What are the best pistol sights for old eyes? Rob Pincus stresses that you need to have good sights you can use reliably in a defensive situation. That means those sights need to be able to help you put the bullet where you need it to go very efficiently in the context of defensive firearms use.
AGING EYES
As you age, you may experience near-sightedness, far-sightedness, cataracts, poor night vision, or any other number of problems as your eyesight degrades. Rob feels that as his vision has changed as he’s gotten older, it’s been more important than ever to stick to the fundamentals that make a good defensive pistol sight: to have a large front sight post inside a very large rear sight notch.
Rob designed the claw sights with Ameriglo to be exactly that: a big bright front square (not a circle) that sits inside a relatively wide rear notch. That allows you to pick up the front sight cleanly and easily when using self-defense weapons, even if your up-close vision has degraded.
TRADITIONAL SIGHTS
The traditional handgun sights, which were common for decades even on defensive pistols, have a very narrow front sight post and a narrow rear notch. Because this setup gives less tolerance for error and higher potential for precision, it is good for competition and bullseye shooting and law enforcement qualification courses.
But with defensive shooting and its related handgun training, we simply do not need that level of precision. Nine to 15 feet is the range of the majority of defensive shooting situations, and we are aiming at the chest or sometimes the head, so the large square front sight and wide rear notch are the best setup of pistol sights for old eyes, and in fact for any eyes.
OTHER SIGHT OPTIONS
Rob offers his opinions on the large circular front sight sitting in a wedge, and red-dot sights, and explains why these are not his preferred choice for defensive pistols. To sum up, Rob believes the best pistol sights for old eyes for defensive use are the bright front square and wide rear notch, such as the Ameriglo claw sight or other similar sights.
What about for nighttime shooting with very low light? How do you see the rear sight to align properly. You talk about far sighted people with your sights. What about near sighted people? Best option for them?
Hello Michael!
That’s a great question!
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Pistol mounted green dot optics (which are good regardless of lighting) are even better – I use them on my carry guns except for my Sig P232 pocket gun which has stock Sig night sights and I can easily point shoot at defensive distance
What sight system do you use that is a green dot versus the red dot? Red is an irritant to the eye, so green and blue dots are actually better for the eye.