The Right Sights

Winning a gunfight might depend on getting on target quickly

- Brad Fitzpatrick

You can’t take advantage of the horsepower, if you can’t keep the car on the road. It’s no different with handguns. You can’t make the most of a pistol’s firepower if your sights don’t allow you to stay on target.

That point hit home when a friend of mine, a police officer with a passion for cars, grimaced at the balding tires on my truck.

“This is a sophisticated machine,” he said. “It’s built to precise standards and it will last for 100,000 miles or more. But the only part of this machine that contacts the road is the tires. Everything this vehicle does to move you from point A to Point B is translated to the road through your tires. If they don’t work, then the whole machine doesn’t work.”

A handgun is also a machine built to precise standards, but it needs good sights to steer you quickly on target. Sure, you can make shots at very close range without the use of sights, but that limits the functionality of the weapon, one that you are relying upon to defend your life.

The good news is a that there’s a large market in aftermarket sights. Here’s a look at the various sight options available today and what each of these different designs can accomplish for you.

IRON SIGHTS

Iron sights vary from the elaborate to the austere, and at least one company—Charter Arms—is now offering a revolver (the Boomer in .44 Special) without any front sight at all. So, what features matter, what features are superfluous, and—as in the case of the Boomer—are irons even necessary?