Archive | Guns

Handgun Sight Review: AmeriGlo I-Dot

By Matt on August 30, 2010 in Guns, Reviews, Tactical Gear

The I-Dot sights are one of the newest offerings from AmeriGlo. Their name comes from their 2 dot design. Instead of lining up 3 dots horizontally like you would with most night sights, you align 2 dots vertically with the I-Dot sights. It’s like dotting an “i”. This design feels fast and intuitive in low light.

Front sight focus is easy with the I-Dot sights. This picture approximates the shooter's point of view (on a Glock 17 RTF2 for reference). Click to enlarge.

Stats

Front sight width: .125″
Rear sight notch: .180″
Price: $74

Front Sight

The I-Dot front sight is a pretty standard front sight. It has a tritium vile insert and a white outline.

The front sight is typical of most night sights. Click to enlarge.

Rear Sight

The I-Dot features an excellent rear sight. The notch is relatively wide (like most AmeriGlo rear sights) at .180″. This makes the front sight faster to pick up but may cost you some precision at longer distances. I find the speed gained is greater than the precision lost. It’s a worth while trade.

The bottom corners of the notch are rounded similar to a u-notch (unlike a true u-notch, the bottom is flat). These rounded corners serve to remove all of the hard edges from the sight picture except the important ones.

The rear sight features a single tritium vile insert that does not have a white outline which makes it appear smaller than the insert in the front sight. Everything about this rear sight is designed to help you focus on the front sight.

The I-Dot rear sight feature a single tritium vile that is not outlined and a wide notch with rounded corners. Click to enlarge.

The rear sight has many of it’s edges melted so it is snag free. However, the leading edge of the rear sight is left squared so that the sight can be used to cycle the slide in an emergency by catching it on a belt, holster, table top, or any other suitable surface. This may be an important feature if you train one handed manipulations.

The I-Dot rear sight has mostly "melted" corners except the leading edge which is intentionally left squared. Click to enlarge.

There is no shortage of options when it comes to excellent handgun sights. The AmeriGlo I-Dots have a slew of features and a price that makes them one of the top choices in a crowded field.

Dawson Precision Glock Sights

By Matt on August 28, 2010 in Guns, Tactical Gear

You usually think of competition sights when you think of Dawson Precision. That may change with the recent announcement of their tritium front sights and Charger rear sights for various handguns. My main interest is with the Glock sights, so they will be the focus of this post.

Tritium Front Sights

The Dawson Precision tritium front sights for Glocks have a lot what you have come to expect from other premium sights. The DP front sights are all .125″ wide and come in a variety of heights. This allows them to work with many of the best rear sights on the market, like Warren Tactical, 10-8, and Heinie.

Click to Enlarge

The most interesting feature is the wide skirt at the base of the sight. Glock sights typically consist of a the sight blade with a short post that drops into a hole in the slide, and a small hex head screw that locks the sight in place. This design could, at least theoretically, be sheared off with a solid hit to the front sight. The wide skirt on the Dawson Precision front sight could help prevent this from happening and since it really doesn’t cost much, if any, more than other similar front sights, you can consider it cheap insurance.

Charger Rear Sights

Many one handed manipulations of a semi-auto handgun revolve around being able to catch the rear sights on a table, belt, holster, or any other suitable surface in order to cycle the slide. The Charger Rear Sights from Dawson Precision are designed to make this task easier. They feature a large, serrated front edge that helps prevent the sight from slipping off the surface being to used to charge the handgun. This useful technique is often difficult or impossible to do with low profile or sloped sights.

The Charger Rear Sight is available in plain black, fiber optic, and tritium versions. It is nice to see Dawson Precision applying some forward thinking to something as simple as a rear sight.

Tips for Low Light Training – Keep Your Light Clean

By Matt on August 27, 2010 in Flashlights, Guns, Tactics and Training

Low light training is absolutely invaluable. You won’t be able to use that light on your rifle or handgun very effectively if you haven’t had effective training.

It is not uncommon during low light training for your weapon light to become coated with a dark gray layer of unburnt powder due to the light’s proximity to the muzzle of the gun. This gradually reduces the effectiveness of your light as it becomes more and more obscured by the sooty build up.

The best way to deal with this build up is to prevent it. Put a drop of whatever gun oil that you have on the lens of the light and smear it around with your thumb until it covers the lens. When the lens starts to darken with unburnt powder, wipe it clean and reapply the oil. The oil will prevent the powder from sticking and will make it easy to wipe clean.

If you have build up that will have to be cleaned from your lens there are two methods that have been suggested to me that work very well. You can use a pencil eraser or some tooth paste on a cotton swab. Both can be used to rub the build up from the lens. I have found that the use of oil on the lens before shooting often precludes the need for any serious clean up after shooting.

Get some low light training and keep your light clean!

Ruger Announces New 6.8SPC Chambering for the SR-556

By Matt on August 26, 2010 in Guns

Ruger announced that the SR-556 will now be available chambered in the excellent 6.8SPC. While I don’t necessarily like everything about the SR-556, I am pleased that a company like Ruger is getting behind the 6.8. Hopefully the cartridge will continue to gain traction.

This should be a pretty exciting development proponents of the 6.8SPC.

Battle Arms Development – Ambidextrous Safety Selector "HYBRID" Lever

By Matt on August 24, 2010 in Guns, Reviews, Tactical Gear

I recently reviewed the BAD-ASS on Jerking the Trigger and I am very impressed with this selector. In fact, I was so impressed that I purchased the new “HYBRID” lever option. The “HYBRID” is one of 5 lever options that are available to users of the BAD-ASS.

The "HYBRID" lever is the perfect weak side lever.

The “HYBRID” lever does everything I hoped it that it would. It is the perfect combination of easy to manipulate and low-profile. The biggest issue with ambi selectors is that the lever can interfere with the trigger finger. This is more than a minor annoyance, it can actually prevent the selector from moving completely off of “Safe”. The “HYBRID” lever is designed to be slim at the end so it can slide under the shooter’s trigger finger while still being large enough on the leading edge to be easy to manipulate.

It works.

Check out the BAD-ASS on Battle Arms Development’s website.

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