Heinie Sights Update

I ended up replacing my Heinie Straight 8 sights the other day.  On my G17, the point of impact with these sights was approximately 3" above the point of aim at about 25 yards.  People refer to this point of aim/point of impact relationship as a "six o'clock hold."  Meaning, you aim at the bottom of the black area of the target, and your round impacts in the middle of the black area, hopefully in the middle of the X. 

Below is what a six o'clock hold looks like.  It was popular with bullseye shooters because it allows them to have a crisp point of aim without obstructing the black area with the front sight at all.  I understand that it is also popular with steel shooters because they can place the front sight on the bottom of a steel plate and impact the center.  So it goes.

For me, for a self-defense/competition (IDPA) gun this was unacceptable.  With the height of the Heinie's, my POI would be very close to "on" at 10 yards and under, and of course would start getting higher and higher the farther I moved back toward the 25 yard line.  That meant that during longer-distance courses of fire I had to do some mental math and estimation to adjust my sight picture on the target.  You can see how this would be slow for someone who is already slow at mental math (they don't allow pencils, paper, or a calculator on the playing field).

I did quite a bit of research on what sights would be right for me.  I originally wanted something from Ameriglo, as their list of available options is pretty impressive.  However, their sights mostly mimic the width of the stock Glock sights, and I find those to be way too wide for the precision that is sometimes needed for competition. 

I finally settled on the Dawson Precision fiber optic front sight (height .205) with the matching Dawson Precision plain black serrated rear sight.  The sights installed easily without any fitting or modification (I have this sight pusher - it's great), and I'm happy to report that POA = POI at 25 yards or so. 

Here is the front sight:

In the two IDPA events that I shot with the new sights, I missed a grand total of two -0 zones, and both of those shots I took with my weak hand. 

Finally, since my G17 doubles as both my competition gun and my home defense gun, I feel it's important to talk about why I'm not overly concerned about ditching my tritium sights.  It's simple:  When the G17 is on home defense duty it's wearing a Streamlight TLR3 light, and in the dark, behind the flashlight, I couldn't see the tritium anyway.  They just looked like black target sights.  So I feel like the increase in accuracy and sight tracking potential negates the advantages of tritium, given that the gun wears a reliable weapon light when it's at home.