My recent experiences in multiple pistol classes and my aging eyesight have resulted in somewhat of a personal odyssey in finding sights that I like and that also work well for me. In short, I’ve been disappointed with my accuracy despite frequent practice and I’ve also been compelled to adapt to progressive lenses in my eyeglasses due to presbyopia. I’ve tried several options at considerable expense and what follows are some observations.
I hesitate to use the term “review” when discussing sights anymore, especially after reading this. At any rate, this post is a collection of my experiences with various sight options for the Glock pistol. I said I didn’t want to to necessarily review the sights because individual eyesight, individual brain function, and individual preferences will invariably lead to different conclusions for different shooters. I’m just telling you what has worked for me so far. I encourage you to draw your own conclusions based on your own experiences!
When I first switched from my Gen3 G19 to my Gen4 G19, I made new sights an immediate priority. I started out by trying the Vickers Elite Battlesights offered by Wilson Combat. You can read about my experience with them here. Ultimately, I discovered that I wasn’t a fan of the “U” notch rear and I felt that the sights were too tall. Robert tried them out as well on one of his pistols and sent them back to me, so take that for what it’s worth.
I next installed Defoor Tactical sights. My detailed review can be found here. The short version is that I really liked them, but I wanted a night sight option as well as a more prominent focal point to draw my eye to the front sight. Once the option became available, I upgraded to the tritium front night sight for the Defoor sight set. The concept works and works well, but the low position of the dot is something that I’ve had difficulty adapting to after 20 years of looking at traditional front night sights. I think it is an effective night sight solution for someone with good eyesight, but I personally have great difficulty in varied lighting conditions with what are still essentially plain black sights.
Next, I tried the Ameriglo Pro I-Dots. However, as I detailed in this AAR, the width of the front sight caused me some problems at 25 yards and beyond. Those sights found a new home on one of Robert’s pistols, and I was back to square one. By now, I knew that I liked the dimensions of the Defoor sights, and I also wanted a prominent front sight to draw my eye.
The past few months, I’ve been trying out two distinctly different sets of sights on my pistols…
Warren Tactical Sights – Sevigny Carry Tritium 2 Dot
For years on various gun forums, I’d heard about Warren Tactical Sevigny Competition and Carry sights. Noting that the sight dimensions were the same as the Defoor night sights, and seeing a tritium option available, I decided to give them a try. I ordered a Warren Tactical Sevigny Carry Tritium 2 dot sight set from SKD Tactical and had them in hand a few days later.
Installation was straightforward. The front sight attaches as normal with a 3/16” hex screw, and I was able to easily drift in the rear sight and secure it in place with the single stainless set screw.
The front sight is .125” wide, with a prominent white outlined green tritium dot filling the top half of the front post. The rear sight has a .150” wide notch, with carry friendly rounded corners and a single small diminished yellow tritium dot placed below the notch. This yields a vertically oriented two dot sight picture that leaves no ambiguity in darkness as to where the front and rear sights are in relation to each other.
The front sight draws my eye and gives a good focal point, the ratio of front sight width to rear notch width makes it easy for me to quickly align the sights, and the rear tritium dot is appropriately diminished for low light use. Obviously, a lot of thought and experience went into the design of this sight set.
I did initially have some reservations about the slight slope on the front of the rear sight. I worried that it would make one handed slide racking more difficult, but in actual experience, this issue is often emphasized far more than necessary. Racking the slide one handed in training, I have more often found myself jamming the entirety of the top of the slide against clothing to manipulate the slide rather than catching the rear sight on a belt or holster edge. Since I often carry concealed with an untucked shirt, I don’t often have a belt or holster edge readily available! There’s plenty of pants leg to work with though! The front edge of the rear sight is definitely prominent enough to provide sufficient purchase.
One of the big differences I notice between these sights and the very similar Ameriglo I-Dots is that the rear tritium vial is noticeably diminished. That in conjunction with the yellow color of the tritium yields an easily usable sight picture in varying levels of darkness. The rear dot is there for alignment purposes, but is not at all distracting, and the green front dot remains prominent.
At present, I have installed these sights on my G26, as I’m trying out yet another option on my EDC G19.
The GUNCO Glock Sights
I’m not afraid to be an early adopter if an idea seems to have merit. My latest step in the quest to find a set of sights that work for my eyes are the new sights offered by The Gun Company that were designed by Mike Lamb of Stoic Ventures. These sights may seem simplistic or even anachronistic to some at first glance, but I think they are actually rather innovative and that there may be more to them than initially meets the eye.
The sights have the same notch and post dimensions as stock Glock sights, and the front sight has a brass bead to draw light and provide a prominent focal point. They are low profile and robust.
Many may decry keeping the original dimensions of stock Glock sights, but in this instance I think it works. I was able to do a lot of good work with my first Gen3 G19 (admittedly with younger and better eyesight). That pistol came with factory night sights that I have never changed, primarily because the front sight is actually staked in place rather than having a screw mount. While many prefer a sight picture that allows a lot of light on either side of the front sight post, I have found that a “tighter” sight picture allows my eyes and brain to more easily and quickly center the post in the notch.
The brass bead on the front post definitely catches my eye. While it is certainly not a night sight, I’ve found that if there is any ambient back or side lighting, the brass bead is distinctly visible. Obviously, in complete darkness or against a backlit target, you would have to rely on the silhouette of the sight picture or illuminate the sights with a handheld light.
While it is somewhat counter intuitive, I have not yet noticed any degradation of my accuracy at distance when using these sights. Just the other day, I was successfully “sniping” clay pigeons left on the berm at my gun club from greater distance than I am normally comfortable with.
All in all, I am quite happy with both of the above described sight sets. Indeed, I’m hard pressed to actually choose one over the other, despite some distinct differences. Unless I find something better, the sights described above are both ideal solutions that allow me to achieve a good blend of speed and accuracy despite my worsening eyesight. Having said that, I may yet experiment with fiber optic sights on a different pistol, and I still haven’t completely dismissed the slide mounted red dot option. In other words, my sight odyssey isn’t quite complete, so stay tuned for further musings!
CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER 
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