SA Friday
11-20-2009, 18:58
What's the most important part of a pistol? Ha, trick question. IMO, it's the trigger. The sights though I would rank as the second most important. Ironically, these seem to be the two most neglected parts of a pistol by manufacturers. Why? Well I'm going to skip the trigger and talk about the sights.
Why would a manufacturer go through the trouble of making expensive sights for a mass produced firearm when so many people just change them anyway. There so many different types of sights on the market it would be impossible to select one that is univerally accepted. Sight picture is a personal choice.
So, how does one choose a set of sights for their pistol without doing through an assload (technical term) of sights and money? You have to understand some of the generalities of sights and how they work when shooting to narrow it down. I'm not talking about if the sights are installed properly or if they have the proper height to hit the target at point of aim. I'm talking about the sight picture itself. There's more to it than most of you have thought about.
In general, your sight picture is a relationship of the front sight and rear sight as seen by the shooter. This last part sounds obvious, but it's really not until you view the picture itself 2 dimentionally. For Example, my 5" 1911 has Heine Straight 8 fixed night sights on it. The width of the front sight is .130" and the width of the rear notch is .126", sight radius is 6.830". With these dimentions, the amount of open space between the side of the rear notch and the sides of the front sight when held in shooting position is about 1/8th of the overall space in between the rear notch on both sides of the front sight. This is what I would call a tight sight picture.
When the width of the front sight equals the combined width of the open space on the sides, this is an equal sight picture. When the width of the front sight is less than the combined width of open space, a loose sight picture.
The more space between the sides of the front sight and the sides of the rear notch, the less the sights conceal the object being aimed at. I've found loose sight pictures are very fast to pick up with my eyes on target, and tighter sight pictures are more accurate. The further the target is from me, the the tighter's sight pictures accuracy becomes relevant. In addition to the space seen from the width of the sight picture, the space seen from the depth of the rear notch can affect the speed and accuracy of the sight picture. Deep is more open = faster visual pick up. Shallow is less open = more accuracy. In addition to the open space allowed by the sight picture, the width of the front sight itself influences speed and accuracy. Thinner front sights are more accurate over longer distances. Thicker front sights are faster to visually acquire.
Ya, ok, big deal. Aim and shoot. Where's the "so what" in all of this. Here it is. Choose the preferred sight picture atributes for the gun's purpose. For example, my 1911 has a tight sight picture with a bigger front sight. This gives me a sight picture that is moderately fast to acquire, accurate enough to hit a human out to 20-25 yds, but not accurate enought to engage accurately with out to 40 yds. This isn't too bad for a defensive gun and some competition use. I have issues with the really long shots with it though. If I wanted this sight picture to be even faster to acquire, I could take a file to the rear notch and open it up some.
My Glock 34 is a dedicated USPSA Production Division pistol. The front sight width is .100", the rear notch width is .115", and the sight distance is 7.425". This gives me an equal sight picture with a thin front sight. It's fairly fast and accurate at longer distances, but the rear notch is only .08" deep and this makes me loose some of the target in the sight picture. The fastest sights I've ever used on a Glock were Warren/Sevigny competition sights. They have very thin front sight, very wide and deep rear notch. At 5-10 yards, I could absolutely blast with this set-up, but anything past 10-12 yards the loose sight picture was very difficult to aim accurately for me. I decided to stick with a tighter sight picture, one along the lines of an equal sight picture with a fairly thin front sight.
Another pistol I have had a .075 wide front sight on it. It's a 6" gun and the picture was so open I could keep the front sight in the notch and completely miss a 40 yd target. I also found that thin a front sight to be very difficult to focus on. Others I have shot competitions with LOVE this sight picture. It really comes down to personal preference and knowing what atributes work best for you.
THEN, you can match what you want on the sights for the gun; black on black, Fiber optics, tritium inserts, tritium/FO combinations, three dots, dot in bucket (like Glock factory sights), bla bla bla. I don't recommend adjustables for anything but competition shooting. I've seen more than a few adjustables break pins, shoot springs, and break in half. If you are ever going to use the pistol for defense, stick with fixed sights.
Last bit of info on this and then I'll quit, I promise. Factory sights, short of factory night sights, are meant to be removed and thrown away. If they work, fine, but don't go buying a Glock and not factor in changing the sights to something else. That factory plastic front sight is a ticking time bomb just waiting to blast off. Choose good sights that will accomidate your sight preference and the gun's use, and change them. Then practice with it.
Why would a manufacturer go through the trouble of making expensive sights for a mass produced firearm when so many people just change them anyway. There so many different types of sights on the market it would be impossible to select one that is univerally accepted. Sight picture is a personal choice.
So, how does one choose a set of sights for their pistol without doing through an assload (technical term) of sights and money? You have to understand some of the generalities of sights and how they work when shooting to narrow it down. I'm not talking about if the sights are installed properly or if they have the proper height to hit the target at point of aim. I'm talking about the sight picture itself. There's more to it than most of you have thought about.
In general, your sight picture is a relationship of the front sight and rear sight as seen by the shooter. This last part sounds obvious, but it's really not until you view the picture itself 2 dimentionally. For Example, my 5" 1911 has Heine Straight 8 fixed night sights on it. The width of the front sight is .130" and the width of the rear notch is .126", sight radius is 6.830". With these dimentions, the amount of open space between the side of the rear notch and the sides of the front sight when held in shooting position is about 1/8th of the overall space in between the rear notch on both sides of the front sight. This is what I would call a tight sight picture.
When the width of the front sight equals the combined width of the open space on the sides, this is an equal sight picture. When the width of the front sight is less than the combined width of open space, a loose sight picture.
The more space between the sides of the front sight and the sides of the rear notch, the less the sights conceal the object being aimed at. I've found loose sight pictures are very fast to pick up with my eyes on target, and tighter sight pictures are more accurate. The further the target is from me, the the tighter's sight pictures accuracy becomes relevant. In addition to the space seen from the width of the sight picture, the space seen from the depth of the rear notch can affect the speed and accuracy of the sight picture. Deep is more open = faster visual pick up. Shallow is less open = more accuracy. In addition to the open space allowed by the sight picture, the width of the front sight itself influences speed and accuracy. Thinner front sights are more accurate over longer distances. Thicker front sights are faster to visually acquire.
Ya, ok, big deal. Aim and shoot. Where's the "so what" in all of this. Here it is. Choose the preferred sight picture atributes for the gun's purpose. For example, my 1911 has a tight sight picture with a bigger front sight. This gives me a sight picture that is moderately fast to acquire, accurate enough to hit a human out to 20-25 yds, but not accurate enought to engage accurately with out to 40 yds. This isn't too bad for a defensive gun and some competition use. I have issues with the really long shots with it though. If I wanted this sight picture to be even faster to acquire, I could take a file to the rear notch and open it up some.
My Glock 34 is a dedicated USPSA Production Division pistol. The front sight width is .100", the rear notch width is .115", and the sight distance is 7.425". This gives me an equal sight picture with a thin front sight. It's fairly fast and accurate at longer distances, but the rear notch is only .08" deep and this makes me loose some of the target in the sight picture. The fastest sights I've ever used on a Glock were Warren/Sevigny competition sights. They have very thin front sight, very wide and deep rear notch. At 5-10 yards, I could absolutely blast with this set-up, but anything past 10-12 yards the loose sight picture was very difficult to aim accurately for me. I decided to stick with a tighter sight picture, one along the lines of an equal sight picture with a fairly thin front sight.
Another pistol I have had a .075 wide front sight on it. It's a 6" gun and the picture was so open I could keep the front sight in the notch and completely miss a 40 yd target. I also found that thin a front sight to be very difficult to focus on. Others I have shot competitions with LOVE this sight picture. It really comes down to personal preference and knowing what atributes work best for you.
THEN, you can match what you want on the sights for the gun; black on black, Fiber optics, tritium inserts, tritium/FO combinations, three dots, dot in bucket (like Glock factory sights), bla bla bla. I don't recommend adjustables for anything but competition shooting. I've seen more than a few adjustables break pins, shoot springs, and break in half. If you are ever going to use the pistol for defense, stick with fixed sights.
Last bit of info on this and then I'll quit, I promise. Factory sights, short of factory night sights, are meant to be removed and thrown away. If they work, fine, but don't go buying a Glock and not factor in changing the sights to something else. That factory plastic front sight is a ticking time bomb just waiting to blast off. Choose good sights that will accomidate your sight preference and the gun's use, and change them. Then practice with it.