Educate me on Handgun Sights

[Charles]

It's simply too big for anything at distance.

At distance you don't aim with the whole dot, but instead the tip.


Shot back to back.






The advantage of BD's is while they can be shot accurately, they are very easy for the mass majority to make goods hit under stress at "normal" ranges in low light, even if they don't focus on the front sight.

[Gutshot John]

How is that any better than a three dot?

[ToddG]

My thoughts fwiw:

• 3-dot sights -- popular because they work so well. People tend to poo-poo anything that is common and popular. For the vast majority of people, a basic 3-dot night sight setup is going to work just fine. I do recommend you black out the rear dots if yours have white outlines.
• XS Sights -- good if you have poor vision and nothing else will work. Otherwise, they're not your best option. For beginners, the argument that they'll see the big dot better ignores the fact that they probably won't look at their sight to begin with. For more skilled shooters, the speed benefit drops off quickly but the accuracy issue lasts forever. It's not that you can't shoot accurately with the XS sights; but, it takes more time and effort and there is greater margin of error.
• 10-8 and other u-notch designs -- Fine for target shooting, they are universally rejected for any kind of serious tactical/action work. The u-notch became popular again with the widespread acceptance of the Warren sights, which people think (mistakenly) have a u-notch rear.
• Warren -- my personal favorite, especially in the 2-dot (figure-8) design. The only sights on the market of their kind, with a patented rear sight notch. Scott Warren, who is both a many-time national IDPA champion and the principle firearms instructor for a national asset CT team, spent literally years tweaking the design of these sights before they hit the market. The rear notch is not a u, it is more like a box with rounded corners. The difference is extremely important. Also, the shoulders of the sight have a radius to allow better view of the downrange area for faster target acquisitions and improved situational awareness.

Does personal preference matter? Sure. Someone who has decided he wants to love XS sights, for example, can put forth the effort to do well with them. The thing that sets the Warren sights apart -- as proven but the majority of current IDPA and USPSA iron sight champions -- is that they work better than traditional sights without any new training or thought.