Sight upgrade for competition shooting

[sporter]

So adjustable or fixed?

Adjustable sights will get you killed in the streets.

 

[rhino]

I'll always choose fixed over adjustable when I can.
I've watched enough adjustables fail over the years.

-rvb

i guess I never thought of that since it has never happened to me at a match. I think I just jinxed myself!

I've seen adjustable sights fail twice at matches. Also watched Coach pull his apart at the safe table to bend and reinsert the hinge pin so it would stay in for the rest of the match.

I've killed a lot of adjustable sights over the years. The most common failure has been the hinge pin to which bwframe refers. Hard piano wire seems to last the longest, but it's going to fail sooner or later. The violence of the recoil impulse is going to affect the time frame.

My most notable adjustable sight failure was during a big match at Silver Creek. I can't remember if it was the Kentucky State Match (they were in the Kentucky Section back then) or the Area 5. Anyway, I was shooting a stage with my trusty Kimber .45 and noticed I had my first smokestack ever. When I reached up to sweep it out of the ejection port, it was not there. Then I saw another, and again it was gone by the time I tried to clear it. Then I realized it wasn't smokestacking... the rear sight was flipping up and down during recoil. I finished the stage kinda of point shooting since the rear sight was blocking the front sight much of the time.

Upon examination, the elevation screw sheared-off. I finished the match a 1991A1 Commander I was carrying at the time.

 

[bwframe]

...Upon examination, the elevation screw sheared-off...

One of the failures I witnessed was just this.
Luckily, I had plenty of ammo and Mr. Cooper finished the match sharing my gun.

 

[rhino]

One of the failures I witnessed was just this.
Luckily, I had plenty of ammo and Mr. Cooper finished the match sharing my gun.

That's a failure that makes it tough to continue. Sometimes you don't notice a broken hinge pin until significantly after it happened.

 

[Popacap]

Check out the Trijicon HD sights. They have tritridium night sights both front & back, but the front sight also has luminous either orange or yellow paint around the tritridum front sight insert. Great in day light or after dark. Great sight for carry or competition.

 

[Popacap]

My previous post I meant great for competition being USPSA, 3-GUN or IDPA.

 

[BillD]

I've seen adjustable sights fail twice at matches. Also watched Coach pull his apart at the safe table to bend and reinsert the hinge pin so it would stay in for the rest of the match.

I lost my rear adjustable at a match at Riley this year. Once I figure out where I needed to aim at the head to hit the lower A zone, I did all right.
I've had 3 of them come apart over the years.