I'm looking for some suggestions for sights for my Glocks. The department where I'm a training officer mandates Glock 17 or 19 as a duty weapon which we have to supply ourselves. Since I'm an instructor who sometimes has to supply handguns to students, I have several of each model, so that's not a problem.

I have mostly stock Glock fixed sights on my Glocks and shoot well with them, but I would prefer something better. I have used an inexpensive set of TruGlo fiber optic sights on one of my 17's and really like them, but I would not use them for a duty weapon for two reasons. One, they are just not very durable and two, I prefer something with more of a "hook" design that will allow racking the slide one handed. Reason #2 is why I don't want to go the Tritium Fiber Optic sights.

I tried a set of Ashley Big Dot sights and HATED them. Mostly because of the shallow "V" rear sight. I have a set of Trijicon HD sights I'm working with now. They are better than the Big Dot sights, but just don't offer the level of accuracy I want out of handgun sights. I compete at steel plate and IDPA matches with my duty weapons and want more accuracy than the HD's offer.

Again, I really like fiber optic sights, but are there any out there which have a rear sight which works well for racking the slide one handed?

Tritium sights are a bonus but not necessary. What sights do you suggest?

ameriglo pro I dots
$88 shipped from optics planet

Idots. Call ameriglo and ask for Sandy and you can get the l.e. discount.

I bought the I-Dots from these guys, they are a site paying dealer. $73 shipped

I-Dots

If you're wanting better accuracy, I would go with sights that have a narrower rear notch or wider front.  

A lot of the new sights on the market are doing the opposite, which doesn't help accuracy. They are like the sight picture on the right here:



I'm currently running a Battlehook rear with a .150 rear notch and an Ameriglo Proglo front in lime green .140 wide.  Looks about like the sight picture in the middle.

Dawson also offers all kinds of front and rear sights in their charger series (ledge rear).

I just bought a set of trijicon tritium suppressor sights for my g17 and it is the only glock ive owened that shoots perfect elevation at 25 yards. Granted holsters might be more difficult to find with optimal sight clearance.

I use the Warren Tactical 2 Dot on all my Glocks and have been very pleased with them. Look indetical to the Ameriglo I-dots.

Heinie Straigh-Eight shelf  (shelf, not slant-pro)
Extra wide rear slot.

I'm a nobody, but I know a few nationally-renowned somebodies and this is what they use/recommend.

Dawson Precision Charger sights. They also offer a 20% LE discount.

Another vote for Warren Tacticals.

And another.

HD's are the best low light sight I've ever used.

Not sure why you can't shoot accurately with them, I've found them to be very easy to shoot accurately due to the nice big front sight.  Its very easy to tell when you have the dead center of it right under what you want to hit.

I can hit accurately enough with them to consistantly and quickly hit an 8" plate at 25 yards. What I don't feel comfortable with is using the HD sights for an accurate hostage-type shot. I'm about 90% confident in the sights, but 90% isn't good enough for me to use them on a duty/carry/home defense pistol.

I'm looking into the different fiber optic sights recommended so far. I'll be ordering something soon to try.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Most police departments and other gov't agencies that use glocks use glock factory night sights or standard trijicons. I'd go with these or some other standard 3 dot night sight with white outlines. As you know, most officers aren't gun guys and don't shoot much outside of dept mandated training. It will help them if they spend what little time they do train if they're using the same sight system they're most likely to encounter if/when they move on to other depts or agencies.

For the average patrol cop, I'd go with Trijicon HDs.  As others have stated the average cop, who isn't into shooting, probably only shoots when someone makes them.  With this having been said, they probably lack basic firearm fundamentals.  Most cops probably don't even know you should focus on the front sight, with the rear sight and the target being blurred.  My personal opinion is that the HDs force the officer to focus on the front sight because of how big the dot is and because the rear sight is 'blacked out'.

Unless working as part of a SWAT team, you shouldn't be worried about hostage-type shots. Studies have shown a majority of police shootings are a few rounds, in a few seconds, from a few feet away in a low-light setting.  From this distance, you don't need precision accuracy.  You should be more concerned with combat accuracy, which the HDs are good for.

When training new cops, use the KISS principle.

Just my 2 cents.

This isn't department wide sight swap. This is for my own personal duty weapons, and I am allowed to use any sights I want to. I'm the training officer for the department, I work helping train members of two other departments and also the agents for two bail bonds companies who has fugitive recovery contracts with 13 states. In my spare time, I instruct basic firearms classes for individuals to obtain their State permits and also instruct non-LE on use of force using scenarios with Airsoft.

Trust me, I know how very little the average officer knows about guns, shooting, and even the basic fundamentals and mechanics of shooting. Thankfully, it's a small department, and I have my Chief's, and the Town Selectboard's support in terms of OT for firearms training and an appropriate ammo budget to get the officers up to speed. His goal is to have the best trained officers around.

I have years of experience instructing both new and highly experienced shooters. I agree that most officers need nothing more than a set of standard 3-dot night sights on their duty weapons. Personally, I prefer to have more than that.

And saying that the average officer doesn't really have to concern themselves with a hostage shot since that's more of a SWAT duty shows that you have never worked for a small town. I've called for backup for assistance with a fight involving 20+ individuals at an apartment complex in the town I used to work for. In that small town, like almost every other small town in the area, we always worked alone and relied on officers from neighboring towns for assistance. Sometimes the State Police could assist, but there were only two Troopers on duty back then covering both the highway and 20+ small towns. The fight occurred after 2300, so most of the towns didn't have an officer on duty, the one town that did had both officers tied up on a domestic and both troopers were 40 minutes away dealing with a car fire on the highway. I just pulled in, slowly, with my lights and siren on, and everyone who could still stand ran, so I just had to call the ambulance for the individuals on the ground, who, of course, didn't see who beat the crap out of them.

So, saying a small town patrol officer doesn't need to concern themselves with a hostage shot couldn't be farther from the truth. Considering our "SWAT" team is the Massachusetts State Police STOP Team, and they had a [b]FOUR HOUR[\B] rally time since their members live and work all across Massachusetts, everyone has to be their own SWAT Team. I haven't dealt with the STOP Team in years, but I've been told they have cut that response time about in half. That's obviously an improvement, but when you are dealing with a bank robbery, active shooter or hostage situation, 2 hours or 4 hours doesn't really matter. Neither of them help. That's why most of the towns in Eastern MA have formed "Law Enforcement Communities" with their own SWAT Teams, namely NEMLEC and SEMLEC SWAT. They were forced to so they could have a team immediately.

Don't take this wrong, I'm not bashing MSP. They do what they can with the budget they have. And I appreciate the Active Shooter training they provide for every town, large or small, in MA.

For a fiber optic "duty" style sight, you absolutely can't beat either 10-8 Performance or Wilson  Combat Vickers Glock sights. Both are fantastic.

Also, to the OP, I shoot USPSA matches and I completely understand your sight evolution process. I myself have made the nearly identical journey. The Trijicon HDs are nice, but they are very large and cover a lot of the target. Especially when shooting steel at speed. I think the most important feature is serrations. Make sure the sights you get have front and rear serrations and a nice bright fiber optic dot and you will love it. Both speed and very practical.

The only fiber optic sight I've personally owned was an inexpensive Tru-Glo non-tritium set. They worked well but after shooting friends' guns with higher quality smaller diameter fiber optics, I'll definitely go that route.

I do have one other sight that my friend made for me on his milling machine. He took a standard plastic Glock front sight, drilled out the white dot and installed a piece of red fiber optic in the hole. It works well for a budget front sight.

He also made a polymer sight assembly that he thought would be faster than standard sights, so he asked me to test it for him. It was an interesting idea, but it was no faster than a set of fiber optic sights and there are no holsters available for it. Adjustment was a bitch, too. He is creative, and some of his products are available form Brownell's. I don't want to mention his products here because I don't want a COC violation.

He designed this after seeing the old "Guttersnipe" sights on the ASP 9mm pistol.

While I'll give him points for trying to be creative, does he not understand the connection between sight radius and accuracy? The longer sight radius is an obvious benefit...

Yes, he's a very experienced competition shooter and instructor, so he does share your vast knowledge of sight radius and accuracy. He simply had an idea and went with it, thinking it may work for a fast combat-type sight. It looks like he wasn't the only one who thought something like this might work, but I didn't like this one, either:

TAS Sight

He has ideas, builds them, and some work out and others are scrapped. This sight was scrapped but other ideas of his are in the Brownell's catalog. If you think anyone has 100% of their ideas be successful, you're wrong. So again, thank you for sharing your knowledge of sight radius and accuracy. I'll make sure he understands it for you.

IMHO, the Trijicon HDs are the best available.
You can also pair a TFO front with something like a 10-8 rear...

-Lee

Truglo TFOs.  Tritium for night-sights, fiber-optic for day-sights.  The best of both worlds, and with big nice bright dots.  IMHO (and this only MY opinion) they are better than Trijicon or Armeriglo.

With that said, Trijicon HDs, AmeriGlo, or any other well-known and respected sight company will do you well.