OK.... So I wrote up a really nice mini-article. Somewhere towards the end, my girl wanted to see what vinepeek was, so I pulled that up, had to restart firefox, lost the review. So, now until my article about the PPQs comes out, you get a smaller mini-review and I'll try and answer any questions I can, so please ask.
I've had between my P99s, PPQs and PPS, almost every sight available to Walther owners. Metal drift style, factory night sights, plastic P99, Walther fiber optic (La Chasse), Trijicon "bright and clear", Meprolight, XS Big Dot, Dawson Precision, and now finally.... 10-8 Sights.
I can without a doubt say that 10-8 has hit the nail on the head here. The achilles' heel of the Walther platform has always been aftermarket support, but with companies like 10-8 putting the time and money in this is changing. The PPQ is easily the most underrated handgun we have access to. It's light, it's reliable, I don't really even need to mention the trigger as everyone already knows it is excellent, ergonomic, accurate, and it makes about the most excellent "non-glock" / "non-M&P" I've come across. But... Up until this year the sights were pretty pathetic.
I'm by no means an expert handgun shooter. I will reluctantly rank myself at "intermediate" although I rarely meet people in person that will out shoot me so I guess I'm not all bad. I've taken the PPQs to 5 different classes now, and I'd estimate that I have roughly 12,000 rounds on between the Walther my PPQs, P99s, and a PPS.
I had NO IDEA what I was missing! Earlier this summer while waiting on the 10-8 sights, I picked up a set of Dawson Precision black rear and red fiber front. These made a massive difference for me and for a competition gun I think these are great. While I watched my accuracy improve greatly, one thing I wasn't crazy about was the rear sight on the Dawson, it's blocky and large. The 10-8 on the other hand...
This is it. The U-notch, the overall size and contoured shape... This is THE defensive sight for this platform. I can't say enough about it really. So just take a look at the pictures for now.
This is a serrated .125" U-notch rear sight, and 10-8's serrated brass-bead front sight. The fill flash wiped out the detail of the brass in the photos, but it's a well constructed in-set brass rod with a cone at the tip that does a really nice job at "collecting" light regardless of the source angle. Hilton Yam of 10-8 explained online this sight collects in low light sooner than fiber and that's very true, I'll have an update on this later. It's not as bright as a fiber in daylight of course, but it's stronger and not exposed for possible damage. I didn't expect to like the brass very much, but it's actually quite nice for being the lower cost option. I'm uncertain 10-8 will offer a Fiber front sight, the package is only marked for Brass Bead and Tritium.
NOTES:
1. These are worth the money! Some may find perference between these and Dawson. I like the rear on this a little better and might switch to a fiber front, but won't do so until I really run these out. Dawson makes a good product, but this is the rear I've been waiting for.
2. The brass bead is a lot nicer than I expected it to be. They are not joking about the low light properties of their cone shaped brass bead, it's not tritium, but it's excellent at low to medium light. When fiber blacks out, the bead is still clearly visible. I have 20/15 vision and I still like the fiber on merits of speed. Perhaps I'll look into some high-visability tritium (Trijicon HD, Ameriglo, TruGlo TFO), but I'd like to talk more with 10-8 before I do this. They obviously know what they are doing.
3. Drift adjustable. These do not used the Walther reverse threaded screw and plunger/spring system for click adjustment. This means these sights should work just fine on the PPQ, P99, P99c, SW990 or whatever that was called, the PPS, and the new PPX. You would think with so many handguns that use this squared-dovetail design it would be obvious for other sight manufacturers to support it.
4. The rear comes a little oversized, because of tolerance differences between the pistols. The click-adjustment sights are not held in by friction on the dovetail. This means you may need to file down the back edge (I recommend the back edge / muzzle side anyhow) of the rear sight's dovetail to get it to fit. WARNING however... 10-8 goes the extra mile on these and they are melonite coated. When I did the same work on the Dawson I simply filed down a bit and good to go. I forgot 10-8 told me these were melonite coated and proceeded to waste about 10 minutes an literally wearing a mark in my file. Melonite is some amazing stuff! I had to grind off the melonite (nitrocarbonizing) coating before my file would even scratch the material. Be careful because once the melonite is gone, the file works quickly.
5. Since these are using the dovetail for fiction like the Dawson and other sights, they have a set screw to provide vertical friction, loctite screws like this. In fact, any time you see any screw on any gun, loctite it.
6. I'm sold. These are absolutely good to go, and imo the best option for this excellent handgun. That said, the Dawsons are a good product too if you happen to have some reservation about the U-notch rear. Personally, for this gun I'd avoid the XS as I feel it removes some of the accuracy potential from the gun. Trijicon and Mep are about even, but for the cost 10-8 has it nailed. I can't wait to get more rounds down these!
EDIT: DON'T call/email/bug 10-8 just yet... I suspect these are almost in production with and I bet they will be on the website shortly. Just be patient.
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Originally Posted by HES
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