3 Color night sights for my xd?

[Wired]

I have a similar problem. If I focus on the front sight, I see 2 front sights and the 2 rear sights you're supposed to see, but when I turn my head a few degrees, the ghosting goes away.

[Tripp]

Originally Posted by ThePelican

Ghosting at arms length isn't normal if you ask me.

Maybe. I know that when I do the test I wrote about above (pointing at something on the wall and focusing on the thing on the wall) I see two fingers.

I think I'm going to look into the XS Big Dot system. Instead of having 4 dots to work with, I'll only have 2 vertical lines. It might be a lot easier then.

No one else see two fingers? Hmmm....

[cypress]

I understand what you are saying Tripp. I see the same "ghost" images but have so far been gritting it out trying to train my eyes to focus on the correct set of sights.

I have a couple of vision problems that I think contribute to this. One is I am cross dominant, left handed, right eye dominant. I choose to shoot right handed because I find it easier to naturally bring the sight to target this way than to do a head tilt.

The other problem is I am 49 and wear contacts for nearsightedness. Most people in my situation wear bifocals or reading glasses at this point but I have managed to avoid that because I have developed a condition called monovision. I have sharp near distance vision with my left eye and sharp far distance vision in my right eye. For most purposes this is not bad. Except in shooting, I see the image of th front sight sharper with my left eye than my right. Unfortunately this sharp left eye image is not the one I naturally bring into alignment with the target. So I have had to train myself to concentrate on the fuzzier dominant image and ignore the other.

I'm planning to talk to my optometrist next time around to see if it is possible to reverse the monovision. That way the sharper front sight image will be with my dominant eye.

The other thing I want to try is different colors for my sights. Right now I am using the standard white dots. I read on here awhile back about another older shooter who used tru-glo sight paint to paint his front sight dot safety orange and the rear sight dots safety green. He said this greatly helped his ability to pick up the sights over the white dots.

[ryann]

Originally Posted by Tripp

Open both eyes. Point your finger to an object on a wall. Focus on the object on the wall. Notice how many "fingers" are in your blurred vision. There are probably two. One is a "ghost image" because you have two eyes open.

The same thing happens when looking at the front sight of a pistol with both eyes open. For most people (not all) there will be 4 rear dots.

yeah thats weird, or maybe normal and im weird. [ i was dropped on my head as a baby] but ive never seen a ghost image. maybe it has to do with how your vision is in each eye?

i shoot the same with 1 eye closed or both open, ive never seen 4 rear dots / ghost though

maybe some contacts or glasses will help you???

[Joeywhat]

You could always just paint your current sights. Would certainly cost a lot less money.

[Tally XD]

I just solved your problem!!

Take a sharp stick and poke out one eye! Just kidding.

I really did solve it though.

I took your focus test, first with my finger then with my XD45. You are correct in that there is a ghost image. I have just never noticed it before. It is a natural happening though as your eyes have stereo vision. There is parallex in our vision and ghosting occurs.

Do this for yourself again using your pistol sighted on a focus point.

Once you have this sight picture, alternate closing your eyes, first right, then left. You will notice that the proper sight alignment will occur with the eye that you are primarily focusing with. In other words, your sights align with that dominant eye so you should ignore the ghost image that doesnt align when you alternate your eye closure.

One last point, the correct sight picture will be the one where you have sharpest focus on your front sight post.

[Dogcop]

The problem seems again, you are looking at the wrong sight picture to sight. You don't "line up the dots" when using sights with three dots. You focus on the tip of the front sight, and then you know when your front sight is centerd based upon the "daylight" that is between the front sight and the rear sight notch. When there is even "daylight", your sights are centered. Same thing with adjusting for height. You don't "line up" the 3 dots across, you line up so that the top of the sights are flush across the top.

I would say consult with an Eye Doc as soon as possible. I am right now looking at the sights on my gun and have NO IDEA how you can't tell "which ones are real" from the 'ghost' image. In over 10 years of shooting I have never heard of this problem. Even, as we speak, right now I am focusing on the dots of my sights and have no ghost image or a problem figuring out where my front sight goes. Again, if you FOCUS on the front sight, your eye will want to center the front sight in the rear notch, and will also want to have the dots be an even distance apart. I also always have shot with both eyes open. I don't believe in closing one eye for handgun shooting.

[jblakk]

I just tried with my trijicon sights, and I do see the ghosting. I have 20/15 vision, and never have a problem with my sights. I usualy close one eye, but I can see where you are comming from. With a little bit of practice I think you will be able to "edit" out the ghost image when shooting.

As for changing the Fiber optic part of the TFOs, I don't think you can. I believe that the TFOs use colored Tritium vials, so replaceing your all green TFOs with different colors will result in major prolems. You would start getting color mixing. If this wasnt the case, I think alot of people would have replaced their front sight with red, and not worry about the Red tritium only lasting 8 years.

[Tripp]

Thanks for everyone's help.

I have no problems with sight alignment or sight picture when shooting with one eye closed. I always focus on the front sight and I look for equal amounts of daylight on either side of the front sight and an imaginary line on top.

At the range yesterday, I experimented with shooting with both eyes open and I just couldn't do it easily. Maybe it's from years of shooting with closing one eye. I am cross eyed dominant, so I shoot right handed but look out of my left eye. When I open both eyes, I can't judge the "daylight" between the front sight. I focus on the front sight and see it just fine. Finding the "daylight" is much tougher because there's "ghosted" daylight. It's the only way I can explain it.

Now, with night sights and shooting at night there won't be any daylight to go by, so you have to use the dots....or I would assume. I haven't done any night shooting. Hence the reason for the post. Someone said to try different colored stickers on my stock sights. I think I'll try that out just to see how it goes.

I'm going to look into the XS Big Dot sights. Just dot the "I" and fire. It might be easier when trying to shoot with both eyes open and knowing I don't have to worry about the same amount of daylight on both sides of the front sight going all blurry...because that's what's happening now. All I have to do is pick one of the two ghosted vertical lines and line it up.

Thanks for everyone's replies.

[crpadiem]

Two things Tripp, first, you're probably right that as you've shot with only one eye open for so long it's hard to change, and as anything that is learned and then changed it takes time. Second, and you've probably heard this before, but you might want to try shooting with your other hand. I've seen more people change their shooting hand to their eye dominant hand which would be their weak hand and after the initial training they shoot much better and more naturally. Just a suggestion.