my bank gave me some amazon cash, so i decided to pick up a set of XS big dots for my G26. I’ve been quite happy with the trijicon green/yellow 3 dots on my glock 19, but thought i’d try something new.
these things are FAST.
and incredibly easy to acquire in the dark.
also super BRIGHT… is it possible that my 08 date code trijis on my g19 have faded a lot in just 2 years? the front green lamp seems awfully dim.
XS uses trijicon lamps, so what’s going on here?
anyway i seem to have created the perfect carry gun.
i only tried them to 25 feet, and i was shoot low because i seemed to be burying the dot in the rear sight a bit, but as i got the hang of them they got pretty consistent.
i’ll have to experiment more before i put them on the G19… i shoot IPSC and stuff with that gun, so i want to retain the better long range accuracy, even if it’s a little slower.
I’ve had Big Dots on my two main carry guns for a few years now (a G36 and a P7PSP) - my aging eyes like them. They’re great for their intended purpose - flash and bang.
My findings as well. These are great for contact distance but then again at that distance you can use the slide to aim. Even Stevie Wonder can make those hits.
There was a infamous instructor who advocates these sights. He even made a YouTube video of himself shooting to 100yds on a Pepper Popper to show they are accurate after he and I argued they are slow. The problem is I can make that hit at 100yds but from a surrender with a draw and turn in 1/2 the time with my M&P and Warren sights. If I had a video camera I’d make a response video of that.
I would also love to see it just because that would be some damn good shooting.
But to my mind the real question is not, “can YOU do it better with your sights?”
Nor is it “can JY do it better with his sights?”
It’s “which sights can I do it better with?”
What if you are five times better at shooting than he is, and your sights are handicapping you to the point that you’re only twice as good?
I don’t think that’s actually the case or anything…but my point is that even though a video of you doing that would be awesome, it would only prove that you are a better shooter, not necessarily that you are better on account of your superior sights.
However I do think it’s reasonable to conclude that if you ARE substantially better, and you believe that you would be worse with Big Dot sights than you are, that your opinion is probably worth taking seriously.
I have recently gone to a two-dot system and I am amazed at how quick it is…but I am leery of the big dots myself. However I am still relatively young and I come from a long line of guys with extremely sharp vision which does not degrade until quite late in life, so I can afford to be smug for a while longer. I might feel differently if I had trouble picking up the little tritium vials.
The point is that quite a few people who can shoot like that have tried the XS sights and found them worse. The “personal preference” thing is a bit of a smoke screen. There are explainable deficiencies with the XS system. So if those deficiencies don’t bother you then sure, the XS sights are fine. But that doesn’t make them better.
I have a few students each year that do pretty well with XS sights. But there are certain things those students clearly struggle with that they shouldn’t, and a big part of the problem is the inherently imprecise sight picture you get from the rear XS sight unless you spend a lot of time lining it up perfectly (which gets back to what gotm4 said). I don’t beat students up over it, but I do point it out. Some rethink their commitment to XS, some don’t.
I’m still waiting for Trijicon to introduce a Big Dot front sight on a conventional sight picture. Square up the top of the front sight some. Craft a notched rear sight to match, and then, perhaps, the Big Dot would be more viable without sacrificing precision.
I am suspect of any sighting system that doesn’t have two distinct points of alignment (front and rear) with as wide of a sight radius as possible. That is what sights are supposed to do. Holographic sights excepted.
Along similar lines, I think a Small Dot front with a properly sized square notch (or better yet, Warren quasi u-notch) would be worth playing with. The front sight would still be wider than I’d normally prefer but especially for people with failing eyesight it could be a better solution than typical 3-dot sights.
I’ve got no problem lining up the top of the Small Dot, but if they flattened it from, say, 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock that would be a bonus.
I installed at set kinda like your describing for one of my customers. It was the smaller front night sight dot with a 10-8 rear sight. IIRC this was on a Glock 19. He has poor vision and the dot fills up almost the entire notch.
That’s why I’ve not messed with the idea yet, until Trijicon (or someone else) introduces a wider notch rear sight.
Frankly, I’ve not found standard [white outline] night sights wanting in either speed or accuracy. But a brighter, more visible front sight is always a good thing, so methinks.
Personally, I don’t think that 24/7 sights make a good all purpose option. After using Big dots for around 6 months I didn’t feel they gave me the visual input needed for 15 yards and beyond especially on a partially covered target as is common in USPSA and IDPA. For a flash sight picture in an up close defensive situation however they would be hard to beat. Even though my eyesight is far from what it once was I am still clinging to my 10-8 rear sight and point shooting at 5 yards and in.
I am 100% sure this is true…I think I was not clear in my post because that is approximately what I was getting at.
I have NO doubt that the big dot systems do not work as well for accurate shooting as more traditional three-dot or Warren-style 2-dots.
I guess what I meant was that although I don’t doubt GM4 at all, to film him running a different car in the quarter mile than JY and beating him would not NECESSARILY prove the car was better. JY might not know how to drive stick, say, or he might leave the car in neutral when he got the green light. The ideal thing would be for one guy to drive both cars and compare the times.
But I am also confident that even if the same driver/shooter were used, the results would not be good for the big dots, and part of this confidence comes from the fact that guys like GM4 (and you) tell me it is so.
I don’t own any Big Dots myself, and I probably will never have sufficient personal experience with them to really know for certain. So I have to trust in the opinions of more experienced shooters. I did not intend to imply that it was a matter of personal preference so much as a vote of confidence in the experienced preferences of specific, accomplished shooters.
