Despite the traditional negative connotation of the number 13, Haley Strategic Partners (HSP) seems to have hit gold with their newest product, the TH1RTE3N night sights intended for Glock semi-auto pistols. For those of you not familiar with Travis Haley or HSP, let me give you a quick break down of what you need to know. This company, founded by world famous firearms trainer, Travis Haley, has a great reputation of teaching LEO, Military and civilians how to be thinkers before shooters. Their goal in helping people understand how their body reacts to situations and how to fully take advantage of their biomechanics is amazing! This thought process is very evident in all the range of products Haley Strategic Partners offers for sale to the shooting community. In every product thus far we have tested over the past year or more, it’s evident they are designed from “in the field” knowledge and not just by board room commandos.
After a brief conversation with Travis in the weeks before leaving for Las Vegas to meet up at SHOT SHOW, we had discussed the release of his company’s new sights for the Glock series of handguns. Travis decided to have a set sent to install on the most important firearm I own, my Gen 4 Glock 19. Why, you may ask, is this most important firearm I own? The answer is simple; I carry this compact 9mm pistol as my daily concealed carry weapon. This firearm will be what may help defend my life and the lives of others while out and about during my daily course of life.
Designed for the world’s most popular LEO and civilian semi-auto pistol on earth, the TH1RTE3N provides several much needed improvements over the factory offering. From the ground up, this new sight set is designed for folks like me, who carry a legally concealed Glock every day in an inside the waistband holster. Made from heat treated 416 stainless steel which have then been precision CNC machined and finally finished in Black Oxide, these sights are built to withstand the rigors and stress placed on a concealed carry firearm. Let’s take a quick look at what sets the TH1RTE3N model of HSP night sights apart from the rest of the crowd.
Starting with the installation, it only took approximately 10 minutes to remove the factory sights and place the new HSP set up using my trusty sight pusher and front sight tool from Glock. Looking at the rear blacked out sight, you will notice a forward slant to this. The intent is to serve two main purposes, first in allowing for a “snag-free” surface to interface with clothing during the draw stroke. The second purpose is to give a clean and “easy to hook” surface for the rear sight when performing a one handed magazine change and the shooter needs to rake the sight onto a belt edge or boot heel to charge the pistol. It’s amazing how well just a simple angle change in a rear sight can make a difference in quickly getting the pistol back into the fight.
While HSP does offer a rear dual Tritium insert version of this rear sight, the blacked out version sent for field testing proved to be much faster in acquiring the Tritium insert set within the front sight due to lack of dot confusion. The deep “U” shape rear sight captures the front sight quickly and offers a wide enough field of view, in part to the narrow front sight blade, in order to see the target clearer and more completely on each side during sight alignment. When shooting from the draw at “bar room speed” as my old Sergeant would say on the range, my time on target seemed to be noticeably faster than when using the factory 3 dot night sights provided by Glock.
During low light drills, the Tritium insert on the front sight wasn’t overly bright as some of the leading brands, which allowed me to be faster in acquiring my sight picture and sight alignment on target. By being able to see more of the target left and right of the front sight, there is a better chance of being able to confirm your target and keep an eye on its actions prior to and after shooting. The science behind these sights is well thought out and clearly explained on the HSP website.
According to HSP, the idea behind these sights is as follows:
“The HSP TH1RTE3N Glock Handgun sights were designed based around the science of how the human eye acquires sight alignment and sight picture under precision or stress sight picture situations. Handgun sights are installed on a handgun to add more precision; this is what the HSP13 were designed around. Under “critical stress” shooting, we know that the Body Alarm Response (BAR) instantly takes control and increases the blood flow to the center field of vision. This in return increases your visual efficiency on the threat. During this immediate process, it is very difficult to focus on anything other than the threat. Your eyes observe, your brain orients, and you then decide on an action to take. During this immediate BAR response process, you will look through your sights with your focal plane fixed on the target due to it being a positive and natural human defense mechanism. With this theory in mind, the widths of the front sight or rear sight notch are irrelevant. The idea that your front sight and or rear notch need to be large for faster target acquisition is misguided, according to current research by visual experts. However, precision sight picture does matter when the information continues to the higher cognitive portion of the brain during situations where a decision has consciously been made to use a higher level of precision for hostage taker or long-range shots for example. In this case, the HSP 13 sights are designed with a .125 front width sight and a .125 rear sight notch. This will refine the sight picture during the trigger press, decreasing human error and increasing hit probability on a precision target.”
Regardless of whether you are into the exact science of “why” they work or the conclusions arrived from our field test on “how well they work”, I can say the HSP TH1RTE3N night sights are very fairly priced at $99 and DO IN FACT work well. I can honestly state, I have used other more traditional sight sets that cost much more money with far less pleasing results over the course of the last 15 years of on and off duty carry. When it comes to my life and the lives of others, I want the very best. These HSP sights have proven over the past month of religiously carrying my Glock 19 during field testing that I can trust my lucky TH1RTE3N sights to do their job when the time comes!
Source: http://www.thegearlocker.net/2016/01/hsp-lucky-th1rte3n-glock-sight/
