Heinie Straight Eight sight questions

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Anybody use them? I'm debating on picking up a set. Anybody running a heinie rear with a fiber optic front?
I have plain black Heinie's on two 1911s with Dawson fiber optic front sights. They provide an excellent sight picture. The downside is there are not many sight options for the Heinie dovetail. If you think you might swap your rear sights for something else in the future, I'd recommend going with a Novak low mount rear dovetail. Everybody and his brother makes sights to fit the Novak cut.
 
I have plain black Heinie's on two 1911s with Dawson fiber optic front sights. They provide an excellent sight picture. The downside is there are not many sight options for the Heinie dovetail. If you think you might swap your rear sights for something else in the future, I'd recommend going with a Novak low mount rear dovetail. Everybody and his brother makes sights to fit the Novak cut.
Isn't a plain black rear just a regular sight? Why a heinie sight without the heinie dot?
 
Point you gun up 45 degrees. Then hold down the cameras shutter button until it locks focus on to the front sight distance, then bring the pistol down and line up the sights.

Rear sight should be a little blurred. Then the only trick is moving in and out to get it to look similar to what you really see at arms length.
 
I don't like the straight eight concept, and I didn't like the execution on the pistol I had that came with them.

On the gun I had with straight eight sights, you needed to hover the front dot an arbitrary distance above the rear. If you let them touch you were kneecapping someone at 7 yards. But, since there were only two dots, there was no reference telling you how big the gap should be. Three dot designs fix that.

Replaced them.
 
I'm over 3 dot sights. At least on the rear. Line up dots, center front, level all 3. If I wasn't concerned about low light shooting I'd just have plain black sights.
 
Never really cared for the Straight Eight sights. Like Ed Ames I had trouble getting the proper height setting while trying to line up the sights. Three dot sights are more useful and quicker to acquire.
 
Tarosean, is that your sight picture? Just center the dot or are you still leveling the top of the front with the top of the rear?


Does anybody use anything besides straight eight or 3 dot?
 
I have plain black Heinie's on two 1911s with Dawson fiber optic front sights. They provide an excellent sight picture. The downside is there are not many sight options for the Heinie dovetail. If you think you might swap your rear sights for something else in the future, I'd recommend going with a Novak low mount rear dovetail. Everybody and his brother makes sights to fit the Novak cut.
I'm pretty sure the SR1911 comes from the factory with Novak 3 dot.
 
The XS big dot sights (top picture) are better than straight eights but I have a similar problem with them. In full light the white outer ring naturally nests in the vee/sits on the rear bar. After dark the inner tritium insert naturally nests in the vee/sits on the rear bar. Depending on the sight radius that can be a significant difference in angle. It is a pet peeve of mine.
 
Straight Eights on my DW VBOB. I'm considering placing them on all my guns. Your eyes go right to the front post and target.
 
I think you'll like it

I've had it on 2 G21s and a GM. Faster than 3 dot;but I am less reliant on rear dot and happier with the notch since. Thinking of doing it again on a Commander; only obstacle is money. I am fond of the Novak black ghost ring rear and a 24/7 Tritium "Big Dot" front. I like 10-8 rears too.
J
 
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Tarosean, is that your sight picture? Just center the dot or are you still leveling the top of the front with the top of the rear?

Yes leveled, with equal daylight between the F/O..

I prefer all black rears or the single dot. 3 dots is to cluttered and slow IMO.
 
On the gun I had with straight eight sights, you needed to hover the front dot an arbitrary distance above the rear. If you let them touch you were kneecapping someone at 7 yards. But, since there were only two dots, there was no reference telling you how big the gap should be. Three dot designs fix that.

Replaced them.

I like mine, but this critique is accurate. It took me probably fifty or sixty rounds to discover that I was shooting way too low at seven yards. The term "8" is kind of a misnomer, really, because it's more like "two dots with a gap between them." I love the simplicity of two dots, but they are hard to master.
 
That pucture....
proper-straight-eight-heinie-sight-alignment.jpeg


It shows the Heine dots as a yaw axis alignment guide, and indicates you use the sight silhouette, not the dots, for pitch alignment.

That's a confirmation of my complaint. In lighting which makes aligning conventional sights difficult, the Heine straight eight leaves you guessing about pitch alignment.

A three dot sight, on the other hand, provides alignment information for yaw, pitch, and roll.
 
The problem of using 3-dot sights is that they are substantially slower to align than just using a front dot...because you are using them for pitch adjustment.

That orientation should be part of your muscle memory from dry practice. When you bring the gun up, your eye should be looking through the rear notch and seeing the front sight. You shouldn't have to consciously look at the rear sight at all
 
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