Discussion about alternative sights

**Dport** · 07-02-06, 10:10

I'm not handgun sight expert, although I have spent more money than I care to admit on alternative sights. I want to share my experiences and solicit your experiences.

Ghost Ring sights. Great on rifles and shotguns, not so much on handguns. The trick to getting a ghost ring to work is to keep it close to your eye so you can't focus on it. Even though you can't focus it, your brain is aware of it and instinctually you'll center what you're looking at in the ring, like a front sight for instance. The problem with having them on handguns is you can still focus on the ring. You still have three focal planes, the rear sight, the front sight and the target (on a rifle you only have two, the front sight and the target, since the rear sight cannot be focused on). The upside is if you can see the front sight, which the ring readily allows, you can get fast COM hits.

Xpress sights. From what I can tell, this idea came from African hunting rifles. If you're hunting dangerous game that can come up on you fast you want a sight that doesn't take a long time to line up. I've had experience with them, and while they are fast, I didn't find them to be very precise. However, I have seen video of someone hitting a popper target with them out to 100 yards. Some people seem to swear by them. I'm unconvinced as of now.

Suresight. This sight is an attempt to combine the speed of Xpress sights and precision. It's basically an express sight with a pointed (triangular) front sight. I have gotten a promise from the inventor to get one of the first batch of the new design for evaluation. It holds promise, but I wonder about the execution. The biggest downside, supposing it works as advertised, is its lack of tritium illumination as an option, for now.

Lasers. When I first had a laser it was not much more than a cat toy. I have since re-evalutated that position and seriously considering one.

**Hobbes** · 07-02-06, 10:14

Is the suresight the sight that came on the Steyr pistols? I have held a few but never shot one, they were interesting....

**Dport** · 07-02-06, 10:20

Originally Posted by Hobbes

Is the suresight the sight that came on the Steyr pistols? I have held a few but never shot one, they were interesting....

Similar, but not exactly.

The Steyr pistols had trapizoidal sights. Basically they were regular post and notch sights with a triangular front and a trapizoid shape to the rear notch.

I haven't had the opprotunity to shoot a Steyr; although, I did get to handle one. The sights seemed promising.

**Dport** · 07-02-06, 10:25

For reference, here is the Suresight website.
http://www.suresight.com/

**Hobbes** · 07-02-06, 10:26

I think the only way to know for sure what works well would be for every individual to trian quite a bit with each type of sights then pick the set that is most comfortable/fast. Of course this is not feasable for most shooters.

**Hobbes** · 07-02-06, 11:39

Those look really interesting. Depending on price and how easy they are to install I may try them on my G26. I installed my Ameriglos in about 5 minutes, these would need to be just as easy for them to be of interest to me (I don't want to pay a gunsmith for my experiment you know?)...

ETA: I looked over their site som more, and those sights have captured my interest for sure, any idea on what price might be Dport?

**SuicideHz** · 07-11-06, 18:45

I like those. They seem pretty intuitive. Who knows though, right?

I just received my Millett accurizers from Midway. Just got done installing them on my 92fs. What a PITA! The only reason I went with them is I needed something taller for my Matrix9 that ought to be transferred to my local ClassIII any day now...

I went with the bright orange front. It's sitting on my desk and I can't even focus on it. It's like it's radiating energy.

Enough of that, you guys don't care about them...

**Leibster** · 07-11-06, 21:20

Hello All,

My name is Chaim Stein, and I am the inventor of the SureSight.

I hope I'm not out of line here; I came across this forum (and this thread) since I noticed some members were visiting my site from here. I apologize if I'm being too "commercial". That said, I think we have something unique to offer the shooting community, and I think this may be of interest. Also, I did not know that Dport was an admin on this forum.

We got acquainted on another forum, and he seems like he's got a lot of integrity. When the sights come back on the market (in the very near future), he will be getting a set for his evaluation. Hopefully you'll like 'em but even if you don't that's okay; I still just want your honest opinion.

Anyhow, while the SureSight is triangular like the Steyr sight, our sight differs significantly from the Steyr's innovative triangle/trapezoid sight, as well as XS Sights and standard notch & post sights.

First, SureSight is aligned differently. The front sight is visually "stacked" on top of the rear sight, and the resulting alignment forms a triangle. The tip of the triangle is point of impact. This allows the shooter to simultaneously see much more front sight AND more of the target. (The front sight is by FAR the largest front sight of any kind on the market, yet it will still fit in standard holsters.) (If you'd like to see a diagram that illustrates this, please visit www.suresight.com)

Second, because the front sight is so large and the rear so relatively small, the front sight can never get "lost" behind the rear sight, as is often the case with notch and post sights. This not only aids in faster sight acquisition under normal conditions, it also makes shooting multiple targets, shooting on the move, and regaining sight picture after recoil much simpler.

Third, apart from increased front sight visibility, this arrangement causes the shooter to form a picture--a complete triangle. This capitalizes on an inborn skill we humans possess called the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization. Since humans are already hard-wired to complete shapes, it makes aiming a more intuitive.

Fourth, these are the only handgun sights (that I am aware of) on the market that were designed to be aimable when the primary focus of the shooter's eye is on the target, not the sights. Even a healthy shooter, under non-stressful conditions, takes approximately .75 seconds to shift focal lengths, as from focusing on the front sight to focusing on a potential threat. That is a loooong time in a gunfight. SureSight was designed to be able to allow good hits on a man-sized target out to 7 yards while focusing intently on the target, not the sights. The fluorescent yellow sights and distinctive shape facilitate with this.

If anyone would like to read reviews, Glocktalk has a rather long thread on SureSight, which can be found here: http://www.glocktalk.com/showthread....hreadid=350419

If anyone would like more details, please feel free to ask me here. Alternatively, you can contact us at info@suresight.com, or visit our website at www.suresight.com.

All the best,

Chaim Stein
President, SureSight LLC (aka "Leibster")