NOTE: to those who might've seen my review on other forums, yeah, i've been posting it around a bit, but only as a service to the community. these guys are for REAL and their product really does do as claimed - a rarity in the gun biz it seems - so pardon the redundancy if you've seen this before but i'm not getting any compensation for it, just submitting it for your enjoyment and ruthless scrutiny 
love susan
*********************
"Threat Focused Shooting" is the future of defensive firearms combat, and those into point-shooting techniques like "QK" and others have been doing it for years and living longer as a result.
evolution, as she will, eventually causes the cream to rise to the top; but up until now, sighting technology hasn't kept pace with the Grand Design, and those of us who prefer to do the "headlong into the breach" thing with eyes wide open had to simply do without.. until now..
to head off a few questions in advance, no, i haven't measured my "split times" nor do i compete; i'm just an average Jane who enjoys shooting and keeps some guns around for defense of hearth and home, and below is an account of my first experience with the HexSite. enjoy..
the HexSite (http://www.goshen-hexsite.com) is a ghost-ring design that utilises a hexagon-shaped aperture to draw your eyes to the center, but what makes these sights unique is that your body's own stress reactions under combat conditions have actually been incorporated as part of the design.
since those conditions are hard to duplicate in training, to have confidence in how they'll perform in combat when you've only your range sessions to go by seems to require a certain act of faith in the science behind them, and indeed, the more familiar you are with that science the stronger that faith will be; but if you use them as directed, you can get a hint of the sight picture (and results) you'll see on "D-day" - or should i say "P-day", since Tim says he designed these sights to work "when the piss is running down your leg"..
catching the vision? ok!
i tested them out down at Revere in Ft Lauderdale, a fairly dark indoor range, and did the hardest test i could think of, which was using a black "shoot-n-c" target pasted onto a black silhouette so it was almost impossible to see the front sight against the black background IF you focussed on the front sight, but when i looked at the *target* with both eyes open - my unfocussed lenses letting in more light - and just let the rear ring "hover" over the center of mass, not consciously trying to locate the front sight in the ring, the blurry picture of a barely-detectable blade became visible in the equally-blurry ring - smack-dab in the *middle* of it, somehow, every time.
this is what makes the HexSite so special, because that's just IT - if you TRY to locate the front sight in the dark, it's difficult to see, but if you place your focus where it belongs - and where it WILL be when the chips are down - on the threat - raise your weapon (with proper stance and grip of course) and place the ring over the center of mass, you'll get the clear target/blurry sight picture shown on the website.
but even that isn't so important, as the real action is happening in your subconscious, where your brain is involuntarily placing that front blade at the centerpoint of 3 intersecting lines superimposed over the target by your brain as it divides the hexagon aperture into a perfectly-sliced pie, with the tips of the 6 pieces all pointing to true center, where your eyes - and the sight blade - are irresistibly drawn (a diagram of this effect can be found here: http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm).
so even when you're not "seeing" the sights, you're aligning them and your results should bear that out - mine did.
what your conscious mind is doing through all this is looking at the threat thru the blurry aperture which now has the blade at center - but don't dwell on it too much - it's natural to second-guess it and try to "make sure" by looking at the sight, but that defeats the purpose of the technology and should only be done until you come to trust the sight (think Jedi). i did a "picture check" by focussing on the front sight after i had the gun aimed and sure enough, it was there - but it's not what's trying to kill you so put your attention back where it belongs, hold tight and start pumping lead, grasshopper.. and watch the holes appear real-time!
when i did that i placed 11 out of 15 shots in a 4x6" target at 10 feet in a fairly short time - better than with the "QK" point shooting technique i've been working with for awhile now, which does great first shot but thereafter is kinda clumsy, whereas the HexSite gives you the superior target focus and speed of point shooting combined with the follow-up accuracy of sighted shooting - infact Tim even describes the technology as "sighted point shooting", because it combines the consistent target identification you need in a rapidly-unfolding situation with the effortless acquisition you need to get the job done - even my friend Kevin, a fairly inexperienced shooter, did very well with them after a brief tutorial from me.
the other 4 shots from the magazine were "practice" shots, not misses, 2 of which were "sighted" (looking at front sight), the second 2 target-focussed, and the second 2 actually hit *better*, at which point i began to believe and emptied the rest of the mag without stopping, getting the abovementioned result.
all i can say is i love them, and there wasn't the learning curve i'd feared there would be after using standard sights for years (though pretty much ignoring them for the past 2).
the hardest part for more experienced shooters will be unlearning old sighitng habits - namely, learning to look at the threat not the front sight - something i'd already done with the QK drills, so the transition back to "sighted" shooting was quite natural with the HexSites, since they're more of a refinement of the threat-focussed technique than a departure from it; they might not be for everyone, but for me they're the missing link.
it seems to me that shooters of all skill levels should be very effective with these sights because there really *is* no learning curve - just point and click - and if my friend's performance is typical of novices with them, it seems like almost anyone could shoot them well right away, and with little practice (with the sights that is, you still have to know how to fire a gun).
my verdict? HexSites are the ideal combat sights for novices, pros, cops, call girls, cowboys, card counters and people who cheat at poker.
money well spent.
28
UPDATE: for those in Texas, there is a shop in Corpus Christi called the Sharp Shooter that is carrying the HexSites, and they have a "range gun " that people can shoot there. ask for Danny.
this is a video of the system in action: http://www.youtube.com/v/Y49HGp6igzI, and below are some closeups of my Glock.
pics 1&3 are in the dark, but i had to use flash to make the camera focus, which draws the camera's autofocus (which works similar to the human eye, being drawn to the brightest object in its field) toward the sight instead of the threat. what i was seeing IRL was a little more target, a little less sight, but sight blurry and visible.
pic 2 is in daylight without flash, and you can see how the rear sight blurs when the flash isn't drawing the camera's autofocus toward the sight. note that you can see the detail in the carpet with the front blade clearly superimposed over it (when target is farther away, front sight blurs too, but unfortunately this is impossible to demonstrate with the camera).
love susan
*********************
"Threat Focused Shooting" is the future of defensive firearms combat, and those into point-shooting techniques like "QK" and others have been doing it for years and living longer as a result.
evolution, as she will, eventually causes the cream to rise to the top; but up until now, sighting technology hasn't kept pace with the Grand Design, and those of us who prefer to do the "headlong into the breach" thing with eyes wide open had to simply do without.. until now..
to head off a few questions in advance, no, i haven't measured my "split times" nor do i compete; i'm just an average Jane who enjoys shooting and keeps some guns around for defense of hearth and home, and below is an account of my first experience with the HexSite. enjoy..
the HexSite (http://www.goshen-hexsite.com) is a ghost-ring design that utilises a hexagon-shaped aperture to draw your eyes to the center, but what makes these sights unique is that your body's own stress reactions under combat conditions have actually been incorporated as part of the design.
since those conditions are hard to duplicate in training, to have confidence in how they'll perform in combat when you've only your range sessions to go by seems to require a certain act of faith in the science behind them, and indeed, the more familiar you are with that science the stronger that faith will be; but if you use them as directed, you can get a hint of the sight picture (and results) you'll see on "D-day" - or should i say "P-day", since Tim says he designed these sights to work "when the piss is running down your leg"..
catching the vision? ok!
i tested them out down at Revere in Ft Lauderdale, a fairly dark indoor range, and did the hardest test i could think of, which was using a black "shoot-n-c" target pasted onto a black silhouette so it was almost impossible to see the front sight against the black background IF you focussed on the front sight, but when i looked at the *target* with both eyes open - my unfocussed lenses letting in more light - and just let the rear ring "hover" over the center of mass, not consciously trying to locate the front sight in the ring, the blurry picture of a barely-detectable blade became visible in the equally-blurry ring - smack-dab in the *middle* of it, somehow, every time.
this is what makes the HexSite so special, because that's just IT - if you TRY to locate the front sight in the dark, it's difficult to see, but if you place your focus where it belongs - and where it WILL be when the chips are down - on the threat - raise your weapon (with proper stance and grip of course) and place the ring over the center of mass, you'll get the clear target/blurry sight picture shown on the website.
but even that isn't so important, as the real action is happening in your subconscious, where your brain is involuntarily placing that front blade at the centerpoint of 3 intersecting lines superimposed over the target by your brain as it divides the hexagon aperture into a perfectly-sliced pie, with the tips of the 6 pieces all pointing to true center, where your eyes - and the sight blade - are irresistibly drawn (a diagram of this effect can be found here: http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm).
so even when you're not "seeing" the sights, you're aligning them and your results should bear that out - mine did.
what your conscious mind is doing through all this is looking at the threat thru the blurry aperture which now has the blade at center - but don't dwell on it too much - it's natural to second-guess it and try to "make sure" by looking at the sight, but that defeats the purpose of the technology and should only be done until you come to trust the sight (think Jedi). i did a "picture check" by focussing on the front sight after i had the gun aimed and sure enough, it was there - but it's not what's trying to kill you so put your attention back where it belongs, hold tight and start pumping lead, grasshopper.. and watch the holes appear real-time!
when i did that i placed 11 out of 15 shots in a 4x6" target at 10 feet in a fairly short time - better than with the "QK" point shooting technique i've been working with for awhile now, which does great first shot but thereafter is kinda clumsy, whereas the HexSite gives you the superior target focus and speed of point shooting combined with the follow-up accuracy of sighted shooting - infact Tim even describes the technology as "sighted point shooting", because it combines the consistent target identification you need in a rapidly-unfolding situation with the effortless acquisition you need to get the job done - even my friend Kevin, a fairly inexperienced shooter, did very well with them after a brief tutorial from me.
the other 4 shots from the magazine were "practice" shots, not misses, 2 of which were "sighted" (looking at front sight), the second 2 target-focussed, and the second 2 actually hit *better*, at which point i began to believe and emptied the rest of the mag without stopping, getting the abovementioned result.
all i can say is i love them, and there wasn't the learning curve i'd feared there would be after using standard sights for years (though pretty much ignoring them for the past 2).
the hardest part for more experienced shooters will be unlearning old sighitng habits - namely, learning to look at the threat not the front sight - something i'd already done with the QK drills, so the transition back to "sighted" shooting was quite natural with the HexSites, since they're more of a refinement of the threat-focussed technique than a departure from it; they might not be for everyone, but for me they're the missing link.
it seems to me that shooters of all skill levels should be very effective with these sights because there really *is* no learning curve - just point and click - and if my friend's performance is typical of novices with them, it seems like almost anyone could shoot them well right away, and with little practice (with the sights that is, you still have to know how to fire a gun).
my verdict? HexSites are the ideal combat sights for novices, pros, cops, call girls, cowboys, card counters and people who cheat at poker.
money well spent.
28
UPDATE: for those in Texas, there is a shop in Corpus Christi called the Sharp Shooter that is carrying the HexSites, and they have a "range gun " that people can shoot there. ask for Danny.
this is a video of the system in action: http://www.youtube.com/v/Y49HGp6igzI, and below are some closeups of my Glock.
pics 1&3 are in the dark, but i had to use flash to make the camera focus, which draws the camera's autofocus (which works similar to the human eye, being drawn to the brightest object in its field) toward the sight instead of the threat. what i was seeing IRL was a little more target, a little less sight, but sight blurry and visible.
pic 2 is in daylight without flash, and you can see how the rear sight blurs when the flash isn't drawing the camera's autofocus toward the sight. note that you can see the detail in the carpet with the front blade clearly superimposed over it (when target is farther away, front sight blurs too, but unfortunately this is impossible to demonstrate with the camera).
