Sights for aging eyes

A reflex sight would definitely help. I have a Burris Fastfire III on my 1911 for bullseye shooting. Made a difference in my scores.

I couldn't use the GI sights on my 1911, so I had Dawson put on a fiber optic front and combat rear. Much better.

^^ Dawson Precision doesn't do sight work anymore. I recently had Springfield mill my slide for a BoMar cut. They installed a FO front as well.

All you need is contrast.

A wider gap rear sight. About .150". Plain black. Skinny front sight, .105" with a red fiberoptic.

Try Dawson.

A gold dot up front can be very effective as well. My foray into electronic sights on pistols started a few years ago with a TRS-25 on a Beretta Neos and progressed to other including most recently a micro size red dot, the Sig Romeo 0.

My biggest hesitation about them is none turn on automatically and in the case of the Sig the button access is difficult; nothing I would put on a defensive pistol. Now if it had shake awake perhaps, but consider the battery life moving in a holster day after day.

Staring at those bright light pipes makes me ponder why I went RDS at times.


But then I remember, 1 dot to align, hits what it’s covering.


On/Off/Brightness button, just behind the lens and oh so tricky for my big mitts.

Get a micro red dot and don't look back,

I believe Sig and holosun both have dots that come awake when they are moved.

Finished som sights today for old eyes with contact lenses. Note the light gap. That helps old eyes a ton.

Only took an hour with a Jennings machine and tool pusher, this morning.

.105 front Dawson FO

.150 Warren tac rear.

You'll have to zoom in, I had to bring the phone camera back to scale the front sight to something similar to the light gap our eyes would see while shooting.

I can try a better camera if any body needs it.

I've tried several dot sights on rifles and have never found one I liked nearly as well as a conventional low powered scope. But I've looked at the smaller units made for pistols and have tried one on my brothers pistol once. I can see me buying one at some point.

My eyes are not what they used to be, and I could never make conventional 1911 sights work anymore. For now I can still do well enough with something with a big white dots on it. Glock factory sights work pretty well for me.

You might also want to consider a laser. I've had them on a couple of pistols and at close range combat shooting they are accurate enough.

Skylerbone said:

My biggest hesitation about them is none turn on automatically and in the case of the Sig the button access is difficult; nothing I would put on a defensive pistol.

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Quoting myself to stand corrected, it seems the Sig has auto-off and shake awake according to a salesman at Field & Stream. He was a leader in my sons’ scout troop and I trust he has looked into it.

Edited to add: I demoed the shake awake feature at home which worked 8 for 8 consecutive times and on further reading battery life with “typical” (undefined) use is stated to be 10 years. For the price of a coin cell, definitely leaving it always on.

XS sights are worth a look as are the See All sights.

I do like a bead up front these days, plus old school style that I like.

In the end though a dot is hard to beat if you're buying something which is cut for it and don't mind the added bulk.

Worth it to look into shooting glasses with prescription in them also. I got a pair of "readers" from Amazon but made for shooters so the magnification is on top rather than the bottom. Sights are clear with them, target a real blur though. Can't have it all though.

Not a Glock fan, but have them, and will get the Leupold micro that doesn't require a slide cut next year.

Skylerbone said:

Quoting myself to stand corrected, it seems the Sig has auto-off and shake awake according to a salesman at Field & Stream. He was a leader in my sons’ scout troop and I trust he has looked into it.

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Just be aware with the "shake awake" sights that if youre constantly handling the gun, or subject it to a lot of movement or bouncing around, the sight may/will be on a lot, even if youre not shooting.

They are very sensitive and any movement kicks them on.

All our eyes are different from one another, with some being similar to others.

I have fiber optic, plain black, stainless, sights with dots, lines, etc. For a self defense gun I can get by with a fat front sight painted white with a red fiber optic in its center. The rear sight gap being larger than usual helps too. Still, I can see a red dot or a laser much easier than any front sight post on a handgun with my progressive trifocals.

Then there is the weird but useful fact that if I'm not wearing my glasses that handgun sights are in perfect focus. At the expense of being able to get a crisp focus view of my target.

trackskippy said:

Just be aware with the "shake awake" sights that if youre constantly handling the gun, or subject it to a lot of movement or bouncing around, the sight may/will be on a lot, even if youre not shooting.

They are very sensitive and any movement kicks them on.

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Im considering that going forward but I think with battery life on many modern RDS that may not be a huge issue. My Zero is on a .22 WMR which I don’t have carry plans for apart from possible woods carry. Excellent point though and one that everyone should be made aware of if they carry.

Yea, if you buy the better red dots, the batteries really arent an issue. I like the Aimpoints, and I just leave them on.

I have a couple of Romeo 5's on my 22 AR's, and they are decent sights. The biggest advantage to the shake awake is if you forget to turn them off (which I always seem to do) when putting them away. As long as its the safe, a closet, etc, something stable and solid, it works great.

Forgot to mention; I looked at a Sig 365 SAS today and WOW the sight on that is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I mean I’ve seen that style sight before online but never in person. Looked like a giant night sight in broad daylight (well, store lighting anyway).

May not be your solution but I recommend the experience. Almost dropped the pistol as I instinctively reached for my wallet.

Skylerbone said:

Forgot to mention; I looked at a Sig 365 SAS today and WOW the sight on that is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I mean I’ve seen that style sight before online but never in person. Looked like a giant night sight in broad daylight (well, store lighting anyway).

May not be your solution but I recommend the experience. Almost dropped the pistol as I instinctively reached for my wallet.

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I saw one of those in a gun store recently. I wish I could rent it to try it out.

I've (52 year old here) been using these Trijicon HD sights for a couple of years now. The added lume paint around the front really makes the front sight easy to acquire and track during recoil. The rear U notch is large and give you a good gap between it and the front sight during daylight.

They aren't target sights and aren't for everyone, but are a intermediate step (in both size and price) between plain irons and a slide mounted red dot.

BSW

In order of preference and ease of sight alignment I prefer;
A green laser. Nothing is easier and quicker at normal pistol range.
Next a red dot. More precise but slower.
Large bold night sights
Normal three dot or target sights. Good for any range but hardest on old eyes.

I use three dot night sights on any handgun I can get them on. Been using them since they first showed up, even before they were lit. Most of the current sights have a nice white ring around the vials as well and look more like the plain, unlit dots.

I actually use the dots more for shooting than I do a traditional sight picture, especially up close, from 10-15 yards and in. Beyond that, I start looking for a more traditional blade and notch type sight picture.

The biggest advantage to the three dots over the other type setups is, when aligned, they actually give you a quick, vertical and horizontal reference, and you can shoot with accuracy with them. To that point, I have a couple of guns that I use a suppressor with, that have normal three dot sights on the guns. I cant see over the suppressor, but I can shoot through it with the dots. Works the same as a red dot on your long gun with the front cover closed. I can easily make consistent "aimed" head shots on a photo silhouette at 25 yards shooting with them that way.

1000% red dot (reflex) sights. Without question. I tried a few other tricks with paint, fiber optics, etc. and finally tried the RDS on pistols. I took a couple years to get used to it, and now both my EDC guns (even a subcompact) wear RDS all the time. T-shirt and shorts, IWB, no problem. Rain, snow, ice, falling, bumping into forklifts, etc and no problem.

Changed. My. Life. I shoot better than I did when I was in my 20s. Before this, even with new and otherwise good glasses, I was sorta thinking of no longer doing monthly IDPA, for example. I can easily hit a full size target at 100 yds. 50, in the head nearly every time. Amazing. And I promise I have Bad Eyes.

Some quick notes:

• RDS cut slides are the best, but they work fine up higher. Get a cheap rear sight dovetail adapter to start with using your existing guns. Yes, even the $18 eBay ones work just fine. Carried one for a year before I sent one gun off for machining.
• If you find it hard to find the dot: remember the dot isn't tricking you. It's always the same place. If you can't find the dot you aren't on target. Use this to learn your bad habits and get a better draw / presentation.
• If you are worried about battery life: buy a better sight. Anything remotely good will last a year. Buy your sights new batteries for Christmas each year.
• Don't worry about bottom batteries, where you have to remove the sight from the gun to change batteries. DO check zero, but don't expect to have to move it more than a click or two. I've NEVER adjusted after removing sights from pistols.
• Get a torque wrench. Don't over tighten and distort or break it. Don't use red loctite!
• Don't take the view through ANY one brand/model of sight as "red dots don't work for me." Also, no such thing as "all red dots" don't work for astigmatism, etc. I said I have bad eyes, by which I mean I am not eligible for laser eye surgery; on my eye Rx I have numbers in ALL the boxes, not just astigmatism. I had the time and money, so bought (and sold) almost a dozen sights before I settled on one that worked. Ask people at the local club, go to well stocked stores, etc. Do NOT worry if the dot isn't a perfect circle; a little fuzzy or starburst is fine as long as it's consistent, and relatively round. You will be looking at the target, so when shooting are USING the dot, not looking AT it as you will when evaluating. When looking at them, try swinging it around, saying "bang" as you align with targets vs looking at the dot itself.

usp9 said:

In order of preference and ease of sight alignment I prefer;
A green laser. Nothing is easier and quicker at normal pistol range.
Next a red dot. More precise but slower.
Large bold night sights
Normal three dot or target sights. Good for any range but hardest on old eyes.

Click to expand...

I've tried red and green lasers and haven't been impressed. 1) They wash out very easily in moderate daylight. I can turn a red dot brighter if it's sunny outside not so much with a laser. 2) Maybe it's lack of training (I don't have 1000s of hours running a laser) but I frequently find myself using the iron sights to get the laser on target, in essence I'm taking the time to aim twice.

For ability to get accurate shots off in any light conditions I wouldn't want to be relying on a laser. The exception I can think of is if you're wearing headgear that precludes you using irons or a red dot, like a gas mask night vison. In that case a laser might be your only option for aiming at all.

BSW

Ive had the same experience with the lasers. You waste time looking for that silly dot when you should be shooting.

Id like to get a dot sight, but I know Im going to like it, and I cant afford to start equipping everything with a dot, even just a couple of backups. Maybe if I hit the lottery, or they come down to a more reasonable price.

For a range gun slide-ride, Trijicon SRO. Battery lasts more than a year with it always on. Just swap it once a year - it is a single, inexpensive CR2032. The dot has automatic brightness adjustment like a cell-phone screen. I never push buttons except to dim the dot for really long range shots (100 yards or more, the dimmest dot obscures a small target less). The big screen beats anything but the biggest tube sights. The best tubes should have a cleaner dot, but they're not going to be slide-ride. I haven't looked through enough of them to recommend a particular one, but I'd look at Trijicon MRO, Aimpoint 34, Ultradot...