This turned into a long post, I hope it is off use to someone and can get cleaned up and made a paw or sticky or something. I have been meaning to write a post about iron sight characteristics.
I have been swapping out sights on my 19 somewhat regularly for like 5 years. During that time I was also working at a gun shop and shooting range as well as shooting a fair amount of USPSA and some 3 gun. I got to observe, sell, install, use etc a variety of stuff.
Glock OEM plastic sights: too tight of a sight cut (skinny light bars) very breakable, and too much highlight in the rear.
TruGlo TFO: I have seen lots break and am not impressed with materials or dovetail dimensions after installing a bunch of these. Too much brightness in the rear too.
Heinie straight 8 ledge sights with the quick cut: I think these were a 140 front and a 156 rear. I left these ONLY to get a neon bright front.
Trijicon HD yellows: 144 front 169 rear I do not like U notches now, but the light bar width was ok, but the u notch rear makes the light bars curve to a point at the bottom which I don’t like. bright front and dull rear were good. also, the rear is sharp like a box off razor blades. It will eat holes it your shirts. I don’t care about my skin, but I know people who wear undershirts because of these sights.
Ameriglo Pro-I dots. Straight 8 style tritium like the Heinies. Not sure if I prefer 3 dot (1 dot front 2 dots rear) vs 2 dot (1 front, 1 rear, aligned vertically). .140” wide front and .180” wide rear might be fast, but might also be giving up precision at distance.
Glock OEM Night Sights: 150 front 133 rear. Only sights on the market I could find that has a wider front sight then the notch in the rear. The light bars are so thin, in some like conditions I couldn’t make out the light bars at all. I also hate the equal size white outlines of the tritium in the rear as the front. Not optimal. Also, generally too much attention was drawn to the rear and it was hard to track the front sight in recoil.
Ameriglo CAP orange front .125 with ameriglo operator rear .150” I really like the right angles. Steve Fisher mentioned this in a mod cast. That got me experimenting. I just flash sight picture better with rectangles. I figured if that applies to the cut of the steel, then that could apply to the shape of the highlight in the front, so I got the square fill CAP front.
Skinny front sights. This was a topic in a mod cast or two, and was universally deemed desirable and produced greater accuracy. I don’t really notice it while I'm shooting buy the skinny cap is my first skinny front. I have shot STIs and race guns with skinny fronts and fiber but not slow at distance to see of i get more accuracy. On my first and only try with the skinny .125 ameriglo cap and .150 operator rear on a B8 at 25 I shot a 95, beating my 90 average with the Glock NS. Ammo was different though too.
Light bars ie how much wider the rear sight notch is than the front. Academically i would think a tighter fit would lead to more accuracy and a looser fit would lead to greater speed. That was the case with my 19s with Ameriglo Pro I dots vs Trijcon HDs vs my 17 with Glock NS. that was not the case with my ameriglos on my 17 or my buddy’s gen 5 G26. I am hoping someone with a more definitive answer can chime in here.
What I like and why:
I really like a neon orange front sight and a dull rear. I pick up a bright front sooner in a press out and track better during recoil.
I really prefer tritium front and rear: I don’t prefer fiber optics because we did a fair amount of light off stuff at the indoor range. That usually resulted in more twilight lighting then dark. You could see the targets, but steel or fiber sights were tough. Most folks didn’t bother with lights because you could identify targets and navigate ok. Night sights with tritium front and rear, filled the gap well. My house at night is usually pretty similar lighting. Chuck Haggard had a pretty good story about a OIS posted around here some place crediting a shot being doable because of tritium front and rear. That said I think a lot of the household name well respected folks (whom I respect too) are recommending fiber front black rear like Dawson Precision.
I also really prefer a square notch rear sight and not a U notch. Something about the human eye lining up right angles being quicker than the curve at the bottom of the u notch.
I also prefer a rear sight gap in the ball park of 25k wider then the front, but if someone can show me something else is better i am all ears.
If possible different colors of tritium front and rear but that’s last on the list of priorities.
Poa/poi: I prefer 25 yards poa/poi with the front sight cutting the target in half. That can be hard to get. I am living with a 6:00 hold on a B8 at 25yards right now. I HATE covering the target with the front sight to hit it.
Value of aftermarket sights: Personal I put a pretty huge value on good sights, but it depends on the shooter too. A great shooter can make do with lesser gear and shoot better than average. A poor shooter must overcome human challenges before hardware things will matter.
I will see if I can take a picture of my notes of other sight dimensions and post it here from my phone.