Recommended iron sight alternative to red dot for aging eyes?

[Leroy Suggs]

For my 77 year old eyes (damm I'm old) the Ameriglo Spartan Operater or Bolds work best.
The Trijicon HD works good too but are too sharp and pointy on the rear for me.

Red dots bloom badly so I have no use for them.

[revchuck38]

FWIW, fiber optic sights don’t work for me, the dot is too small. I only have them on one pistol, a CZ-75, and that’s because nobody makes the kind I want for those pistols.

[vcdgrips]

1. Ameriglos Spartan Operators or their functional equivalents.

Years ago, folks like TLG, Chuck Haggard, Erick G, Spencer Keepers, I dare say myself, and others I am sure, were independently taking the OEM factory painted front (round and square) in both the .125 and .140 widths and mating them with a variety of .180 rears (same and contrasting tritium as the fronts etc.). This approach was on the heels of using orange finger nail polish, Testor brand model paint or orange reflective tape on the front sight.

https://pistol-training.com/articles...y-front-sight/

2. A quality red or green FO i.e. Dwson

3. The best of both worlds would be a tritium/FO combo. Historically, there were durability issues with FOs. If the right folks told me that somebody's combo trit/fo front was duty worthy, I would seriously consider taking it for a spin with an eye toward converting across the board. (6 Glocks)

[HCM]

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

Another recommendation for Dawson Fiber Optics here. The key to using these fast is going to be focusing on the target via the rear notch just like with the dot.

[Clusterfrack]

Color makes a big difference for me. Green fibers look way more crisp to my eyes than red.

[BillSWPA]

I'm 58, and have been trying to avoid jumping into the RDS world.
Up until about last summer, a black rear sight and a fiber front was all I needed for sight alignment.
I'm wearing trifocal glasses now, and in order to get a good sight picture, I have to use the "reading" part of the glasses, which means that I have to tilt my head waaaaaay back.
Very unproductive and uncomfortable.
I just found and ordered these :


SSP Eyewear Top Focal Tactical Safety Glasses Kit with Assorted Interchangeable 1.75 Top Focal Lenses, TF175 AMZ KIT

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K4H4HSK...ing=UTF8&psc=1.

Hopeful that they will be an asset in finding the front sight, before taking the plunge into the RDS world.

Try Varilux X lenses the next time you get new glasses. They have a hexagonal pattern of distance, mid range, and close correction sections throughout the lens. I really like mine. They are expensive, but worth the cost.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Clusterfrack]

Try Varilux X lenses the next time you get new glasses. They have a hexagonal pattern of distance, mid range, and close correction sections throughout the lens. I really like mine. They are expensive, but worth the cost.

Totally agree! I don't need a correction to shoot, but Varilux X are the first and only progressives that I've been able to use for shooting. There is really no comparison between the X and anything else I've tried. Don't let your optometrist talk you into getting a competing design either. It's not the same.

[HCM]

Thank you for the recommendations so far. That's a lot of good stuff to consider and think about.




Mainly waiting to see if a standard mounting footprint comes about and if sealed emitters become the norm.

You will be waiting a long time. The number of foot prints have narrowed but you’re never going to see everybody using one universal footprint. Particularly if you were waiting to see that result from the marketplace. We’ve already been through a 30 year cycle of this with Carbines.

Even with something like military rifle optics you have organizations like NATO trying to impose a standard. While officially Picatinny/M1913 is “the standard” you still have NATO members using the old STANG mounts, members using flat top ARs with weaver rather than 1913 rails and the UK SUSAT mounting foot print.

Even with Carbines you never had one “ norm.” You had Aimpoint versus EO Tech Versus prism /ACOG versus those weird Trijicon/Meprolight reflex sights and now LPVOs.

As discussed in this thread: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....d-Mount-System some manufacturers have a proprietary interest in maintaining their own footprint.

For LE/MIL duty use enclosed emitters will become the standard but that does not necessarily equal a standard foot print. For example, despite the clear superiority of cross bolt mounting systems you have SIG making a faux enclosed emitter in the form of the removable hood on the Romeo2 in order to keep using their proprietary top mounted screw foot print.

I don’t think open emitter sights will go away completely you will just see the market bifurcate.

All of that to say I think the waiting for the marketplace to mature thing as a cop out to avoid going to a dot.

In all honesty if you’ve been shooting iron sights for a long time and you’ve attained a level of skill with them transitioning from irons to the dot requires more work than someone who’s never shot before starting with the dot.

Two things that make it easier are getting some professional dot specific instruction and applying what you learned using a gun that only has a dot. I am a big believer in back up iron sights for duty or self-defensies but for training purposes, particularly transitioning a long time iron site shooter to a dot, a dot only gun is an excellent training tool. You can leave the back up irons off the gun and add them once you get confident with the dot.

For myself, I went through a period of a few years where I was working with dots on my own but they were not yet approved for duty use. I found working with the dot made me a better and faster iron sight shooter. So even if you don’t want to fully commit to carrying a dot, putting a dot on one of your five Glocks still has value.

As far as system maturity, the ACRO P-2 mounted via an optic specific direct mill mount is as good as it gets at this point.

[P.E. Kelley]

https://warrentactical.com/product/2...p-front-sight/

I use these sights on all my Glocks. I use the .245 tall front sight and use drive the dot sight picture. The front sight is .140 wide and the rear notch is .150 wide and my old eyes see this better than anything else I've tried.

Glock with Warren on the left and an XS big dot on a Jframe to compare.

Attachment 83559

At 62, I still want to shoot irons. For me...^ This is the way

Ask yourself...when was the last time you read anything where you WANTED smaller print?

BIG front sights with rear notches wide enough for suit your tastes.

Personally, I run a notch just wide enough to fit the BIG front (no light bars). That gives me a "green light" to
break the shot when I see a full front sight.

[Glockman9mm]

Ameriglo protector sight set $60 off Amazon. Same as Hackathorne set but with a bright yellow/green front. Have this set on my twin G19 Gen. 4s and my G43. After trying several setups this works best for me. I’m only 39 but it’s a large and crisp sight picture.