Are BUIS necessary on a defensive pistol

[Coyotesfan97]

Has anyone here ever transitioned to pistol BUIS during a string of fire during a match, at a class, or during training.

Yes during training when my battery died.

[Caballoflaco]

Has anyone here ever transitioned to pistol BUIS during a string of fire during a match, at a class, or during training.

I haven’t done the transition due to dot failure personally. But, I’ll offer this to the discussion:in the time before dots it wasn’t an uncommon thing to hear people say that they transitioned from target focused shooting to sight focused shooting in the middle of a gunfight when they realized that their fire wasn’t having the effect on target they wanted it to. That makes me believe that transitioning to irons due to no dot is a viable plan.

So I come down on the side of buis having utility, and for me I’ll continue to keep them on pistols for defensive use. Like most things we discuss here it’s a continuoum and as the saying does we pays our money and takes our chances on the decisions we make.

[Pistol Pete 10]

While I have BUIS on every defensive red dot pistol I have carried, are BUIS really necessary?

Only necessary if battery dies and you don't have a dot.

[Pistol Pete 10]

Nope. Not needed. Take one of your Glocks or other service pistol and take the sights off. Shoot it on a TQ-19 or other silhouette out to 25 yards. Use the results to make a decision.

So defensive handguns don't need sights??????

[HeavyDuty]

I’m once again considering having a G43 direct milled for a RMRcc sans irons.

[paherne]

So defensive handguns don't need sights??????

Where did I type that? I've seen "backup" irons fail more in red dot classes than the red dot optics. I do not have the experience of some of the other posters in this thread. SoCalDep and Erick Gelhaus have MUCH more experience than I do with red dots. My opinion is my opinion, and it is controversial. Watching and filming students in FoF, it is my experience that many throw the pistol up there in front of the bad man and press the trigger until the bad man goes away without ever seeing the sights. Backup sights are absolutely necessary for liability purposes, but the question was are BUIS necessary on a defensive pistol and I would say in the purest sense no. Do I have BUIS on every red dot sighted pistol I own, yes. Maybe I'm just being an argumentative jerk, the internet can be that way, sometimes.

[Mark D]

... Watching and filming students in FoF, it is my experience that many throw the pistol up there in front of the bad man and press the trigger until the bad man goes away without ever seeing the sights.

I don't have your depth of experience with FoF, but I've seen the same thing in the FoF I've done. The same students, who don't look at their sights, often get acceptable hits. This begs the question, do we need red dot sights on defensive pistols?

ETA: Before anyone loses their mind, I like dots. My question was asked in jest. Partially.

[DocGKR]

As noted earlier in this thread, I find the BUIS useful to check dot alignment. And yes, I have had a dot stop working and transitioned to the BUIS during training. Sometimes I also have a green laser on the pistol as a third sighting option...

[UNM1136]

Has anyone here ever transitioned to pistol BUIS during a string of fire during a match, at a class, or during training.

I have. Early RMR with intermittant contacts. Check dot alignment daily. Keep head of firearms off my butt by shooting one qual a year irons only (our rifle quals only require 4 strings of fire with the optic off).

I will, this year, be going from suppressor hight tritium to FO front/all black rear 1/4 co-witness. I also run lasers on all my teaching, and thus carry guns.

pat

[YVK]

I've seen "backup" irons fail more in red dot classes than the red dot optics.

Why do you think is that? I don't have as many years shooting as many here but I found irons failure to be a very rare occurrence, excluding loss of fiber.