- Faster!
- More Accurate!
- More Natural! (...and what the heck is that one supposed to mean? It uses the special "pistol sighting" lobe of my visual cortex evolved by my primate ancestors to shoot bananas out of trees?)
Monday, February 01, 2010
Magic sights.
Every so often a new magic handgun sighting system comes out that promises all kinds of gee-whiz benefits:
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18 comments:
Back when I carried a Glock to work, I sent it to a guy named Ted Yost (attn: Gunsite Smithy) along with a box of Federal 9BP. About a month later, the pistol came back with a handmade rear sight that looked exactly like Mr. Yost's current retro 1911 sight. He also silver soldered a simple serrated ramp sight up front then regulated it for my preferred carry ammo.
No dots, no glow in the dark nail polish. My idea of Glock perfection.
Never really understood why sights - especially pistol sights - need so much constant re-inventing. They seem to work every time I use them. And the batteries never go flat just when I need them most, 'cause We Don' Need No Steeking...
BOMAR or their clones...for adjustables or a good Novak fixed
Somebody please explain to these designers that this is the answer they can move on.....
If the pistol fits your hand it will point where it needs to if it doesn't,.. get it fitted folks will spend tons of bucks to fit their shotgun or rifle but you mention fitting a handgun and they look at you like you have 2 heads...
John
Notch and post sights have been working pretty well for shooting fools and food for what, 300+ years now? People want to reinvent the wheel because there isn't as much money in making good, old fashioned wheels I guess.
I have been mulling this problem for a few weeks now.
My Tritiums are beginning to fade, and after a few years of training and shooting in various conditions with various sights I'm honestly at a loss. Years of having it hammered into me that I "need" this or that, and I can't tell if it makes a difference anymore.
I'm thinking of just letting them fade and leaving them in, and if I don't like it just putting a white dot front blade. Years of gadgetude have burned me out.
In another year or two the Novaks on my Pro will effectively be goners.
As things stand at the moment, I'm going to replace them with a tritium dot up front and a plain black rear.
I fell for the XS Big Dot hype way back, and put a set on my Glock 23 (my carry gun) in lieu of the plastic stock sights, which I've never liked. My accuracy at any range beyond 7 feet suffered - badly - and I did not find them particularly "fast acquisition," or "instinctual" either.
I quickly replaced them with AmeriGlo Operators, like my other 3 Glocks have and reverted back to the amazingly accurate* shooter that I am...
I learned my lesson about To-Good-To-Be-True gun gimmicks. Now I just Kick It Super Simple with the AmeriGlos. (And my tac-light, pulsing green laser, tactical knife/compass combo attachment).
*pretty decent
I'm of mixed minds about stuff like this.
On the one hand, I think it's frickin' awesome. I am a cautious believer in progress and new ideas. I am reluctant to believe that we have really progressed (already!) to the point where things can't be improved. I think about the hidebound nature of Army Ordnance looking, with jaundiced eye, at some radical new innovation like repeating rifles and concluding, "We just don't need them; they're no better."
I am, for instance, quite the 1911 freak. (Go figger, eh?) I think the 1911 is a balanced, well thought out design which has been refined and debugged and enhanced. At the same time, I can't quite accept that the 1911 is the "best possible fighting/carry handgun possible." What, you're going to say there couldn't be a better one?
On the other hand . . . . (Someone get me a one armed economist, stat!) On the other hand, I know that for every new good idea, there's probably going to be one or two new bad ideas, and I'm not talking about the new bad ideas that are self-evidently stupid. I'm talking about the new bad ideas that really do seem to offer some new advantages, but that bring with them some new disadvantages as well.
Compensators, let's say, are an example of a new bad idea (for me, at least). Hey, who wouldn't want to reduce muzzle rise? Well, me, for one, if reducing muzzle rise also makes the muzzle slap more concussive, and louder, and if the redirected muzzle gasses cause other complications.
Some of these radical new innovations are like the Holy Roman Empire (neither radical, nor new, nor innovative, I mean) and some of them are. Optics for fighting rifles? What a stupid idea! Man, they'll be fragile, they'll be disorienting, they'll need batteries that will die on you at the most inopportune times . . . and now my beloved Suck issues combat optics with every longarm. My buddy Dugger hated the very idea of putting optics on his black stick, until the Corps made him, and until he worked with them enough to conclude, "Ya know, this is a better way."
Middle of the road, that's me, like a dead armadillo on some lonesome stretch of I-10.
Lewis,
You are right. There are better sights than notch-and-post: Optics.
Unfortunately, they haven't yet been effectively packaged for a CCW pistol. :(
My response to this was indeed, optics are better. With the new range of miniature optics like the Docter sights, that are rugged, batteries last FOREVER and, they just work, we are reaching a point where they might soon be very workable. The trick in the future will be someone designing a good holster for something like the FNP-45 Tactical, with the Docter optic attached. Once they do, welcome to where we should be going with the evolution of handgun sights.
For those who are too old school or not trusting enough of the optical stuff, note on the FNP that the tall three dot night sights, co-witness the optic, providing you with an instantaneous backup, should you need it (don't forget to keep practicing with them).
-Rob
PS: It's been my experience with a couple of 9mm sub-guns that a small red-dot combined with co-witnessed irons equals excellent accuracy out to distances exceeding 125 yards.
I'm validated by the Tamsterino! (Or just by The Tam, if Tamsterino is a step too far!)
I'm doing my happy dance in my kilt and my Vibram FiveFingers, letting my freak flag fly! (And my 3" Colt Cobra is riding securely, so I can do my happy dance with security.)
wv: bootyp Closer to boo-type, or booty . . . nah, ain't goin' there.
Hey, the Israelis and SWAT operators use them, so I'm going out and buying a set of TAS sights tomorrow. Besides, my second cousin knows a guy who's a SEAL and they've converted all their pistols to that system.
;)
Back in the day, one of my more fun and brighter professors (whose interests lay mostly in perception and human factor engineering) encouraged me to reexamine pistol sighting systems as it might make a good project for his class that semester.
"I'll bet you could come up with half a dozen better ways to do that."
"Ahhhhh... noooo... not really."
It's one thing to say "there might be something better." It's altogether something different to claim "We have something better!" Oddly enough, all of the new sights come straight from the factory with the same warning: These sights are only better if someone is shooting at you, so if they don't seem better when you're at the range/match/quarry don't jump to conclusions!
Now that I'm an old fart I do like Gold Beads on the back of my front sights. And unlike tritium, Gold doesn't have a half-life.
And they work even better if that Gold Bead is shaped in a semi-hemisphere shape. It reflects light even in low light conditions if there is any kind of ambient light at all like a street light or farm security light.
But other than that it's hard to beat the post and notch system for concealed self-defense pistols...
All The Best,
Frank W. James
There's nothing wrong with post and notch, just sometimes I wish the notch was just a little bit wider and let more light in around both sides of the post.
As my eyes age I have a harder time picking up my front sight quickly in a very small notch.
Not everything is Bullseye competition and not every post and notch needs to be set up for that sport. Give us a little room around that front sight, will ya?
Oh, and where's a good place to get a good Gold bead set up installed? I've really been meaning to try that myself.
> Oh, and where's a good place to get
> a good Gold bead set up installed?
I'm currently shopping around for them right now, too.
So far, I've found (in alphabetical order), but can't personally vouch for any of them:
Garthwaite www.garthwaite.com/1911.htm (scroll down)
Novak's: novaksights.com/novak_sights.htm (scroll down)
SDM www.sdmfabricating.com/Gold%20Bead.htm (scroll down)
CCA has done them.
Plenty of companies offer rear sights with wider notches for improved visibility/speed. Warrens are standard that way, and Heinies are available as an option (they refer to the variant as "QWIK" sights).
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