Recommended iron sight alternative to red dot for aging eyes?

[Chris17404]

Hi all,

I considered putting this post is in the red dot sights section, but this seemed like the most appropriate place.

For someone who is not yet ready to fully adopt red dot sights on their pistols (for whatever reason), I'm curious what you'd recommend in the way of iron sights for someone who is 48 years old and finding the ability to focus on the front sight more challenging and transitioning eyes focus takes longer. I wear prescription eye glasses all day every day. I also have high astigmatism in both eyes. It is 100% corrected (20/15 vision) when wearing my glasses, so I do see clearly. I have a basic red dot on my Ruger 22/45 and I realize all of the benefits of red dot sighted pistols. The dot on my 22/45 is a small starburst even with my glasses on, but it's totally fine when focusing on the target. I am, however, not quite ready to transition fully over to red dots (5 different 9mm Glocks of various models). I'd like to see the technology mature a bit more before investing in them.

In the meantime, I'd like to experiment with some different iron sights and see if things improve. Right now I have Trijicon HD XR sights on all of my Glocks. They have worked well for me, but I'd like to see if there's something else out there that draws my eye to the front sight a bit better. When I look at all of the various sights and colors available, I feel like a basic bright white front sight may work very well. When out in the world and aiming/shooting at stuff, I'd think a bright white dot could be a nice contrast to the surroundings. I have also never tried fiber optic sights yet. The 10-8 Performance fiber optic front sight and low profile rear have drawn my interest as well.

If you are experiencing similar eye issues to me and still use iron sights I'd like to hear what your experiences have been and what you may recommend. Thank you for your time.

Chris

[D-der]

I've had good luck with Dawson F/O front and
blacked out rear, prior to getting hooked on dot's.

[KevH]

Sights are all about preference. For me...

I prefer a narrow front sight with either a red fiber optic (Dawson) or a gold or white gold (not brass) bead.

It needs to be paired with a black finely serrated rear sight. I prefer an original BoMar or Heinie sight with the outer edges knocked down to make them not sharp.

This is my favorite Glock rear:
https://www.heinie.com/glock-origina...all-black.html

It's made to mimic a BoMar. Pair it with a Dawson .105 width fiber optic of the appropriate height for your preferred point of impact and you're in business.

[RJ]

Outdoors, a Dawson Fiber Optic front ought to be pretty bright, especially on sunny days. Indoors, or in dimmer conditions, an orange Ameriglo front with tritium insert might work. To be honest a basic steel front post sight, primered with a good quality white layer, overtopped with traffic cone orange can be surprisingly effective (and cheap, too.) Just thinking out loud, over the front sights I've tried over the last 3-5 years. To be honest though, if you have a front sight that works for you, why would you want to change?

Also; and I'm just curious, when you say you want to "see the technology mature a bit more before investing in them", what exactly are you referring to, in today's pistol red dot marketspace, that is falling short for you?

[ubervic]

OP, I'm about a decade older than you and have had poor vision at front-sight distance for years. I did install an RDS setup on my main pistol about 3 years ago and liked it. For some reasons, I then fell completely out of the pistol world until the past few months.

RDS technology marches forward, and there are good options to satisfy most budgets. However, I'm still working out some things with my gear and so I'm not ready to commit to one.

Meanwhile, I selected the Ameriglo Spartan sights and like them a lot. Might favorite iron sights for my vision. Orange front sight with tritium center, blacked-out tritium at rear. Ample notch at rear provides good sight picture and makes finding/centering front sight easy.

[Jim Watson]

My match gun sights are fiber optic front, black rear.
My hideout guns have fiber optic fore and aft, the G43 the TFO FO/Tritium combination and a friend likes FO at both ends.

Dawson is a major vendor of fiber optic sights
https://dawsonprecision.com/sights/glock-sights/
and they sell white inserts if you want to try a white bead instead.
https://dawsonprecision.com/sights/h...t-fiber-optic/


When your fiber gets smoked up, replace it.
These folks sell fiber in many colors for a few dollars PER YARD.
http://shop.fiberopticproducts.com/F...-Archery-Sight

[gato naranja]

I will also give a recommendation for the Dawson F/O fronts for general use when there is some light to be had. I can get little use from a standard Ruger GP100 front blade, but the Dawson will get me by.

I prefer the green rods, but color perception variation means YMMV. Much can also be said for a white rear face that mimics the old, square bead, gold "Sourdough" front blade, and even the vertical white "skunk stripe" down the center as XS used to put on some of their front irons has done okay for me.

In my spare time, I have been experimenting with turning a Dawson into a low-buck, faux-McGivern "gold" (actually brass) sight. If I can ever get the thing completely nailed down to my satisfaction, I will post it on p-f.

[Outpost75]

The good thing about cataract surgery and interoccular lens implants in both eyes is that at age 72 I see iron sights like a 20-year-old again. Before that I used big dot XS sights. Red dots didn't work as the spot floated like a miss-shapen, melted dog turd.

[Clusterfrack]

...finding the ability to focus on the front sight more challenging and transitioning eyes focus takes longer.

Try shooting target focus with iron sights. You will need a reliable grip that produces a repeatable index during draws and transitions. If you can "automatically" align front and rear sights to an acceptable degree, there's no need to bring your vision back to the irons. You can confirm alignment of sights with each other, and with the target while they remain blurry. This is how I shoot almost all types of targets unless it's a very high difficulty (e.g. 50+ yds, etc.)

[BillSWPA]

I have tried fiber optic sights on two pistols, and in both cases I went back to a standard front blade. I found that the fiber optic caused me to shoot high.

What I find helps most are:

1) High contrast between the colored element of the front sight and the remainder of the front sight.

2) Dark, non-reflective black rear and area of the front surrounding the colored portion.

3) Enough light between the front post and rear notch to see the light on either side of the front sight, but not so much that misalignment becomes too easy.

My current favorite sights are Night Fision green tritium with an orange ring in front, black rings in the rear, and a square notch.