Glock sights. Why the hate?

Elkins45 said:

but the old pre-groove model has a genuine Glock plastic adjustable rear.

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Oh yes... I have one of those bad boys too. Course I did render it useless.

Why the hate?

I can't speak for anybody else, but for me the problem lies with the fact that they're attached to a Glock!

I've never seen a plastic Glock site broken off, but I have seen them with nicks and gouges in the plastic. Generally though my dislike for Glock sights comes down to several things: 1. It's true, I don't like plastic sights. 2. I prefer blacked out rears. 3. The stock sights are a little too low profile for my tastes. and 4. the stock sights protrude straight up from the dovetail rather than extending behind it - meaning you're giving up about 1/4" of potential sight radius.

That's not to say that the stock sights are unusable, but aftermarket options are cheap enough that I wouldn't use them (then again I've replaced the sights on way more than just Glocks). I'm not personally a "Glock hater" (I've got 2 of them - a Gen 4 G17 and a Gen 3 G22), but I'm a realist and IMHO Glocks are overrated. Yes, they're reliable, I'll certainly give them that, but there are other guns out there that are just as reliable while having better triggers, ergonomics, accuracy, price, or some combination thereof. IMHO the police surplus Glocks in the the $280-350 range are great values. New? There's better options.

I have seen quite a few broken things on Glocks. Broken magazine release being my personal favorite. I haven't seen Glock sights break off to the point they are not usable. Most severe damage I have seen was half of the U was missing. I do believe much of the hate for Glock sights is they are different. Three dot sights are fairly standard on handguns. Glocks, Taurus Curve, and a few other notable models go off and do their own thing. Like it, keep it. Hate it and replace it. Not really all that hard. Saying that as a certified Glock hater.

tarosean said:

If we take a look at the BATFE Report for 2017 PISTOLS only (Last official release of Import #'s)

Austria imported 656912 Pistols (Steyr makes up a portion of that number, albeit a small portion I would bet)
Glock produced 175696 Pistols at their GA facility.
Total of 832,608.

S&W Produced 1,032,450 Pistols at their MA facility.

Other notables:
Ruger = 781623 from various facilities.
Sig = 536774

We should be due for a new Import Report but that's all we have to go on at this time.

2018 Manufactures report:
Glock = 247546
S&W = 886917
Ruger = 704588
Sig = 632781

All data can be found on BATFE website.

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I was referring to larger automatics, and did mean worldwide, no .22LRs, wich they just started making last month, or rifles. Thanks for those stats though, I really wasn't aware.

Its kinda like Mrs. Junkee calling me the laziest basterd in Mid TN, wich puts me in real strong runnin for laziest Worldwide. Ha!

Still have the original plastic sights on my Gen 2 Glock 19 that has seen a billion draws/reholsters from leather and kydex holsters. I don't see appreciable wear on them, and I like the very clear sight picture they supply. In fact, I find their sight picture easier to see than the tritium sights on my S&W Shield. Though the Shield's sights are outlined in white, those white rings are just a little too on the skinny side for my aging peepers, and the tritium glow isn't usefully bright under the lighting conditions in which I usually shoot.

I flip the rear plastic sight on backwards so it's a plain rear sight. I only use plain rear sights.

My G41's plastic adjustable rear sight hit hard left. Could never figure out why, because it was centered. I hammered in a G23's plastic sight, backwards, and the 41 has been perfect since. I almost returned that 41 to Glock for shooting so crooked.

I run Warren Tactical sights only, If I can. Thin FO front, plain black rear. Green optic rod. I have a night sighted G23 for night training, plain black rear still. Dawson fronts otherwise, and whatever plain rear I can find for other types of pistols.

tarosean said:

I am one that doesn't like them. Although I find it pathetic that a pistol at that price point has plastic sights. It's more so that I prefer plain black serrated rears with a front that stands out. I dont like 3 dots either.

I don't think I have had one break. I do remember one with a over mold "nipple" on the front sight that was quite annoying. Quick whittling with a knife took care of that though.

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I hate the stock Glock sights. But I'm so thankful that nearly all Glocks come with the plastic sights. I don't want to pay for someone else's sight picture. And most shooters still prefer newbish style sights. You could say that Glocks decision to use cheap plastic sights was genius. It pleases the newbs, but doesn't scare away the pro's.

I was scared away from buying an Springfield XDS at one point, because it had an ignorant red fiberoptic rear sight, and many people were complaining about how tough it was to remove. Darn fine pistol other than that.

My Kimber 1911 and my Dan Wesson 1911 both came with premium night sights. I junked both sets.

Texas10mm said:

When all the Glock competitors can deliver a better pistol with metal sights at a lower price point it makes you wonder why Glock can't do the same.

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Name one please. I'd love to try it. 99% of those competitors have terrible metal sights. And it's a pita pressing some of them out. Then I have to worry that the new sights are large enough for a tight fit. Some of those OEM steel sights stretch the cutouts a bit.

Everyone says they make a better Glock than Glock, but they all come up short somewhere.
Pick one for any other brand:
-No replacement parts available quickly on line.
-poor sights, poor sight selection
-even worse triggers, or triggers not easily tuned
-higher bore over hand axis
-too deep of a frame cut for the web of my hand on my trigger hand. Lesser recoil control due to weird fit.
-expensive magazines that you can't step on and just laugh about

Glocks work too well to be labeled ''just a cheap duty pistol''. I have to spend $2000 to get to anything that shoots as well as my G34.

I don't mean to bash the lesser striker fired pistols. Ruger and S&W have decent fighting pistols selling for just $300. An excellent way for new shooters to start. Wish I had options like that when I was new. I went from a tactically useless Ruger p95dc to a Kimber 1911 when I started. Should have started with Glock instead.

Put the plastic ones back on, I shoot just fine with them.

jonb32248 said:

Put the plastic ones back on, I shoot just fine with them.

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I can't speak for anybody else, but for me the problem lies with the fact that they're attached to a Glock!

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Saying that as a certified Glock hater.

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Everyone says they make a better Glock than Glock, but they all come up short somewhere.
Pick one for any other brand:
-No replacement parts available quickly on line.
-poor sights, poor sight selection
-even worse triggers, or triggers not easily tuned
-higher bore over hand axis
-too deep of a frame cut for the web of my hand on my trigger hand. Lesser recoil control due to weird fit.
-expensive magazines that you can't step on and just laugh about

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Reality, what a concept..
Yup..saying that as a certified Glock fan-boy and certified Sig hater.

First off, the thought that a nice quality gun costing $500 is too expensive is the reason why we rely on China for everything nowadays. The sights are fine for all us mall ninjas. If you don’t like them, then you can change them and you still have a very reasonably priced quality gun for 600. I think what Glock does makes sense. Why charge everyone 600 up front when many people don’t mind the polymer. I changed all mine out because I prefer night sights. If I didn’t, I’d have left them alone.

The stock front sight on my Gen 3, model 22 came off. It was replaced with a similar metal sight.

PSA: the Sight Master sight pusher tool makes changing your Glock sights a breeze. Only about $60

Zerodefect said:

Everyone says they make a better Glock than Glock, but they all come up short somewhere.

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My thoughts exactly. The market tells you what people want and people shop for the best value. There is a reason why Glock dominates the market. If people didn’t deem them best value, they wouldn’t buy. Only other possibility is that when people who won’t buy online and want to go handle before they buy go in to LGS, Glocks always there and many others are not. However, that’s due to Glocks vast supply network and keeping LGS’ stocked which is expensive and doesn’t come free. Customers pay for this.

A pistol that, to me, is already priced more than what it should be would include better sights.

S/A, Walther, SIG, and others are doing it - as should Glock.

JMO.

Only reason I change out Glock sights is to put night sights on.

[deleted: decided against getting drawn into a glock thread]

WestTexShooter said:

A pistol that, to me, is already priced more than what it should be would include better sights.

S/A, Walther, SIG, and others are doing it - as should Glock.

JMO.

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If they all included factory night sights, it would be great. But thats generally not the case, and when they do, you generally pay the premium.

I always changed out the factory standard sights on my SIG's with three dot night sights, and they generally cost me twice what a set of Glock three dot night sights cost me. So thats another plus for Glock.

Ive owned a bunch of NIB SIG's, and the cheapest Ive bought, that came with factory night sights, ran me $750-$800. The equivalent Glocks were right around $450-$500. That gap over the years seems to be pretty consistent too (between the original P series SIGs).

As much as I like SIG's, its one of the man reasons I sold them off an switched over to Glocks. I get more for my money (guns are cheaper, mags and accessories are cheaper) with them, and Ive lost nothing as far as reliability and accuracy goes, and they actually hold up a bit better. I actually shoot the Glocks better at speed and under stress too.

No idea why people don't like the sights. I shoot better with a friend's very basic Glock than with any of my handguns, all of which are DA/SA.

For me sights are very secondary to a gun's reliability and ergonomics.
My #1, favorite handgun -- other than it being in .32 Auto -- is the WW2 Sauer 38H, which has > very Tiny sights <. It was "liberated" from a German nurse in WW2 (...but at least it's a True story...).

I've said it before.... Glock makes on ed of the best fighting pistols on the market with the worst sights on the market.

I'm a LE firearms instructor for a large department that runs the largest police academy in the state. I dont run the range full time, yet, but I do train officers regularly. I probably see a couple hundred students a year while the main range cadet see a few thousand. Glock being our issued gun and the issued gun to the majority of departments around here, ther vast majority of guns on the range are Glock.

I've personally seen Glock plastic sights break off and just plain fall off, multiple times. Definitely in the double digits. My buddies working at the range have seen it far more times.

Caveat to that, uniformed police guns see far more non shooting abuse (jumping walls, rolling around on the ground, physical fights, rubbing through alleys) than there average citizen will put their gun through which can partially explain thes broken sights.

That being said my father had a Glock 22 that he bought when I graduated the academy so he could have the same gun I carried. That gun literally lived in its plastic case, only coming out at the range and to be cleaned at home. The front sight on that gun fell off one day.

I'm not surprised that a front sight falling off of a glock after all they're only held on by a tiny screw. A little check now and then will spot that loose screw. I would be more surprised by a rear sight falling off since they're in a pretty tight groove. It all comes down to taking a little more care and attention to an important tool.

I don't like the cheapness of all plastic sights, but I REALLY don't like having to stick a round ball in a rectangular hole for proper sight alignment. They're counterintuitive to me and different than anything else out there.

I shoot it fine, I just don't like them.

C-grunt said:

I've said it before.... Glock makes on ed of the best fighting pistols on the market with the worst sights on the market.

I'm a LE firearms instructor for a large department that runs the largest police academy in the state. I dont run the range full time, yet, but I do train officers regularly. I probably see a couple hundred students a year while the main range cadet see a few thousand. Glock being our issued gun and the issued gun to the majority of departments around here, ther vast majority of guns on the range are Glock.

I've personally seen Glock plastic sights break off and just plain fall off, multiple times. Definitely in the double digits. My buddies working at the range have seen it far more times.

Caveat to that, uniformed police guns see far more non shooting abuse (jumping walls, rolling around on the ground, physical fights, rubbing through alleys) than there average citizen will put their gun through which can partially explain thes broken sights.

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I said the same thing over a month ago in post #10 in this thread. Still, it's apparent there are remain a fair amount of Glock fans here that don't believe this.

I've personally seen Glock plastic sights break off and just plain fall off, multiple times. Definitely in the double digits. My buddies working at the range have seen it far more times.

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Who takes care of these handguns? I have a wee front sight tool and check the tight of my Glocks every time I shoot it. They are always tight(yes, a bit of blue loctite on the screw). My son's front sight on his Beretta 92FS got loose...BTW-

I'm a little surprised that no one mentioned this (at least that I saw), but IMO, the biggest reason to lose the stock plastic sights is one hand manipulation. When you're racking the slide by hooking the rear sight on your belt, your boot, a door frame, the body of a car, a person's eye socket etc. etc. plastic sights don't work for very long.

What people fail to realize is that Glock is always improving on a basic concept and design that has been on the market for over 30 years. What other company has a striker fire, Polymer frame, pistol that has lasted that long.
There have been two updates to how the front sight is attached over the years.