Hand gun sights? What do you prefer?

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  • Sasquatch

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    I prefer the stock sights that come with the gun in most cases and I prefer them to be iron (steel) sights. I dislike it very much, that several years ago, Glock switched to polymer sights on their pistols but I can live with it or change them.

    I do not like fiber optic sights (I carry for self defense and do not want frail sights) nor do I like red dot, plastic orange ramps, night sights. I mean Trijicon and so on because I learned when and if the front sight fails, you are unable to use the sights in low light and believe me they can and do fail - luckily for me it was at the range. Anyway those types of night sights make it take longer to get a good on target sight picture when in low light situations. I've witnessed that over and over again hundreds of times with scores, if not hundreds, of shooters who used them when I had collateral duties as a LE firearms instructor. We timed the shooters, some took multiple seconds more to get sighted in while using them in low light training.

    I also do not like battery operated sights on any defensive gun, that is unless there is the back up of iron sights or glass optics.

    As for white dots or whatever versus plain black sights, the dots sure do help those older eyes of mine. I like white, no red or orange or zombie green.

    What would be excellent on pistols, in my estimation would be something akin to Ghost Ring Sights (except for the fact they would require a whole new breed of holster I suppose). I wonder, do they make them for pistols?


    Replying to the bolded parts... Glocks have had polymer sights for at least 20 years, but I think they've been plastic for at least 30+. Only Glocks I've ever had that came with steel, were when I bought them with night sights.

    As for Ghost Rings for pistols - yes, they do.


    No new holster necessary.
    Guns International
     

    Glenn B

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    Replying to the bolded parts... Glocks have had polymer sights for at least 20 years, but I think they've been plastic for at least 30+. Only Glocks I've ever had that came with steel, were when I bought them with night sights.

    As for Ghost Rings for pistols - yes, they do.


    No new holster necessary.
    All of my early Glocks, and those issued to to other agents within my agency (way back when) came with iron sights. When I bought my Glock 26 directly from Glock, back in or about 2008, I specified tbey put standard sights on it. When I received the pistol, I was shocked to find they were polymer. All my previously issued Glocks came with iron sights and I am fairly certain that was standard. Of course, maybe that was not standard but was a requirement set by my agency when they contracted for the Glock pistols. Funny are those little gray cells nowadaze, I cannot recall with certainty if I returned the it and had them install iron sights which I discovered then was an option not the standard. Pretty sure I did that but I'll have to check next time I access that pistol.

    Nice to know that about ghost rings. I mayhave to look them up. I'd consider putting them on a pistol I might use for hunting or for home defense. While they'd make excellent pistol sights, I doubt I'd carry with them installed; figure it would be something to snag on the holster or clothes when drawing but I might give it a try if I could find a suitable holster. Darn it - I anticipate more money being spent but that's okay since it will be spent on guns and I have enough of it because I no longer spend it for carousing.
     

    Sasquatch

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    All of my early Glocks, and those issued to to other agents within my agency (way back when) came with iron sights. When I bought my Glock 26 directly from Glock, back in or about 2008, I specified tbey put standard sights on it. When I received the pistol, I was shocked to find they were polymer. All my previously issued Glocks came with iron sights and I am fairly certain that was standard. Of course, maybe that was not standard but was a requirement set by my agency when they contracted for the Glock pistols. Funny are those little gray cells nowadaze, I cannot recall with certainty if I returned the it and had them install iron sights which I discovered then was an option not the standard. Pretty sure I did that but I'll have to check next time I access that pistol.

    Nice to know that about ghost rings. I mayhave to look them up. I'd consider putting them on a pistol I might use for hunting or for home defense. While they'd make excellent pistol sights, I doubt I'd carry with them installed; figure it would be something to snag on the holster or clothes when drawing but I might give it a try if I could find a suitable holster. Darn it - I anticipate more money being spent but that's okay since it will be spent on guns and I have enough of it because I no longer spend it for carousing.

    Makes since that *issued* agency guns would have steel sights, but Glock's civie market, standard sights have been plastic for long before I started shooting them over 20 years ago. The 2nd glock I ever bought was a Gen 2 G22 .40 - it had the plastic sights. My first Glock was a gen 3 G22 police trade in that had really dim Trijicon night sights on it. I've owned about 20 glocks over the years, because I kept coming back to the platform after trading them off to try something else. Of the brand new Glocks I purchased, all came with plastic sights except when I specifically bought the ones with factory night sights (I think I've bought 3 that way, one special edition G19, a G21, and a G17)

    One of the many things I like about the Smith & Wesson M&P over the stock Glock is the fact that S&W gives you steel Novak sights from the factory. I simply black out the rear sight dots and they're good enough.

    Even cheap gun makers like Bersa give you steel sights from the factory - in fact the Bersa Thunder 9 and Thunder 45 come with steel sights of the same style as Glock's standard - that being the "ball in the bucket" type with the white U in the rear and white dot in front.
     

    Glenn B

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    Even cheap gun makers like Bersa give you steel sights from the factory - in fact the Bersa Thunder 9 and Thunder 45 come with steel sights of the same style as Glock's standard - that being the "ball in the bucket" type with the white U in the rear and white dot in front.
    Having Gottschee, German and probably some Austrian in my blood and also Irish, I can say without a doubt, after years of associating with business owners from those countries (or whose immediate ancestors were from there) that penny pinching is a way of life for many from the relative countries - especially the Germanic ones. It is reprehensible when they pass it onto others in the form of the products they sell and polymer sites are just that - penny pinching being passed onto the purchaser.

    I was thinking of purchasing polymer sights for an AR recently, something made by MagPul then decided against it. Why not the polymer ones, one of the reasons is because of this note on Magpul's webpage for their plastic sights:

    *NOTE: Cannot be mounted to a railed gas block due to excess heat issues. Front MBUS must be mounted to a railed forend on the same plane as the receiver rail. Because of this the sight is also not compatible with MOE Hand Guards. (Source.)

    Just imagine your sights melting - "Oh what a world, what a world!"

    When I do buy the AR sights they will either be aluminum or steel; that is if I can find steel sights - have not really looked but most metal ones seem to be made of aluminium (the other spelling, I watch too many British detective shows); yet, I think there must be steel ones available. It truly seems less than practical to use polymer/plastic sites on a defensive weapon considering the damage to which they could be subjected. I can understand certain internal parts being made of polymer like nylon or whatever else they use because those parts are not subject to getting banged around by external forces that are foreign to the normal operation of the firearm. Sights though, being on the outside are most definitely subject to getting snagged, dinged & smashed (and even melted) and thus would be much better and longer lasting if made of steel.
     
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    Orbie

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    Having Gottschee, German and probably some Austrian in my blood and also Irish, I can say without a doubt, after years of associating with business owners from those countries or whose immediate ancestors were from there) that penny pinching is a way of life for many from the relative countries - especially the Germanic ones. It is reprehensible when they pass it onto others in the form of the products they sell and polymer sites are just that - penny pinching being passed onto the purchaser.

    I was thinking of purchasing polymer sights for an AR recently, something made by MagPul then decided against it. Why not the polymer ones, one of the reasons is because of this note on Magpul's webpage for their plastic sights:



    Just imagine your sights melting - "Oh what a world, what a world!"

    When I do buy the AR sights they will either be aluminum or steel; that is if I can find steel sights - have not really looked but most metal ones seem to be made of aluminium (the other spelling, I watch too many British detective shows); yet, I think there must be steel ones available. It truly seems less than practical to use polymer/plastic sites on a defensive weapon considering the damage to which they could be subjected. I can understand certain internal parts being made of polymer like nylon or whatever else they use because those parts are not subject to getting banged around by external forces that are foreign to the normal operation of the firearm. Sights though, being on the outside are most definitely subject to getting snagged, dinged & smashed (and even melted) and thus would be much better and longer lasting if made of steel.

    Check out the Magpul Pro sights. I believe they are steel.
     

    Sasquatch

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    Will do, thanks. I had not even bothered to look figuring they made products of mostly polymers.

    I have a set of MBUS sights - the polymer originals. They came with the upper. I'm not impressed with the polymer, I too prefer steel sights. I just haven't bothered to replace them yet because they're back up sights and a red dot is the primary sighting system. I only discovered recently that they actually have two apertures, like a standard A2 sight. The close quarters aperture snaps in line with the precision aperture, and I wouldn't run with the precision aperture flipped down because when stowed, the precision aperture sticks up. Its a snag point that's unnecessary.

    I'm actually more inclined to get a set of the fixed sights that bolt onto the rail, that are designed in the A2 style and leave them up the entire time. It might not be "correct" but I zero'd the dot to the irons - the lazy way to zero the dot. Irons were sighted to 100 yards, and on this gun I likely won't be engaging beyond that. It's about 300 feet from my porch to the road, and unless things have really gone to shit, I won't be taking a shot at someone at that distance. This is not a hunting rifle, its purely intended as a defensive anti-personnel weapon.

    Sights like these are what I'm leaning toward for this gun.



    I'm not a fan of the flip-up concept in general for irons - pushing the button to deploy the front and rear sight in anything except a competition setting does not seem realistic. If I *were* hunting and I needed to make the shot *right now* - the noise and time it takes to deploy the sights would likely cause a missed opportunity. More concerning though - if I'm in a gun fight and the optic fails, I don't want to be dicking around with trying to deploy fold up sights if someone is trying to shoot me.

    On a different gun, which I had a variable scope on (geared with competition, hunting, and other long-range applications in mind) I ran a set of 45 degree offset sights, like the Dueyck Defense stuff (I think I butchered the guy's name there) but they were high quality knock offs, not actual DD sights.
     

    Haystack

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    When I was in my 20's I could pop the head off a turtle at 20 yds with the iron sights on my S&W Model 28. When I was 50 I could group tight at 15 yds with the three white dots on my Ruger P89. Now, my old eyes like fiber optic in the daytime, and tritium at night. My point? If a sight works good for you, use it. If it don't, find one that does.
     

    Sasquatch

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    I got my first pistol around 1997 and it was the big thing around that time. Might not have been Truglo, but tritium nonetheless. It just kind of stuck and I've never researched anything beyond that.

    If it works for you and its not broken, no need to fix it right?
     

    Tactical Panda

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    Tritium all the way for me. Never used an optic on a handgun before, but recently, I’ve been itching to pull the trigger on a Staccato P with RDS. I’m just trying to convince myself I need that more than I need money.
     
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    My preference on pistol iron sights vary depending on the intended use such as bullseye, action steel, self defense, etc. Although I like different sight pictures, ratio of front-to-rear width (air gap between front/rear), U or square notch, the one constant preference for me is a high definition green dot front sight and all black rears. Of course, this doesn’t apply to red dot sights.
     

    A1Oni

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    i prefer a wide notch rear with a fiber optic front sight, but as things are going rn the red dot seems to be the way to go.
     

    unicom

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    I used to be all about tritium night sights for all my pistols but I’m trying a Romeo Zero on my Hellcat to see if I like it or not on my ccw.


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