Last Updated on April 7, 2021
The 1911 model is one of the top-most handguns currently in service worldwide. Actually, it is an excellent weapon for self-defense, and in some cases offense. Nowadays advanced sidearms are available but due to popularity, it has not been phased out. Of course, you need quality sights for your 1911 pistols.
When you think about maximizing gun performance, probably the best way is attaching a wonderful sight. Like guns, lots of 1911 sights are available in the market. Here, we will review several best 1911 sights for old eyes, and for those who are ready to shoot. Also, you will get detailed buying tips here. So, explore the top-notch 1911 sights!
Comparison Table of Best 1911 Sights
Best 1911 Sights Reviews of 2021
01. Tritium Handgun Glow-in-the-Dark Night Sights for 1911 Pistols
We are starting our review with top-class Tritium handgun glow sights. There are several models, here we’re reviewing 260 front and 450 rear sights. You know, Tritium sight is one of the best 1911 night viewing sights. This handgun sight glow simply from standard white dot sights during the daytime to green dots in the dark.
By buying these Tritium night sights you will get duty-proven square notch rear sight. This is made of tough, CNC-machined steel and maximum protection is ensured by the fortress finish. The snag-resistant designs will fit all standards holsters.
This Truglo sight will allow you a longer sight radius hence bright sight. There is no need for batteries or light exposure. It will offer you a compact design and sturdy construction. You will get 12 years of limited warranty with this product.
Pros:
- Compact and durable design
- Best pick 1911 sight
- Snag-resistant
- Lightweight
- Great warranty period
- Longer sight radius
- No batteries required
Cons:
- Fixed rear sight
- Gunsmith required for accurate setup
02. Tactical Green and Red Dot 1911 Sight – 4 Reticles Reflex Sight
Tactical green and red dot sights are one of the top budget choices of 1911 sights. The reflex dot sight will allow you 4 red or green reticles with 10 different brightness levels. You will enjoy great eye relief and sighting pictures there. This reflex sight will help you to hold zero for longer times, hence you get the most accurate sighting. When you go for 1911 red dot sights, it’s a perfect one.
The tubeless design of the reflex lens will provide you a wide field of view of 15.8m @ 100m. This reflex sight is made of high-quality material. It features lightweight, water-resistant, and shockproof features that will allow you to use it under all climate conditions.
The reticle may be a dot like the ones used for turkey hunting, circle, or cross-type and will allow you 10MOA and 3MOA. You can quickly and easily select the reticle type with the knob. It is convenient to install on 20mm Weaver and Picatinny rail.
Pros:
- Great brightness settings
- Long eye relief
- Best budget 1911 sight
- Durable
- Lightweight
- Weather-resistant
- 4 different reticle options
- Easy to mount and use
- Wide field of view
Cons:
- Don’t hold zero perfectly
- Sometimes reticle setting change may be distracting
- Relatively heavy
03. Meprolight ML19810-Armscor USA/Rock Island Gun 1911 Scopes
Meprolight ML19810 is one of the brightest night sights available today. It is a cool sight for day and night vision. These sights are integrated with both front and rear sights. The Tritium green dot sight will allow you unique low light performance. For this reason, it is used by military and law enforcement. Some experts say this is one of the best 1911 combat sights.
There you will get three consistent, and self-illuminated dots for easy targeting day and night. All Meprolight Tru-Dot sights come with a 12 years usable illumination warranty to the original purchaser. You can easily install this sight without a gunsmith.
The sight design is rugged and made of high-quality materials. This is impact and shot-resistant sight. It perfectly fits with the tactical 1911 models. Actually, this is one of the best sights of 1911 for IDPA. It will help you to increase tactical effectiveness.
Pros:
- Mainly for night sighting
- Great warranty periods
- Durable construction
- Best quality 1911 sight
- Tritium illumination
- Easy to install
- Lightweight
Cons:
- Pricy
- Lack of adjustments
04. Trijicon Night 1911 Sight Sets for Springfield Armory Pistols
Trijicon is a world-renowned industry for manufacturing the most advanced sights and riflescopes for tactical and sporting applications. It is one of the top choice sights by professionals. Trijicon 1911 sights work well in a wide range of lighting conditions including low light. It will allow you fast target acquisition for shooting or self-defense purposes.
You will get self-luminous, three-dot, night sight from this sight. The Tritium-filled glass lamp will provide you superior illumination in low light or no light situations. There you will see an aluminum cylinder that contains and protects the tritium gas-filled lamps from heavy recoil and harsh cleaning solvents.
This Trijicon 1911 sight comes with white rings around the glowing dots for daylight visibility. There are sapphire jewel caps on every Trijicon tritium lamp for distributing the light from the tritium lamp as well as protection from solvents and puncture. This sight fits perfectly for Springfield Armory pistols. The sight is built with legendary durable material.
Pros:
- Durable
- Top-class night sight
- Fast target acquisition
- Sapphire jewel caps on every tritium lamp
- Lightweight
- Tritium illumination
- Snag-proof
Cons:
- Pricy
- Little problem with front tritium lamp
- Required gunsmith for the perfect setup
05. TRUGLO Fiber-Optic Front and Rear Handgun Sights for Kimber 1911 Models
Truglo fiber-optic is a great add-on for Kimber 1911 sights. This is a good sight for daytime shooting. It will provide you top class brightest aiming points. There is a fortress finish coating that will provide you maximum protection. Actually, this is considered one of the best fiber optic sights for 1911.
This is made of tough, CNC machined steel thus ensures durability. The concealed fiber will allow you to hide from the target. This Truglo sight is snag-resistant and fits all standard holsters. You will get the tri-dot aiming system with a single red front dot and 2 green rear dots. The rear sight will feature windage adjustments. You can use this 1911 sight without any batteries.
Pros:
- Perfect for daytime shooting
- Snag-resistant
- Durable
- 3 dot aiming system
- No batteries needed
- Windage adjustments for the rear sight
- Bright light
Cons:
- Fixed sight product
- Risk of fiber optic handling
Buying Guide of Best 1911 Sights
There are several 1911 sights available but all of them are not fit equally to your handguns. Depending upon your field of use you need to choose a perfect sight for your gun. Also, you need to consider the following vital things before buying a 1911 sight.
Types of 1911 Sights
The most common types are discussed here.
Competition and Self-Defense 1911 Sights
According to the intended use, we can categorize 1911 sights as competition sight and self-defense sight.
Competition sights are made to use as a shooting purpose scope. Most adjustable 1911 sights can be used for home and outdoor shooting. This is designed as highly adjustable and easy to use. These sights are advancing over the years. It features more angular with smaller rear blades and finer tolerance during shooting. From the name, it is clear that these sights are largely used by law enforcement personnel.
Self-defense sights are made for general self-defense purposes. This will offer you easy maintain, and greater visibility of the lighting conditions. In most cases, they are rigid and low-key options.
You can use a competition sight for shooting and self-defense purposes, but don’t do that. On the other hand, you can’t use a self-defense sight for competition or bulls-eye shooting.
Front and Rear Sight
Experts classified 1911 sights as front sight or rear sight according to the sight style.
Front sights are semi-ramp style and offer you a good clear picture. In this sight, the face of the blade is angled slightly upward and away from the shooter. The less common front sights may include undercut or full-ramp target sights. The front sight’s face may be smooth or ridged serrations also. The ridged serrations help to reduce glare off, and it’s prescribed day outdoor shooting.
When you intend to pick front sights, you also need to choose from different types such as plain black, tritium, and fiber optics.
Rear sights are those which are attached to the rear side. These may be plain dark, two-spot sights, bars, and box types.
Some Other Sights
Plain Dark is the most fundamental sight which will provide you decent, flawless sight. Don’t carry it for self-defense purposes, otherwise, it may be hazardous for you. This sort of sight may be front sights or rear sights. Plain dark sights are good for target shooting.
Tritium or Night Sights are used to brighten the dots on both front and rear sights. As Tritium is a radioactive isotope, it will glow and allow you for easy shooting in low light or no light conditions.
Fiber Optic Sights are good for your daytime shooting, and mostly worthless at night. Fiber optic three-dot sights are very popular types. These can be called old eyes sights or sights for those who want daytime shooting.
Bars and Boxes will offer you tactical looking sight. But it is not a perfect sight for speed shooting because the visual distractions are very high there. You don’t line up your target under stress situations.
Three-dot Sights are the most common sights for handguns that have a straightforward setup. There is a dot on the front sight post. Additionally, the rear sight consists of two posts that sit perpendicular to the barrel.
Two-dot Sights are the most common rear sights. For speed shooting like Vortex Venom sight, this is a perfect one, but accuracy is not ensured there.
Dovetail Sights are usually used as front sights and rear sights. The most common dovetail types are Kimber, GI, Novak sights, Bomar, LPA/TRT, etc.
White Dot sight adds white dots in the plain black configuration so eyes can better pick up the rear and front sights to create more contrast with the target. They don’t provide extra enhancement in low-light conditions.
Ghost Ring is an aperture sight. Typically, the aperture is found on rifles for backup iron sights. However, they can be used on handguns as well. Ghost rings are bigger in diameter than the pin-hole style. This enhances speed and quick target acquisition.
Red-dot sights are one of the quality reflex sights. Every red sight comes with fixed magnification. It is simpler in design and costs lower than the holographic sights like the quality EOTech clone sight.
Ease of Use and Adjustability of 1911 Sights
Your 1911 sight may be cheap or expensive. But, surely you prefer an easy functioning sight. The best sights come with easy and fast target acquisition. In competition or target shooting, you need more windage and elevation adjustments hence high adjustments sights are a must in this situation. Also, there are some self-defense ones that are easy to install and use.
Type of Reticle Projection
Red dot sights have two different reticle projections either reflex or holographic sight. Reflex sights are widely held for hunting and recreational purposes. This sight reflects an LED behind the screen of the line of sight.
On the other hand, holographic sights are common among law enforcement and the military. A laser diode shines the front lens in this sight. This is a complex design to illuminate the reticle. The great features make this reticle perfect to use for strategic shooting.
Red Dot Reticle Sizes
The size of red dot sight varies from one to another. Which size is perfect for you depends upon the reticle size and space left on your 1911 firearm? Most red dots have varieties of crosshair sizes. But dot may differ from person to person.
Red dot sight size is calculated in MOA (minute of angle). The most frequently used value is ½, 1, and 2 inches at 50, 100, and 200 yards respectively. The 1 MOA is the reliable and smallest dot that provides a large field of view. Most red dots come with 4 MOA that indicates they will cover around 200 yards at 2, 4, and 8 inches. We recommend buying 4 MOA dots.
Sights & Batteries
Red dot sight is battery-powered, so you can’t see anything without a battery. Sometimes cold weather may slow down the battery. Luckily, most red dots have a high-powered battery and the longest life is 10000 hours. To extend the battery life, turn it off when you are not using this.
Reflex Vs Red Dot Vs Holographic Sights
Red dot sight is one type of reflex sight. The red dot uses an illuminated red dot reticle. However, the reticle may be green or crosshair as well.
Red dot sights are much more affordable than holographic sights. Holographic sights provide fast target acquisition than red or reflex sights. While red dots come with 4 to 7 MOA aiming points, holographic sights provide the finest 1 MOA aiming point. Most holographic sights are manufactured by the EOTech except the Vortex.
Durability
Most hunters look for quality construction sights such as the quality Vortex scope. Tritium sights are more durable than fiber optics sight. You also need to check waterproofness and shock resistance while choosing a sight.
Snag-Proof of 1911 Sights
A sharp corner of sight may disturb you during target fixing. But a snag-free sight will prevent your pistol from being snagged on a shirt or concealment garment, slowing the draw. Nowadays, quality 1911 sights come with the snag-resistant feature.
Budget
When the budget is not a problem at all, then you will get the best sights after researching for a while. In this case, you can choose our top products such as Trijicon night sight, Meprolight ML19810. But, if you are a budget constraint man, then you will get good sights in our review under $50 like Tactical green and red dot sight, Truglo fiber-optic, and Tritium handgun glow.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why Choose A Red Dot Sight?
Whenever you need to upgrade the 1911 pistol, the best way is to add red dot sight with it. This definitely speeds target acquisition up as well as improves repetitive shots. Most importantly, you can engage targets without aligning targets.
Traditional sights need lots of practice for long-range target shooting. However, the small MOA red dot sight will extend your range significantly. Adjusting the brightness, red dot sights will perform better in the dark than the night sights.
It’s sometimes difficult to focus on close targets using the front sights, especially for the older shooters. However, anyone can focus on the close target and align the reticle using the red dot sights. Red dots don’t need continuous focus on sights through multiple targets as they don’t shift focus to every target. This is one of the important reasons why red dots are gaining popularity. And this is one of the best 1911 sights for old eyes and beginners simultaneously.
What are the competition sights for 1911?
Competition sights made it easier to shoot fast and straightforward. Most of the best 1911 sights for the competition are highly adjustable. The newer models of 1911 competition sights allow easy and secure handling. They are more angular and provide extended tolerance.
How can I upgrade the 1911 sight?
You can upgrade the 1911 sight following a couple of steps. Adopting a larger sight, you need new holsters. If you plan to upgrade to a bigger sight by yourself, a sight pusher will be handy. Sights can be drifted by hand but the best 1911 sight pusher helps to do it more precisely. However, if you don’t have enough skill in gunsmithing, you may face problems with punch and mallet. In this case, consult with experts.
When you are going to upgrade the factory set sights, the hardest part is to find out the best 1911 sight set. Never take any cheap or gimmicky sight for light-duty use. Make sure, you set up the new sight properly. To understand this, shoot at least a dozen of ammo through your firearm.
What’s the most common choice for rear sight?
The two-dot rear sights are the most popular choice as they can be used easily.
Are adjustable sights for 1911 any good?
Yes, fixed sights provide zeroing to any specific loads. But once you’ve done it, you can’t make any changes there. But a gun with adjustable sight allows zero and re-zero whenever you need.
What is the difference between night sights and fiber optics?
Night sights vs fiber optics is a big dilemma as both of them are used in low light conditions. The main difference is that fiber optics can’t work in total darkness. However the tritium night sights are exceptional.
Conclusion
A perfect sight will make your shooting easy and comfortable. Depending upon your field of use, you need to research well before buying the best 1911 sights. In this article, we’ve tried our level best to provide all the necessary information and top products for you. So, you needn’t go to another place to pick the best quality 1911 sights. Just check our products again and order your suitable ones now!
Kalman is a hunting expert who has a vast experience with wild game hunting. Though night time hunting is his favorite, he masters the art of daytime hunting and shooting. Being a nature lover and outdoor enthusiast, he wants to pass the knowledge acquired over time to the next generation.
