Those of you that have read some of my previous posts know that I am not a fan of the stock plastic Glock sights. Generally, sights are the first thing I will change out on any new Glock purchase. For several months now, I have been running the Defoor Proformance sights offered by Ameriglo on my G26 GEN4. I like the sights for a variety of reasons. They are robust, easy to install, and affordable. Initially, the sights were only available in plain black steel, but are now available in a night sight combination version with a tritium front sight. Taking advantage of an introductory discount code, I ordered a new front sight with tritium for my G26 as well as another complete combination sight set with the tritium front. More on that later…
The new Defoor Proformance tritium front sight is a bit unusual in that the dot is installed in the lower half of the sight blade rather than in the traditional location near the top. At a recent class, I had the opportunity to ask Kyle Defoor about this design feature. In fact, I held off on writing this review until after I had the chance to ask Kyle about it. He first told me that the only reason that tritium was even offered was to satisfy procurement requirements under specific contracts and that he really didn’t see night sights as being necessary. While I understand and fundamentally agree with his opinion, I still like the tritium dot to provide a visual focus point on the front sight. With that caveat out of the way, I will do my best to communicate his explanation for the unusual placement of the tritium dot. By placing the dot low in the blade, the shooter has instant confirmation that the sights are properly aligned since the dot would otherwise be obscured. The design also allows the top of the sight blade to be precisely and quickly aligned in the rear notch without the distraction of the dot for a correct sight picture. In short, it’s there if you need it, but out of the way if you don’t. I asked Kyle about the dot being visible if the pistol was pointing “high,” and he acknowledged this possibility with the counter argument that any confrontation that would require rapid reliance on a night sight would most likely be at extremely close quarters where the potential deviation would be largely inconsequential. With those design notes out of the way, let me give a brief review of my experience with the sights…
As I said initially, the sights are durable, easy to install, and relatively inexpensive. They are low profile and ideal for concealed carry, yet still allow for precision and one handed manipulations that require pushing the edge of the rear sight against the belt or holster to rack the slide. The original plain black front sight blade is slightly narrower than the tritium version (0.115” vs. 0.125”), and the rear sight has a 0.150“ notch. Both versions of the front sight blade are serrated to reduce glare, and the sight sets are finished with flat-black Nitride. The sights are available for all Glock models, as well as other pistols.
While pistol sights are a very subjective choice, I have found that I can be very accurate with the Defoor Proformance sights on my Glock. As I understand it, they are designed to be POA/POI at 25 yards. I have successfully hit steel at 50 yards with my G26 using these sights. On my G26, the tritium dot is almost obscured in the bottom of the rear notch when the sights are correctly aligned, but nonetheless still visible and functional. I attribute this to the short sight radius of the Glock 26, as the effect is less pronounced with my G19. Any significant horizontal or downward deviation of the pistol alignment results in the dot being obscured.
Previously, I posted my initial impressions of the Vickers Elite Battlesights that I had installed on my G19 GEN4. Ultimately, after a few range trips and some comparative accuracy and speed testing with a shot timer, I decided to install the spare set of Defoor Proformance sights that I had ordered on my G19 instead. Perhaps I didn’t give the Vickers sights a complete shake down, but when I’m faster and more accurate with a smaller gun, I take notice. Also, I like the consistency of having identical sights on the two pistols that I routinely carry and train with. A couple of anecdotes are in order here… Regarding the height of the Vickers sights, Defoor mentioned in class the difficulty of making head shots at distance with suppressor sights during a discussion about pistol sighting systems. While the Vickers sights are not suppressor sights, they are not that far removed from suppressor sights in terms of height. Furthermore, regarding the U-notch design, I was intrigued to learn from Robert that Jeff Gonzales told him that shooting with the Trijicon HDs (also a U-notch design) involved a learning curve. (Look for a new AAR from Robert to post soon!) Whether this has any direct correlation with the design of the Vickers sight is up for debate, but I thought it was relevant enough to mention.
In summary, I consider the Defoor Proformance sights offered by Ameriglo to be an excellent value and innovative design that will serve the shooter well. You can find them here.
CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER 
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