Proctor Y Notch Pistol Sights - The Best of Both Worlds

When I started my career 15 years ago, I was very limited in my knowledge of guns and shooting fundamentals and how to properly apply those fundamentals to improve my skill. In fact, I did not think much about it, and did not put much emphasis or priority on my shooting ability.

Over the years I began to enjoy shooting much more, while at the same time realizing the importance and necessity of ongoing, relevant firearms training and the tactical application of such skills. And even after becoming a law enforcement firearms instructor, when I was exposed to other instructors outside of my circle, I quickly realized how deficient I was in both skills and knowledge. This began to drive me to pursue better training from top-tier, more experienced instructors rather than just settle for the basic law enforcement training that is geared toward officers passing their yearly qualifications for CYA purposes.

Fast forward to today, and I have become "one of those guys." Who are "those guys?" The guys who have boxes of gear they have bought, tried, and no longer use in their ongoing quest to perfect their craft. These boxes include the standards: slings, holsters, mag pouches, and plenty of other items that eventually were determined to not be efficient enough for my set up.

Wearing three different firearms instructor hats now, which includes department firearms instructor, SWAT firearms instructor, and running a private training and consulting business, I take very seriously the information that I pass on in my courses. This includes a shooter's gear since a proper and personalized set-up will aid in efficiency which can translate into winning a gunfight.

With that said, when it comes to a Glock, the two main downfalls of a stock Glock are a horrible trigger and substandard sights. In regards to the sights, there are plenty of aftermarket options out there from tritium and fiber optics to red dot optics and everything in between. Pistol sights are always going to be a matter of personal preference and what works best for each individual.

The issue that I have run into is that pistol sights are primarily designed for either speed or accuracy. If speed is your primary concern, then the standard is to have a rear sight with a wider notch in order to pick up your front sight blade faster. If accuracy is your primary concern, then the standard is to have a thinner front sight blade to cover less of the target, and a narrow rear notch to leave less room for error in relation to the front sight blade.

So what if I want both speed and accuracy in one set of pistol sights? What if I want the ability to pick up my front sight quickly because the majority of gunfights occur at close quarter distances, but I also want the ability to shoot steel at 100 yards without my front sight covering the entire target and having too much room for error with a wide rear notch?

Enter Frank Proctor with Way of The Gun. Frank needs no introduction at this point, and if you don't know who he is, you have been living under a rock. I have been fortunate enough to train with Frank on a couple different occasions and will continue to do so. Not just because I had a great training experience during his courses, but after seeing and benefiting from his analytical approach to performance shooting, I have become a better shooter and a better instructor in the process.

While having a discussion about pistol sights with Frank last year during a training course, he had told me that he was working on a set of pistol sights that would allow for both speed and accuracy. He talked about his opinion on the ideal width of the rear sight notch and the front sight blade and the relationship to each other from the shooters perspective, and why he thought that his new sights would alleviate many of the shortcomings of other pistol sights.

I received the new Proctor Y Notch Pistol Sights just as they hit the market and became available. My first impression was that they were very similar to my current fiber optic pistol sights other than the Y notch in the top portion of the rear sight. I had recently switched to a fiber optic set with a .130 rear notch width and a .115 front sight blade width and moved away from tritium. I know that I will receive a bit of backlash from many people in my profession regarding this statement, but in 15 years of law enforcement and SWAT experience, I have never used or needed tritium in my pistol sights. I have found that although everything is situational dependent, and there may be that odd scenario with lighting conditions, if I am using the tritium dots because it is too dark to see my sights, it's probably too dark to see and identify the threat. If it's an extreme close quarters engagement, then I'm not using my sights at all anyways.

Back to the Proctor sights; reading the technical specs a bit further and the ideas behind the design had me even more intrigued on trying these out.

The description from the website....
"I designed these sights to offer both Speed and Accuracy. The top of the Y is .140 wide and the bottom of the Y is .100. The front sight is .117 wide with a .040 fiber optic insert. The front sight is .180 tall and the sight set is designed for point of aim = point of impact. For most of your pistol shooting you will only need to see the red dot inside the top portion of the notch, if you need more precise sight alignment it is easy to see by looking at the relationship of the lower portion of the front sight with the lower portion of the rear notch."

After installing the sights and throwing some lead downrange, I found the Y Notch sights performed as advertised and exceeded my initial expectations. The serrated rear notch did what serrated rear notches are supposed to do and eliminated any glare off of the rear sight. The .140 width at the top of the Y of the rear sight provided the right amount of visual to easily pick up the .117 wide front sight blade at closer distances where combat accuracy versus surgical precision was the intent. The .117 wide front sight blade was also effective at distance in covering less of the target, and in relation to the .100 width notch on the lower half of the rear sight, this allowed me to easily and quickly transition from combat accuracy to more precision shooting.

I thought that the .040 fiber optic insert in the front sight blade was the perfect size. It was easy and fast to pick up visually, but still not too big to be a distraction. One of the issues I have had with several fiber optic front sights is that in certain lighting conditions, when the light hits the fiber optic rod, it can cause a "washout/bleed over" effect on the front site causing me to lose a clear visual of the top tip of the front sight. I hit the front sight rod with every lighting condition from every angle, and because of the smaller diameter of the fiber optic rod, the washout was never excessive enough to lose a clear visual of the top of my front sight. This is pretty important at distance when the target is much smaller and your fundamentals become critical.

The .180 front sight blade height felt very comfortable in the presentation and was point of aim/point of impact. I have shot with many front sight blade heights from .165 to .215, and this middle-of-the-road height seemed to work very well.

When looking at all of the different aspects of these sights, it is very clear that a lot of time and thought went into developing a better set of pistol sights. I had stated earlier that during a conversation with Frank last year, he had told me that he believed his new pistol sights would alleviate many of the shortcomings of current pistol sights on the market, and after spending some time with these pistol sights, I think he's achieved that. So if you're looking for the best of both worlds, speed and accuracy in one set of pistol sights, then I would strongly recommend picking up a set and giving them a go.