So you bought your first gun and it’s a Glock 19. You now finally know all about the pain of the infamous "Glock Sight". If you want an upgrade to your current set up and the best Glock sights money can buy, consider some form of night sight or a sight equipped in low light or no light.
The hardest part of shopping for sights is finding them for your gun. Ordering them online is a lot more convenient and you have access to everyone who makes sights. Once you find the best Glock 19 sights you’re ready to take full advantage of the new capabilities of your weapon.
The 4 Best Glock 19 Sights
Glock Sight | Summary |
|---|---|
Best overall | |
Best Glock factory sights and cheap | |
Best Glock sights for competition | |
Best combat Glock sights |
Here are my reviews of each of these:
Trijicon GL01 Bright & Tough Night Sight
Trijicon is a world leader in optics and sights for combat and duty use. These sights are a great example of the best sight design for a combat or duty handgun. They’ll always be glowing, never run out of batteries and never break on you.
These sights have large white dots for daytime use and sealed aluminum lamps that glow 24-7. The tritium window that allows you to see it made of an ultra-tough sapphire crystal that is virtually indestructible and won’t ever let the tritium out but always allow you to see through it.
They’re available in both Novak style sights, and regular bladed sights for a wide variety of handguns and they offer standard and suppressor height sights if you have an optic cut or suppressor. Try and stay away from the suppressor height sights unless you need them because they’re pretty bulky and require a custom holster.
The Novak style sights are easier for carry because they’re shielded from debris and have less sharp edges than the bladed sights but cost more. The blade sights are faster to pick up when you draw but can be a hassle to carry with sharp edges and no protection for the sight picture. Determine what you need your sights to do before you buy.
This makes them a great option for a combat or duty handgun, and equally the best concealed carry Glock sights because of their size and shape. They’re big enough to get a fast sight picture but the construction allows for a smooth draw and little holster wear.
Glock Factory Night Sights
You can never go wrong with factory parts and these Glock night sights are much better than the original sights Glocks come with. They are a standard 3 dot sight with a glow in the dark coating and steel construction.
These are the best sights offered from the Glock factory and they aren’t nearly as bulky as their adjustable sight, or as fragile as their standard U-notch plastic sight. If you prefer factory parts this is the way to go whether, you need night sights or not.
The white 3 dot sights still lack in full daylight but perform well in low light and lack a gain in no light. They need ambient light to make them glow well but 99% will find few times when they’re in complete darkness.
The saving grace of this sight is the price and that you can order them on your pistol from the factory. No need for special tools or a trip to an armorer, just buy your pistol with the sights you need. These sights are on par with the night sights from Sig Sauer and work well within most situations you find yourself and do it while being very cheap.
Meprolight
Having night sights bright enough to actually see is kind of a prerequisite for an effective sight. If you’re older, or like me and have myopic vision, without glasses the front sight can be very hard to see. The Meprolight night sights are a great option because they’re so bright even without glasses you can get a combat effective sight picture.
They won’t make up for bad marksmanship or bad training but the Meprolight night sights have huge fiber optic inserts that make them easy to see no matter what time of day or night it is. With even the slightest amount of light the fiber optics light up and provide a good sight picture.
The picture can be slightly washed out in direct sunlight because of how bright the fiber optics glow but this can be overcome with experience and training with the sights. The sights come only in one height and are made of a high strength polymer. There haven’t been any durability issues with the fiber optics or the sight bodies. These sights are precision and reliable and among the best Glock sights for competition.
XS Express Big Dots
These might be one of the most fought over sights in existence. You either love, or you hate these sights. They have a shallow V-notch rear and a big dot sight. They are designed after express sights used on African dangerous gamer rifles for quick snap shots with hard recoiling guns. These have been named for years as the best Glock night sight for combat handguns.
For concealed carry these sights are awesome, but very much a personal preference. They are extremely fast once you get used to pointing the gun and picking up the sight. It’s very easy to see and focus on the front sight. The proper sight picture looks like a lowercase “I”. All you do is dot the I.
They are a solid steel construction with white outlined tritium vials. The big dot version glows extremely bright, no matter what the conditions are and the white outline is easy to pick up during the day. They come in both suppressor height and standard height.
These are strictly combat sights; they won’t do well for the range or for competition but they’ll shoot minute of bad guy all day long.
Why Night Sights?
Night sights are a must for any defensive firearms, especially pistols like a Glock 19, because your gun needs to be a 24-hour gun. Night sights, particularly sights with tritium, work no matter what. Some “night” sights need to be exposed to light to before they will glow. Those sights aren’t suitable for defensive use.
Most defensive shooting is done in low light so be ready to use your firearm in the event you need it and it’s dark. Night sights are a comparatively cheap upgrades, and with Glocks, a completely necessary upgrade.
How to Choose the Best Glock Sights
Outline what you need your sights to do before you buy it. Concealed carry sights will have a different profile, and a different presentation when you look through them. Decide on what the main use of your handgun will be and choose the best sights for that use.
Night sights are great but make sure you can live with them. A red and green sight presentation is useless if you’re colorblind. A three dot sight with dots too small for you to see it won’t help when you need your pistol.
Making Sure They Fit your Set up
When you choose new sights take into account your current holster set up. Sights come in all shapes and sizes and not every sight will fit through the holster you have right now. If you’re in doubt measure the height of your current sights and then find the height of the new ones. Substantially taller, or sights that take up more real estate on the slide can cause problems.
Night sights Vs Contrast Vs Tritium
Night sights mean a sight that works well in low light or no light. However, not all sights are created equal and just like everything else... you get what you pay for. The technologies that make night sights work are what you need to focus on to determine what you’re getting.
Night sights can be a problem if there’s enough light to identify the target but not enough light to see your sight because if you have contrast night sights they won’t be glowing. Think about being in a parking garage and you’re standing in a shadow and a bad guy is standing underneath a light.
You can see him, but the ambient light is keeping your sights from glowing. This is why tritium is the absolute best material for sights. Tritium is a decaying radioactive material that glows no matter what the ambient light is or how long it has been since it was exposed to light.
Tritium sights are the absolute best option for iron sights and the money spent on them is going to be resources well spent.
In Summary
Choosing the best set of Glock sights means making a few compromises and finding that sweet spot between cost, size, brightness and what you want from your sights. Remember that your sights will always be occluded in some way when you need them most. Be it moving targets, low light, no light, or even too much light.
Get your hands a good set of sights, shoot them until you see them in your dreams and rest easy knowing you bought the best Glock 19 sights for you.
