We introduced the new
Trijicon pistol night sights a few days ago – since then, they've been installed and been out to the range.
To recap, like earlier HD sights these are high visibility with the emphasis on the visible front sight. There are no white circles around the rear tritium elements. The front tritium lamp is inside a large, bright yellow or orange dot – orange on both sets of the samples we received. At close range, put the colored dot over the objective and press the trigger.
One set was for the "standard" size Glock pistols. These I installed on a Gen. 2 Glock 17 – that coincidentally has a nasty trigger. The gun cries out for a detail stripping, cleaning and inspection, but one thing at a time. The gun was in stock and had a set of dim night sights on board.
Using the Wheeler Armorer's Handgun Sight Tool and the Glock Front Sight tool, it was no real chore to get the old sights out and the new sights in.
The other sights set was for the S&W M&P or SD pistols. There happened to be a factory stock SD9VE available and I set to remedy the sights on that slide.
It was quickly apparent that it was going to take some extraordinary means to get the plastic sights out of the slide and I called upon friend, armorer and frequent contributor to the
Ready for Anything Wire contributor Mike Rafferty. Soon, he notified me that he'd used those extraordinary means and that the job was done.
At first glance, the rear sight vials are barely noticeable. The rear sight body is massive and flat at the front. There's a set screw hole in the rear sight on the S&W version. The sight arrived without a set screw. Mike had one and installed it but didn't use thread locker as he feared I'd need to move the sight to adjust windage.
The front sight "ring" on both sets of sights was orange – that was fine by me, but they also offer the front sight with a painted yellow ring around the front tritium vial. The rear sights feature a generous "U" notch. The front sight on the HD-XR line of sights is only .122" wide – giving plenty of daylight on each side of the front sight when gazing through the rear sight notch.
This, they say, is for those requiring a bit more precision. It's also for geezers, a class in which I belong, who require more light just to
see. For a precision pistol sight, I'd think you'd want to regulate the height of that front sight to make the hard point of aim be the top edge of that front sight.
I'm finding more guns from the factory as well as replacement pistol sights require putting the front sight's painted dot or tritium over the point you're trying to strike – putting the top of the front sight
over the target.
"That's all you need for defense," I'm told. For defense, the attacker gets a vote. In your case, he may vote to be more than 20 feet away – or only expose part of his body.
But, let's say you like the action shooting games. Even in that venue, many stages are developed that give you only the head box to shoot at, while the target's "body" is behind "hard cover." Some of those games are featuring stages where the targets are farther.
In either event, you need to know where that gun hits at distance. In the first range trip with HD-XR sights – that was the Glock only, as I didn't have the S&W ready yet – I shot a B21 silhouette from fifty yards. The group was low – and, as I hadn't moved the sight – left but in the scoring area on the target. It was about six inches extreme spread, about the best I can muster these days with anything, but remarkable due to the hard trigger on the test gun.
I was using a neck hold on the silhouette – this put the rounds near a foot low at fifty yards. Trying for hits in the head box from 25 yards – using the "scalp" as the aiming point – put the rounds near the "jugular notch" (suprasternal notch) at the base of the neck.
While I avoid saying I would try such a shot operationally, unless I can do it on the square range I'd avoid trying it on the street. I'm thinking sight makers and gun makers need to reconsider their sights.
As you'd imagine, up close everything was easy. Cover the bull with the dot and let it fly.
On the second trip, I'd adjusted the windage on the Glock and tried the SD9VE. The wind chill was about thirteen degrees and my "convulsive clutch" at the trigger created a "two rounds touching" flyer at thirty feet with the S&W. I was in the black with three rounds and centered for windage. My work on the Glock was likewise confirmed by the target at the same distance. Both guns were "close enough" for hits on the 50-yard IPSC-style steel silhouette with no misses.
I avoid saying that this sight or that sight is my favorite: there are a number of good and well thought out sights out there. I'd say that the Trijicon HD was the sight I most often recommended to people on the job. Now the HD-XR is out and it's very good: as good as the originals.
If you are older, you should give these a look. That thinner front sight does make a difference. Then make sure you know where you need to hold at various ranges.
-- Rich Grassi
