TexasCHLforum.com

lonestarprotect wrote:I would recommend staying away from big dot front sites if you ever do any shooting at distances greater than 10-15 yards. The dot is often times bigger than the target.

This very helpfully points out again what I adverted to above. My comments about the XS Big Dot were in connection with sights for self-defense handguns, not bullseye shooting or plinking or squirrel hunting. I have several fine target handguns for those purposes.

Your target in a case of self-defense is not a piece of paper with a 6" bullseye. It is quite a bit larger, and it may be shooting back. Having said that, it has been shown over and over again that shots fired in self-defense tend to be at relatively close range, where there is simply not time for exacting a precise classic sight picture. With my Big Dot I guarantee that I will hit, for example, a B-27 target set up at a range considered extreme for self-defense.

Handguns are, in my opinion, like so many other tools -- none is perfect for all things. Some are good for some things and not good for others. This should always be kept in the forefront of the mind when selecting, or modifying, any tool.

Elmo

I recently installed XS Big Dot Tritium sights on my favorite carry weapon, a Colt Defender. While, as said above, some may hate 'em, I love 'em. Instinctive sight picture with target acquisition, night and day. Ideal for self-defense. No longer am I tempted to look for the classic sight picture -- a tiny front sight centered in a tiny rear sight -- consuming unavailable milliseconds. When I put the big dot on the target I hit it. Sight picture is much less important at expected self-defense range, of course, than is trigger control.

I had to make many adjustments when transitioning from military and NRA target competition to a realistic attitude toward self-defense shooting -- everything from stance to (horrors!) holding the handgun with two hands. I rate the XS Big Dot as one of the most important transitions I have made. Shooting to stop an assailant and shooting at paper which is not shooting back are two very different things, as all here know, and the tools appropriate to the one may need some adjustment to become tools for the second.

I have fired many, many different handguns, and I have no difficulty rating my Colt Defender affixed with XS Big Dot sights and a CT laser as being hard to beat for self-defense.

Elmo

PS I would suggest that whether or not you need a gunsmith for changing sights is one of those things that just depends. In my case, for example, the original sights on the Defender had Novak cuts fore and aft. Changing them was simple, with little needed other than a vise to hold the slide.