[robport]

I went to the eye doctor and he told me I had 20/20 vision, but cataracts. I had been wondering why I had so much trouble seeing at night. That made it difficult to line up the normal three dot sights. The dots would sometimes smear into the posts as the light faded.
Anyway, I looked at a bunch of sights online and decided to try the Advantage tactical sights.
I just thought I would throw some comments in on what I've learned so far with them.
The XDm sights didn't budge with a sight pusher, so I took the internet advice and took it to a gunsmith. After building up the vice jaws with leather, he pounded the old ones off with a steel punch. He said brass or plastic wouldn't budge it.
First of all, I tried the yellow insert in the rear, but had to switch to green because it was so bright, I got "artifacts" that made it hard to see the front.
I'm not too sure about the shim material for the front. It doesn't look like it will hold it's thickness after repeated pounding. I adjusted them and they seemed to be right. Now, I need to adjust them again (of course, I admit it may just be the operator). Vertical seems to be much more difficult to reproduce than horizontal. I'll know about the shims, when I try to adjust them again.
They have not even come close to hanging up in my Bladetech holster. It works just fine and there is plenty of clearance.
The rear is very loose in the dovetail. It locks in, but small adjustments are difficult because it's hard to move it, just a little, when you let off on the allen-head screw.


I shot my first match with them on Friday.


First stage was dark stage. With the flashlight in the "cigar" position, it was easy to see the silhouette of the sights for close up targets, but at 7 yards or more, very difficult. I'm buying the firefly front as a result.


With plenty of light, it was very easy to push the sight at the target quickly. Close range was a breeze and much improved for me.
It wasn't hard getting a quick sight picture at all. All my time was spent adjusting the gun vertically because I didn't have to judge the side distance between the front post and each back post. Horizontally, my brain just seemed to lock the sights in...it's hard to explain.


I'm not ready to recommend them yet, but they seem very promising. I'll update after I get more used to it.

 

[danf6975]

here is the yellow firefly in the dark with green back ( for the same reasons that you stated)
just wait till you shoot one handed with them. you will like them even more. i just sent 300 rounds down range all one handed today . left handed still needs work ( trigger pull not sight picture)

 

[robport]

I've just replaced them with fixed fiber optic sights from Dawson.

I generally loved the sight picture of the Advantage Tactical sights, but indoor lighting (not diffuse even lighting, but a group of bright spot lights), the triangle rear pieces throw up visual artifacts that wash out the edges of the front sight. It almost looked as if a ghost image of them extended on and crossed the other side, with fainter ghost images at slightly different angles. It looks like a linear version of streelight starring. This slows down sight alignment for me considerably. I realize that this is a result of my cataracts, and not the sight. This effect was minimized with green rear and red front and was generally non-existant in daylight...but I shoot indoors. I don't have access to any outdoor ranges.

Even so, the front sight is so visible that quick alignment for close targets (10 yards or less), in decent light, was outstanding.

The firefly inserts were a complete bust for me. I didn't get the "long time" I was expecting after hitting them with a light for a few minutes. Generally, hitting them with a 100 lumen light for 10 minutes gave about 30 minutes of useful visibility, which wasn't enough for the dark IDPA stages I bought them for. You aren't allowed to charge up sights, until after the buzzer goes off, so while sitting there waiting to shoot, they went dark. You can't just sneak out to charge them in the middle of a match. In the daylight, they were just washed out and I had to concentrate hard on them to align their edges.

From everyone's discription of the time frame for them, I thought I may have gotten some from a bad batch, but when I asked the factory, they said it's just that my eyes weren't adjusted to the dark enough. Yeah, OK....

The regular fronts, with their distinct black outlines were much, much better for sight alignment, and even in the dark with a flashlight, I could align their outlines well enough.

I've had some people question their legality in IDPA, due to the diffuse way the rules are written.

Disallowed:
"Sights of non-standard configuration (ghost rings, Bo-Mar ribs, etc.)".

I guess you could definitely say this is a "non-standard configuration", but so are a lot of others out there...speed sights, big dots, you could even say fiber optics are non-standard if you want. ...and who knows what "etc" means?

Allowed changes in SSP:
"Sights may be changed to another notch and post type"

This looks notch and post to me, but the capability of a match director to decide makes me uncomfortable about them.

I asked IDPA formally, just haven't gotten an answer.

So generally, I like these sights and if I weren't shooting indoors all the time, probably wouldn't change them. If this gun was for defense, I would definitely keep them. I could probably have special glasses made for them, but I would like to keep my options open.

The Dawson, though not as visible in lower light conditions, provide a little easier to line up and more precise sight picture, with my eyes right now. Since I definitely want to switch to the 5.25 some time in the future, I probably need to try to get used to fiber optics anyway, especially since that's also what I have on my 45.