesn't help, you see the light bouncing off the target and passing through your sights on the way to your eyes.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If there is light were you are aiming, then there is contrast between your front and rear sight, specially if you don't use a blocky thick front sight.

 

You never see the light shining on your sights, that doesn't help, you see the light bouncing off the target and passing through your sights on the way to your eyes.

This. Not to mention with a fiber front you can actually see a bit of the color even if you're in a dark room 10yds from a fully lit room. I literally just did it to see if I could see more than a silhouette of the sights.

 

Everybody is going to have a different take on it, which is why I said YMMV. My personal opinion after drilling a bunch of different possibilities is that tritiums just don't serve enough of those possibilities to overcome the vast pro's of other sights.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If there is light were you are aiming, then there is contrast between your front and rear sight, specially if you don't use a blocky thick front sight.

 

You never see the light shining on your sights, that doesn't help, you see the light bouncing off the target and passing through your sights on the way to your eyes.

 

Did you look at the picture in the link I posted?  I just re-created the same thing.  Went into bedroom with lights off, pointed gun at couch in living room with the lights on.  With fiber optic sights I couldn't see the sights, with tritium I could.  When doing this test be sure you don't just point the gun at the white walls, try a dark object too.  Sure a light would help, but I don't always carry a light with me everywhere I go.

 

Having said all that I don't think night sights are absolutely necessary on a CCW; my current one actually doesn't have them (although I do have a tritium front sight in a box somewhere that I've been meaning to stick on it).  I think having sights you can shoot fast and accurately with in all different types of lighting conditions is more important.  That's why I like sights like the Ameriglo ProGlo and Trijicon HDs. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

in most of the lighting conditions i tried, i still see the space between the front sight and back sights.  its not all black like they make it out to be in the picture.  and since all you need to see is the top of the sights and space between them, you can do it pretty easy. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am a big advocate of blacked out rears, and some type of dot up front. These days, I prefer fiber optic, as the benefit to me during daylight shooting trumps the minor benefit that night sights offer in darkness. With a handheld or WML, I can still align my sights up. Also, if you train enough on presentation, your front sight will generally fall somewhere within alignment of the rear notch. You can still get good hits on target without the front post being perfectly aligned within the rear notch if you have proper trigger control (within reason).

 

I have found any type of dots in the rear to be too cluttered for my tastes. So much so that on my Springfield 1911, which came with Novak 3 dot tritiums, I blacked out the rear dots.

 

I've tried almost every major combo of sights out there at some point. For fixed rears, I like the 10-8 and Heinies the best. The you will find to a Bomar rear face in a fixed version, which I think offers the cleanest sight picture.

 

For defensive shooting in low light, nothing beats having CTC Lasergrips.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...