1911 Sights for Old Fart Eyes

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Yesterday, I shot my SW 1911Sc Commander in our club's practice session. It ran really well after a trip to Dan Bedell. I shot it decently. Like the gun. I did notice that with my old eyes and progressive lens, the front sight was harder than usual to pick up. The gun has the stock, original SW three dots and the front is pretty small.

Suggestions for a better set of sights? The XS Sights Tritium front sight and appropriate rear sights look attractive? The gun is for local matches (where very few shoot 45 ACP anymore). Lots of commentary - oh, that's too slow, too much recoil - blah, blah. Just fun to shoot.

[GJM]

Two thoughts:

1) Gunsite was doing an Ashley small dot front with an opened up Novak rear.

2) try target focusing instead of a hard front sight focus.

[fatdog]

For my old eyes three things have become helpful, wide air gap between front and rear, highly visible bright orange squared off front, and U notch in the rear. I don't shoot to aligned front and rear sight dots and never have on any platform, so a conventional sight picture instead of aligning dots is where I need the help.

The Trijicon HD's and Ameriglo Agents have extended my ability to use irons without sacrificing too much accuracy and resolution, especially if I square off the top of the front with some white followed by orange paint to insure it has visible square lines not just the big dot, but not sure either is available for that Smith.

My solution for my SC1911 is Warren Tactical to replace the factory version.

[BN]

For my eyesight, I like a plain rear sight with a very wide and deep notch that allows a lot of light around the front sight. The notch might be as wide as .190". The front sight needs to be wide and bold. I like a .140" wide front sight. I like a white dot or a green dot better than the red/orange ones.

The XS sight front sights often have a rounded top and I don't like that as well as a squared off top on my front sight.

[1Rangemaster]

Yesterday, I shot my SW 1911Sc Commander in our club's practice session. It ran really well after a trip to Dan Bedell. I shot it decently. Like the gun. I did notice that with my old eyes and progressive lens, the front sight was harder than usual to pick up. The gun has the stock, original SW three dots and the front is pretty small.

Suggestions for a better set of sights? The XS Sights Tritium front sight and appropriate rear sights look attractive? The gun is for local matches (where very few shoot 45 ACP anymore). Lots of commentary - oh, that's too slow, too much recoil - blah, blah. Just fun to shoot.

What @GJM said, plus if it's a range/match gun, a fiber optic front. I and a few others here have fiddled with a FO front. I have a red Heinie Specialty Products front with a bleak rear sight that "pops" in the daylight. I'd definitely black out the rear dots in the interim so only the front is highlighted.

[GJM]

For my eyesight, I like a plain rear sight with a very wide and deep notch that allows a lot of light around the front sight. The notch might be as wide as .190". The front sight needs to be wide and bold. I like a .140" wide front sight. I like a white dot or a green dot better than the red/orange ones.

The XS sight front sights often have a rounded top and I don't like that as well as a squared off top on my front sight.

I was reminded of that yesterday afternoon, trying to figure out where to hold with my new Lipsey's .32.

[BN]

My solution for my SC1911 is Warren Tactical to replace the factory version.

I was reminded of that yesterday afternoon, trying to figure out where to hold with my new Lipsey's .32.

My favorite Glock sights are the Warren Wave rear with his .140" wide tritium front with the giant white ring around the dot. Scott probably still has a bar napkin where he drew the original prototype with the waitress' borrowed pen.

I use a drive the dot sight picture on anything with a dot on the front sight. I like a deep U rear notch and it almost centers like a peep sight.

[GJM]

My favorite Glock sights are the Warren Wave rear with his .140" wide tritium front with the giant white ring around the dot. Scott probably still has a bar napkin where he drew the original prototype with the waitress' borrowed pen.

I use a drive the dot sight picture on anything with a dot on the front sight. I like a deep U rear notch and it almost centers like a peep sight.

I like this sight installation Dave Lauck did. The gold front has a nice straight top edge. Something like that would not be bad on a 1911.

[JohnO]

Lots of commentary - oh, that's too slow, too much recoil - blah, blah. Just fun to shoot.

Jealousy pure and simple. Don't listen to those Soy Boys!

My preferred 1911 sights and on all my 1911's. A 10-8 rear sight with the .156 U-Notch. For me it's not the U it's the aperture. I prefer to have light on both sides of my front sight. Also I want a plain black rear sight. I absolutely do not want anything on the rear sight that will draw my vision there.

I believe my front sights are .125 serrated with a tritium insert and plain black. That combination works great for me.

I have a Gen 5 G17 with the Ameriglo Agent sights. The orange ring around the tritium insert on the front sight is a real attention getter. Darn near as good as a fiber optic front sight. A fiber up front is something you might want to try. Do not monkey with anything in the rear!

[gato naranja]

The XS sight front sights often have a rounded top and I don't like that as well as a squared off top on my front sight.

This.

That being said, I can't even recall the last time I used a semiauto that didn't have a flat top front sight.

I find the rounded top "acceptable but not optimal" on a snub revolver. My 2.5" DAO SP101 has a rounded top Trijicon, it used to have a Meprolight with a square top; the Trijicon would be better with a flat top, and the Meprolight better with a white or lime "surround." On my pet GP-100, a flat-top Dawson green FO replaced the execrable factory ramp after a rounded top XS had been tried and discarded.

My derped eyes can still use a .125" Call-type blade (flat top, with a flat-faced gold dot) reasonably well, which is a bit poignant as that was more-or-less what an older mentor of mine was using after his vision began to sputter. ("Everything old is new again.") I believe I would try to find one of those were I to re-equip my 1911 RO.