Last week we received a release regarding the Meprolight FT Bullseye sight. It started thus:

“Meprolight … has revolutionized the traditional pistol front and rear sight system with the MEPRO FT Bullseye. Three new FT Bullseye sights will be available in December 2019; Glock 42/43, SIG Sauer P365 (not SAS version) and the new FT Bullseye sight for the CZ P10.”

Meprolight photo.

Simultaneously, a commentator noted that he’d had those sights for a few years on a GLOCK pistol. They look different, he noted, “but they work. Just take time and lots of repetitions of draw, aim, squeeze to work . . . Anything that’s different takes time.”

Good point. I found the same thing in my on-again/off-again attempt to use red dot sights on pistols. If I had commonality across needs – primary to secondary, auto and revolver – I’d be a lot more inclined to give the RDS a dedicated try. I found the Trijicon SRO to be the most easily acquired and, on the excellent GLOCK 19 Gen 5 MOS, I was really able to make best use of the pistol across the LEOSA course here in my home state.

Going to a red dot sight, such as the Trijicon SRO (above) forced a transition -- though the SRO's "Big Screen" cut the learning time. Many repetitions in presenting the piece are required to clean up old 'training scars,' below.

It’s just a start. Anything you change requires physical application which drives a mental impact. You get more practice in presenting the pistol so you present the dot to your eye which is looking at the point it needs to hit with a bullet. If you’ve shot handguns with iron sights over, say, half a century, you’re probably “rounding some corners” due to the sheer volume of experience. When you move the location of the sight up, you need to rewire the circuit and reprogram the machine.

Changes in hardware drive changes in software.

When I transitioned to GLOCK pistols, it took some education and practice to make its rapid application reflexive. Changing sights to express sights again forced a change.

It’s the same with any non-traditional sight arrangement – like XS Sights. It’s the same with a change in firearms. I’d moved from revolver to semi-auto to DA/SA semi-auto (by occupational mandate) and, finally, to the modern striker-fired pistol (in the form of the GLOCK pistol) – that in the early part of this century.

When I presented that piece, I recognized that the gun was presenting at an up angle, over the target. It was a function of the angle of the grip frame. I acquired, then depleted, three cases of 9mm ammunition over a few months. Every shot I fired was aimed, considered and took time and effort. Some of those rounds were fired in classes I took as a student, some were for the article about the gun and various accoutrements, and some were consumed in the practice of skills I’d been exposed to in classes. Now shooting the GLOCK pistol brand seems to be second nature.

If we’d just do dedicated practice with the gear we already have, perhaps we wouldn’t “round the corners” and get slopping in handling and marksmanship. But, as humans, we lack perfection.

That doesn’t mean we can’t strive for it. And if gizmos get us behind the gun and on the trigger, they’re likely going to be worth the tariff.

If you find they don’t work, perhaps you need to . . .

- - Rich Grassi