On Pistol Sights...

[buxbandit]

Although I practice regularly, I don't compete. My pistols are strictly for self defense so pie plate accuracy at 10-15 feet is the most I ever expect to need.
Both the front and rear sights on my 365 are bright white for ease and speed of target acquisition.

[Berncly]

If you have no gap, how do you know the sights are aligned?

Gaps do work better for older eyes; 30-40 yrs ago I didn't need no steenking gaps. Something happened since then.

Noah

Rep owed on your first post, really good overview.

My eyes are also not what they used to be, and I need to wear readers to crisp my front sight.
But it occurred to me that in a self defense shoot I will not have time to grab my readers.
So I do my draw/fire drills without them to best simulate my own true fuzzy sight street conditions.
When my eyes get worse and I need glasses all the time I will switch to wearing them when I train.

[buxbandit]

Rep owed on your first post, really good overview.

My eyes are also not what they used to be, and I need to wear readers to crisp my front sight.
But it occurred to me that in a self defense shoot I will not have time to grab my readers.
So I do my draw/fire drills without them to best simulate my own true fuzzy sight street conditions.
When my eyes get worse and I need glasses all the time I will switch to wearing them when I train.

Exactly why I went to large white bright sights. And the paint is available cheap at craft stores.
Cheap being key, so some of the members here can updates their wardrobes.

[cdi]

For bullseye work focus on the front sight, pay attention to making the gap perfect as you apply pressure to the trigger. Use a 6:00 hold so you can easily center the bullseye.
If you try bullseye work by lining up whatever "dot" system you have, precision will not happen.

The various dots, bars, Etc. (obviously) are for faster acquisition at the expense of accuracy. I improved range scores at my agency when I started blacking out the dots on the copper's pistols.
they were trying to line up the dots and completely missing the target at 50 meters.
Many of them didn't know how to employ standard black iron sights or were so sloppy in the sight picture they had trouble qualifying.

Blacking out the dots was a start back to fundamentals. Scores much improved after that. Really good accuracy and speed work can be done with plain black iron sights with a gap if you practice.

[Walleye Hunter]

If you have no gap, how do you know the sights are aligned?

Gaps do work better for older eyes; 30-40 yrs ago I didn't need no steenking gaps. Something happened since then.

Noah

If there is no gap and the sights are misaligned a gap would appear on one side.

[abner13]

If there is no gap and the sights are misaligned a gap would appear on one side.

Your eye focus is the same as everyone else?

[Walleye Hunter]

Your eye focus is the same as everyone else?

I doubt that but you are losing me. Hold your hands out in front of your face, one extended much farther than the other and place one finger on the extended hand between two fingers on the closer hand and close the two fingers until they leave no gap for the front finger, like sights on a gun. Then move either your head or the single finger to one side or the other and you will see a gap appear on one side of that finger, indicating that they are not lined up.

[cdi]

If no gap worked well (it doesn't) we would have been using it for the last 200 years or so.
I have experimented with custom width front sights before, mostly narrowing .140s or 125s for customers but on occasion using wide fronts to close in the gap.

It is too difficult for your eye to pick up a slight sliver of light in a front site too wide.
It's even too slow for the NRA bullseye game.

[Sgt.K]

I doubt that but you are losing me. Hold your hands out in front of your face, one extended much farther than the other and place one finger on the extended hand between two fingers on the closer hand and close the two fingers until they leave no gap for the front finger, like sights on a gun. Then move either your head or the single finger to one side or the other and you will see a gap appear on one side of that finger, indicating that they are not lined up.

Now, without moving your hands, add a 2nd finger to the front sight post. See how far out of alignment you can get before you see a gap. This is what some folks are suggesting as a problem.

If *your* sights on *your* gun line up perfectly with no gap *only* when they are perfectly aligned - sure, you'll get a gap if you're off. If someone with shorter arms and a more forward head position shoots your gun, there will be a spread of positions where there is no gap in the sights, potentially from "missing the target left" to "missing the target right"

[Armor90]

I have an observation, something I'm sure all have seen but I question its existence...Why are there gaps between the front post and the uprights on the rear sights? Way back when I was on the rifle team in high school the peep sights were sized to eliminate all white in the front sight when the target was properly acquired. So why aren't pistol sights that way? Why is it left to our perception as to whether the front post is centered or not?

Faster target acquisition.