My friend Richard Heinie has earned a well-deserved reputation for building great sights for combat handguns. His SlantPro and Straight Eight SlantPro rear sights sit as far back on the pistol's slide as possible, thus lengthening the sight radius just a bit. His rear sight blade is smooth and rounded but stands up just a bit, and some shooters prefer this style because it can be an aid in one-handed cycling of the auto pistol. As I write this, Heinie is customizing another of my Colt Commanders, and when the job is done, you can bet this .45 will be sporting a set of his good sights. Like Novak's sights, Heinie sights are now being offered as options directly from the pistol makers, including Springfield, Rock River Arms, STI, and Taurus.

Some years ago, Ashley Emerson became intrigued with the express sights found on most of the double rifles that are built to deal with dangerous African game. The rear sight has a very shallow V-notch, and the front sight generally has a bold white dot. It's a setup designed for the shooter to quickly get on an African buffalo before that very same buffalo can get in your front pockets. Emerson reasoned that if this combination would work on dangerous-game rifles, it ought to work on fighting pistols. He was exactly right, it did.

Emerson's design is now marketed as the XS Express Sight, and it is available for most popular defensive handguns. Some time ago, I had a set of the XS Express Sights fitted to my .380 Walther PPK, and I opted for the large white-dot front sight with a tritium insert. I've never regretted that move because it's an excellent sight and very quick to get into action.

You may have noticed that as you get older, the front sight begins to look a little fuzzy. Fortunately, sight companies have begun to address this common ailment. Chief among these is TRUGLO, Inc. TRUGLO has been a leader in developing pistol sights using fiber-optic inserts. These colored inserts draw available light and can be a real aid in the return to a nonfuzzy sight picture. Like the the others I've mentioned, these sights are made of steel and are designed to be snag-free. They also come in various combinations of fiber-optic inserts and tritium inserts so that the shooter can design the sight setup that works best for him.

Another solution to the fuzzy-sight problem is to install a rear sight that has a larger opening. Most combat handgun rear sights have a .125-inch rear opening. By installing a rear sight that has a .140- or .156-inch opening, the shooter sees more light on either side of his front sight and can get it on target more quickly.

Just about any good pistolsmith can swap out the sights on your defensive handgun for you, but if you have just a bit of mechanical skill, this may be a job that you are qualified to handle yourself. My advice would be to visit MidwayUSA and Brownells websites. Both companies offer a large assortment of combat-pistol sights, along with the staking tools and sight-drift tools that would be necessary to make the switch. Just be sure to pay close attention, and order the sights that are specific to your handgun. That way, the sights will fit the existing dovetails, and the front sight will be the proper height.

It has been said that all a fighting pistol needs are high-visibility sights, a manageable trigger, and utter reliability. Thanks to modern technology, decent combat sights are just not a problem anymore. Your modern defensive handgun will usually come with decent sights, but if they just don't happen to suit you, they can be swapped out for another set quite easily. It doesn't get much better than that.