The Pistol is a Tool, Modify it as Such

[tdoom15]

XS big dots are utter junk IMO. Are they marginally quicker under 5 yards? Sure. Are they worthless at 20 yards? You bet. To each his own, but I'd hate to be under pressure during a failure to stop situation at 10 or 15 yards though.

Heinie ledge qwik (wide notch) straight eights with the front sight painted orange is my go to for glocks. Best low light option IMO, nice wide notch for fast sight acquisition and still very capable at 25 plus yards.

I don't have a problem with anything else though, it's actually fairly similar to how mine are set up. Heinie, polished internals, slight grip reduction, aggressive stippling on the front and rear and a much less aggressive stippling on the sides.

 

[96firephoenix]

I seriously thought that glock had been through a housefire.

I'm glad it works for you. My solution would have been to get a gun that fit my hand better... just sayin.

 

[lawrra]

XS big dots are utter junk IMO. Are they marginally quicker under 5 yards? Sure. Are they worthless at 20 yards? You bet. To each his own, but I'd hate to be under pressure during a failure to stop situation at 10 or 15 yards though.

Heinie ledge qwik (wide notch) straight eights with the front sight painted orange is my go to for glocks. Best low light option IMO, nice wide notch for fast sight acquisition and still very capable at 25 plus yards.

I don't have a problem with anything else though, it's actually fairly similar to how mine are set up. Heinie, polished internals, slight grip reduction, aggressive stippling on the front and rear and a much less aggressive stippling on the sides.

Big Dots are capable of accurate hits well beyond 20 yards. Any problems at this distance would be attributed to the shooter. Neurologically, placing a circle in the bottom of a V-shaped notch is more easily and quickly done than aligning a vertical and horizontal plane with standard notch and post sights.

 

[lawrra]

I seriously thought that glock had been through a housefire.

I'm glad it works for you. My solution would have been to get a gun that fit my hand better... just sayin.

The goal wasn't to make the gun fit better, but to create as much friction as possible between the frame and hands, and ease weapon manipulation. I have personally shot Jeff's Glock, and it does not move when firing. With this aggressive stippling there is no need to readjust your firing grip because the gun simply does not move. The unique pattern also serves as an indexing point so you can keep your grip consistent each time you draw just by getting a full firing grip on the gun. With the grip abbreviation, many steps in one handed manipulations are eliminated and replaced with one, putting you back in the fight, faster.

 

[andfc]

Great post! Thanks for sharing, BLOOVMAN. I certainly feel that it's natural to modify your tools when you notice a way they can work better, and I've spent a lot of time changing my G19 in the same spirit. The Glock is a fantastic platform for tweaking and customizing, even (or especially) if you don't like it out of the box. I consider it the opposite of 'perfection' - it's constantly waiting to be improved.

My own modifications don't aesthetically resemble yours, but I've had basically the same goals - more stable grip, better support hand position, faster manipulation, and more usable sighting. I've also made shooting and carrying comfort a priority, especially with regards to the aggressiveness of my stippling - how much of that increased friction REALLY is helping me, and what does it cost in my ability to carry and practice? I've ended up sanding down a lot of my more agressive stippling, as well as doing quite a bit of reshaping to facilitate better hand positioning and comfort. My goal was not only to maximize friction, but to maximize grip stability in a way that I'm willing to carry all day and practice with for hours.

Your post has made me start thinking more about the trigger and magazine baseplates. I don't have any complaints with mine now, but that definitely doesn't mean there isn't plenty of room for improvement. I'm sure you've given many others a lot to think about as well.

 

[Jeremiah]

I'm going to call the xs sights junk as well. A wide rear notch like the 10-8 u notch is doing to be faster. Also your best cOmbat, or competition shooters aren't using them, ever think that might mean something?

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

I am just like you. I will modify expensive equipment to suit my needs. Rather than thinking I am damaging things, I think that I am making them unique. I have a couple of guns that are one of a kind, the only ones like them in the world. With that being said, I believe that I am traumatized by that image.

I believe that function is beauty. But still, that is one ugly gun! I do see the value in all of your mods. At least polish the cut. A little hand file work then buff it on the thigh of your jeans and it will look professional. As far as the "stippling" goes, I am sure that it's effective. I believe that I would of used a triangle file and cut a cross-hatch pattern.

I give you an A+ for the idea And an A+ for the nerve. I am sorry to be critical but I have to give a D for the execution. A Glock can never be pretty... but it didn't need to be any uglier. Next time, hand cut your checkering and I will be right there on your side

 

[BLOOVMAN]

Hey everyone, thank you for your responses! Yes, it is quite possibly the ugliest pistol EVER, and I think I made it that way to emphasize the point. It really doesn't matter what the thing looks like, it just has to work, and work in the greatest amount of scenarios. I will say, however, that I smile when people see it and want to puke.

As far as big dots go, my other instructor and I can hit 1/4 size steel IPSC targets at 100 yards with boring regularity. Pressing the trigger so as not to disrupt your sight picture is really the key. I really don't care at distance what I've got on the pistol, I am more concerned with aggressive threats at close distance. If other sights work better for you, by all means use em. Your gear must work for YOU. The sights mentioned in my article work splendid for me, and are the fastest things I've come across when the other dude is moving.

Hope this post finds y'all well. I hope to see you in a class!

 

[chubbs]

Wow, I'm a glock guy, and you just made the high point seem pretty. People, do not use hacksaws and soldering irons on your glock just because you seen it on youtube

 

[mtgasten]

i stopped reading at the mention of James Yeager, pretty pictures though lol seriously though, thats one ugly lookin glock, but, it does look as though you'll have a firm grip on it no matter what lol nice job!

 

[tdoom15]

I'm not saying you CANT make hits at longer ranges with big dots, but at what cost? Precision and speed. Definitely not worth the compromise to me. If an up close encounter is all you are worried about, then these sights might be fine for you, to each his own, I will certainly not tell anyone how to set up their weapon. But at the ranges where these sights are most effective, fiber optic or orange painted front sights offer 99.9% of the speed with none of the drawback.

From Todd Green:

"XS sights tend to help two kinds of shooters:

Those who don't understand how to use their sights properly ... beginners who are still learning the basics of speed shooting may see a small hike in their performance but at the cost of their marksmanship fundamentals. Since the slow accurate marksmanship fundamentals are a lot more important to master at that stage than speed, it's a bad trade off.
Those whose vision has deteriorated to the point where focusing on a standard front post is no longer possible. For these folks, the best option is to use the smallest XS sight you are comfortable with (small dot if you can, big dot if you must) and a standard rear notch that has been widened to accommodate the wider front sight.


XS sights will let you shoot faster if you don't know how to use your sights properly. This is why you see so many shooters talk about how they used to use them but they don't seem to help anymore or, as matthewdanger put it earlier in the thread, "grow out of them."

Shooting fast while maintaining acceptable accuracy is in large part about understanding what an acceptable sight picture is. For traditional notch and post sights, you have the ability to get a very refined and precise sight alignment ... but it takes time. The trick is learning that you don't have to get that very refined and precise sight alignment to hit your target. Just like you don't have to drive exactly in the center of your lane while on the highway, shooting fast is about knowing how far you can veer without crashing.

Because the XS sights don't lend themselves as well to precision (the sight picture is by its nature "rougher") some folks find an immediate hike in speed ... basically, you can't tell how much you're veering in your lane but you know you're still in your lane.

The problem is that when accuracy is called for, it is harder to achieve. That doesn't mean it's impossible, it's just that you need to work harder and take more time to eek maximum precision out of the XS sights compared to a more traditional notch and post design.

Another seeming benefit of the XS sights is that, as thopkins22 pointed out, it can be easier to track in recoil and generally is easier to pick up. However, there are other options that provide similar results without the compromises ... and with practice you can track the front sight regardless of whether it's a Big Dot, Trijicon, or plain old black post. (<<<---- My insert: painting your front sight or using a fiber optic sight)

Personally, I found that even after taking a month (and a few thousand rounds) of dedicated effort into using the XS sights I was no faster at close wide-open targets and significantly slower at distant or smaller targets. The same "roughness" of the sight picture that may give the sense that you can go faster also translates into much less visual feedback. The result is that you can jerk or pull shots without realizing it. Calling your shots with the XS sights is much harder than with a traditional system."

 

[Sailor]

Wow, I'm a glock guy, and you just made the high point seem pretty. People, do not use hacksaws and soldering irons on your glock just because you seen it on youtube

People do not worry about your tool being pretty, and do not be afraid to change a tool to work better for you.

 

[dom1104]

and oddly, the people that "USE' their pistols the most, have stock guns that look NOTHING like that.

crap.

 

[Jeremiah]

in my experience in shop fabrication, construction, and manufacturing specialty tools are kept in close proximity to the areas they are needed, ( a cut down allen wrench to reach a part on a press is kept with that press) most tools aren't modified, and if they are they are often discarded and replaced after use. Changing the sights, that's no different than adding an extension on a socket, adding grip tape is no different than a cord wrap/grip tape on a hammer or wrench, cutting the grip? thats like chopping down hammer seems silly unless you are trying to make a 19 take 26 mags,

 

[Mackey]

It's kind of weird that after hundreds of years of gun manufacture here in US and around the world, they haven't thought of making a gun that actually worked for the shooter. Those dummies.

 

[Jeremiah]

Big Dots are capable of accurate hits well beyond 20 yards. Any problems at this distance would be attributed to the shooter. Neurologically, placing a circle in the bottom of a V-shaped notch is more easily and quickly done than aligning a vertical and horizontal plane with standard notch and post sights.

I'm going to call this out, using "neurologically" doesn't mean you are correct. it is just as easy to be off center on the "V" as it is to be of center between a notch. Anyone who has ever done the box drill at 7 yards knows trigger control is the most important part of a hit at that range, at 15+ as long as you are placing the front site between the notch you will likely be on target, so long as your trigger control is solid. same goes with vertical alignment , people are tall and quick shots on a person is easy so long as you are in the notch of a rear site, the xs sights I have run on a 1911, and a glock 35 were very hard to be repeatable with in terms the vertical axis.

trijicon HD, hackathorn sights, 10-8 u notch, heine straight 8's are all fast. So are the black rear fiber optic front combination that many competition shooters work with, Smith and wesson M&P pro, CZ shadows, and several other variants of pistols come with.

 

[downzero]

When I see a USPSA Production Grand Master shooter using XS sights, I'll have a use for them. Until then, I'll assume that any mention of them, or "Tactical Response" is just more snake oil BS.

 

[dom1104]

When I see a USPSA Production Grand Master shooter using XS sights, I'll have a use for them. Until then, I'll assume that any mention of them, or "Tactical Response" is just more snake oil BS.

This.

Everyone I have ever shot with / against who was using a big dot was a poor shot at best.