ToddG agrees! Just say no to XS Sights.

I tried XS Sights, but for a different reason. I wear glasses. If my glasses got knocked off or weren’t on to begin with, could I still see a front sight? I wondered if the Big Dot XS Sights would work for that. Upon receiving them, it was obvious it wouldn’t be visible to myopic me, but I tried them anyway.

The more I used them, the less I liked them. I couldn’t get accurate enough hits. There’s just way too much you have to play and fiddle around with to get the shots to go exactly where you want them. Some say it doesn’t matter: for close-up defensive shooting the accuracy is close enough, “combat-accurate” and will put things center-of-mass no problem. Likely so. But who says your defensive shooting situation is going to provide you with that perfect scenario? I recall while I had the XS Sights sitting in a restaurant, being over 25 yards from the cashier, and thinking to myself “Gosh, if I had to make a shot at that distance, I’m not sure I could do it… the dot would cover the target, and while XS says to use a 6 o’clock hold for that, it’s still too coarse of a sight picture to ensure I’d hit the scumbag and not an innocent.”

Some will say I’m just inept and stupid and XS Sights work great for them.  Awesome. If they are the bees knees for you, by all means continue to use them. For me, they don’t work. For lots of people I come across, they don’t work.

The Dawson Precision sights I use? They work. I can pick them up very quickly (the 0.100″ red fiber front and 0.125″ all black rear are very fast). I can use them to get very precise shots out to long distances, or I can use them to nail rapid fire up close. I can shoot fast, I can shoot slow. I can shoot groups, I can shoot for combat-accuracy. They’re great in competition. It’s like they have all the upside of the XS and none of the downside.

If XS Sights work for you, great. Shoot them in IPSC or IDPA matches. Shoot them in Steel Challenge matches. Take high-speed high-stress training courses at top training schools. Make sure they really do work for you.

… doesn’t mean they have a clue.

From John Farnam:

“A local, uniformed, patrol officer came in to my office last week, complaining of headaches and lower-back pain. She stated that pain was occurring while she was on duty, and mentioned that her duty-belt was uncomfortable.

I began by asking about her duty-pistol. She stated that it was a SIG. When I asked what model, she paused and answered, ‘Why, it’s a Sig/Sauer. Is there another kind?’

I let out a breath and then asked if the weapon’s magazines were single or double-stack, what caliber, how many spare magazines she carried, and where she carried them. I got back a confused look, and then she asked me what ‘double-stack’ meant. In addition, she had no idea what caliber her pistol was, but we determined that both spare magazines were routinely carried on the same side as her pistol.

I asked if she practiced reloading her pistol with magazines carried thus. She indicated that she ‘… couldn’t remember,’ adding ‘I don’t know; I just carry them there.'”

This isn’t to say all police officers are clueless — the above is closer to exception than rule. Consider how many times you’ve encountered professionals that had no clue, be it a mechanic, or a repairman in your home. We’ve all had experiences where someone’s job lead you to believe they were competent, but alas they were not. Why would the profession of police officer be any different? On the same token, I’m sure you’ve encountered people who weren’t professionals at something but performed work far better than any pro you ever met.

When people say “only police and military should have guns”, remember the above quip. Training (education) is important for success in any endeavor in life.

Said it before, say it again: all pistol rounds suck.

What’s fun this time? Someone made a pretty graphic. Via Caleb I find Mike (or I guess it was Mike) cobbled together a nice graphic of Winchester ballistics data. I’ve seen that before… that is, the graphic layout that presents that data I’ve seen before on some website for getting information about the product, but try as I might I can’t find the website right now. I swore it was Winchester’s own site, but I can’t find it. *sigh* Anyway, I just remember the little web-app wasn’t great for doing a lot of comparisons, so I figure Mike (or whomever made the graphic) must have generated all the data then with a little Photoshop skills put it all together. It’s nice to see “the big picture” so to speak.

Bottom line: they all perform about the same. Pick the one that works best for you, that you can handle and shoot quickly and accurately. Generally that’s going to be 9mm, but everyone’s different.