My wife and I started shooting S&W M&Ps 3+ years ago and now compete in steel challenge with our SA 9mm 1911s. We shoot a good deal and it's something we enjoy doing together although I may top out at "B" in my dotage (I'm 71), but it's all good. I thought I would share my iron sight experience FWIW. I'm not an expert, not claiming one configuration is better than another, but sometimes it's useful to read about someone else's experience: what they tried and why they changed. I'm a former engineering manager so here goes the numbered list.
  1. Started of with the M&P white dot sights - fine for range work, but progressive lenses are awkward.
  2. Did the usual orange glow paint over the front sight white dot
  3. Started shooting IDPA and realized the front sight was too wide. Went with Dawson FO
  4. We got the 9mm 1911 bug and back to conventional iron sights with stock SA 9mm Loaded Target 1911s. At some point along the way I switched to single prescription glasses focused on the front sight. About this time we really got into steel challenge.
  5. The Loaded Target SA 9mm front sight is really too wide so Dawson 0.100" FO sight installed
  6. Top edge of rear target sight indistinct so replaced with a Dawson target sight. Also the pivot pin on the stock sight kept wanting to work its way out at inopportune moments.
  7. Poor lighting conditions at our practice range led to Dawson FO rear target sight. I did really like this sight. Very easy to align the three red or green dots with reasonable lighting conditions. Used this configuration for several months.
  8. Began having some issues with my right (dominant) eye and I noticed I could actually see the sights on my HK P2000 (white dots) better than the FO, this coupled with FO brightness variations caused by range lighting conditions
  9. End of the tale: my right eye is in the dumper (cataracts?) and about at that time not finding white dot sights for the 1911 I installed Kensight night sights which have a large white ring. Also found this past week that I've got to switch to my left eye.


So here I am an old guy using night sights during the day (love the white rings!) and transitioning to my left eye On top of that my latest shooting glasses have a distance script in the left eye, but it turns out that the white night sight circles are pretty distinct. All that time and money and I'm back essentially where I started albeit shooting with the other eye. I'm putting night sights on my carry gun, but for HD I'm going with the biggest, baddest laser I can mount on an HK P2000; won't even have to aim I'll just blind the BG. The good news is that with the poor vision in my right eye I don't have to fight the dominance; my brain has pretty much done the switch over for me!

Final note on the Dawson rear FO sight: it's a fine sight, but we shoot under a large tree and this time of year the sun is on my right shoulder. Unlike front FO sights, the rear fibers are not fully exposed and under certain conditions one fiber will appear quite a bit brighter than the other. Plus, did I say my right eye began to suck and the fibers are pretty small.

Hopefully, someone with sight configuration angst will read this and come to feel better.