XS Sight’ Guide to Suppressor Height Sights for Glock

Failing to hit the target in a defensive situation results not only in reduced effectiveness on target, it also potentially endangers family members or bystanders. Choosing the right sights for your pistol is important to ensuring you hit your target. The right sight is also important to ensuring you have enough speed to get your rounds on target on time to win the fight. Not only that, but the correct sights from XS Sights will also ensure that you can see your sights in any lighting conditions, day or night, indoors or out, in good weather or bad.

This article is going to discuss choosing the right suppressor height sights for your Glock pistol. We’ll talk about what suppressor height sights are and how they benefit you. Next, we’ll discuss when suppressor height sights are most important, how to use them. Finally, we’ll look at some suppressor height sights from XS sights.

Understanding Glock Suppressor Height Sights

Suppressor height sights are exceptionally tall sights. You may have noticed this on some handguns with what appears to be a very, very tall front sight, with a rear sight to match. Aside from the height they are the same as a comparable, standard pistol sight. These sights are called “suppressor height” because they are meant to be used on pistols with an attached sound suppressor.

Suppressors can be 1.5-inches in diameter or more. When screwed onto the barrel of a Glock they can often obscure the sight-picture of standard height sights. There are workarounds for this, but the sights being behind the suppressor is not ideal. Suppressor sights are quite a bit taller than standard sights to get them up above the suppressor and provide proper sight alignment from sights to target.

But that’s not all suppressor height sights are for. Suppressors have certainly become more popular in recent years, but their popularity pales in comparison to that of the pistol-mounted optic. These compact, slide-mounted optics like the Trijicon RMR work similarly to an EOTech or Aimpoint on an AR and can promote both speed and accuracy. They do suffer some significant weak points, though: namely that they are somewhat more fragile than iron sights, and they are battery dependent. They can also fail when the intensity is too low for ambient conditions and the user can’t see the dot at all.

On many guns the red dot replaces the rear sight. On Glocks with an optic cut the optic is in addition to the red dot optic. Due to the height of most optics, however, standard iron sights become invisible behind the body of the optic. Suppressor height sights get the sights up high enough to co-witness through the optic window. If the optic dies – for whatever reason – you have an immediate follow-up option. Some shooters just prefer suppressor height sights to regular sights. They can raise the sight picture up slightly, letting more light into the overall sight picture; you don’t have to have an optic on or be running a can to use suppressor height sights.

XS Sights Suppressor Height Sights for Glock Pistols 

XS Sights is an innovator in pistol sights. From our flagship “Big Dot” sights which are unlike any other sights, to our more traditional, three-dot night-sights that XS Sights has improved upon, XS Sights is also an expert in suppressor height sights for Glock pistols. There is a suppressor height sight from XS Sights for just about all Glock models, to meet every need. Let’s take a look at just a few of the suppressor height options for your Glock pistols.

The DXT Big Dot Night Sight is a completely unique sight designed to give you the fastest possible sight picture, and to work well with those experiencing declining vision. A large, white-dot front sight is paired with a very shallow “V”-notch rear. The rear sight has a vertical tritium line, allowing the user to simply create a “lollipop” to align the sights, night or day. While not quite as precise as other sight pictures, the DXT Big Dot is still capable of impressive accuracy and nothing beats it for speed of target acquisition. The non-enclosed sight alignment of the large front sight and “V” rear sight allow unparalleled situational awareness, as well. It is also available in a standard, non-tritium version; even without a tritium insert the bright-white, Big Dot is visible in most lighting conditions.

The R3D 2.0 Night Sights offer a more traditional, 3-dot sight picture but with some serious upgrades over older 3-dot sights. First, all three dots are tritium for the ultimate in visibility regardless of lighting conditions. The front sight has a large, green or orange, photoluminescent dot for fast acquisition. The front tritium dot is also much larger and brighter than the dots in the rear sight, making it impossible to confuse the two. Unlike fiber optic sights, tritium night sights aren't dependent on any external light source. The R3D 2.0 Night Sight is a fast-acquiring, accurate suppressor-height sight for nearly very Glock pistol in all generations. This lets you put the same sights on your backup G43 as you have on your duty G17 or G34.

XS Sights’ suppressor height sights are rugged and dependable. Made of CNC machined steel, these sights are meant to take a beating, whether gun grappling, racking the slide off the sights, or other hard training. The black nitride finish will keep your sights protected from sweat and adverse weather. XS Sights are also warrantied for 12 years on the original tritium vials. Regardless of which XS suppressor height sight you choose, you can’t go wrong. All are durable, fast, and suitable for low light conditions.

Glock Suppressor Height Sights: Installation & Usage

XS Sights sight installation is a simple and easy. Though we offer written and video instructions, we will share a few tips for success here.

First, some special tools are required. These tools are a sight pusher and a front sight tool. The front sight tool is used to both remove and add the new front sight. While the rear sight tool can be taken off with a hammer and a punch, we strongly recommend the use of a sight pusher to install the new rear sight. Sight pusher tools are easier on the delicate tritium vial allows for more precise alignment of the rear sight. If you don’t want to invest in a sight pusher, a gunsmith can do the job for you in about 10 minutes, and for a reasonable charge.

You will also need some thread locker. Thread locker will ensure a tight, long-lived fitment of the sights, and ensure they don’t loosen over time, we include a tube in with your purchase of sights. An Allen screw is also included for tightening the set screws included on many models of XS Sights. The set screws lock the rear sight in place even further, by providing upward tension against the sight dovetail.

Using XS Sights is intuitive. The R3D 2.0 Night sights are used exactly like traditional sights: by aligning the front sight within the rear notch and achieving “equal height, equal light.” The only difference is, XS sights are better with a high-contrast front sight and tritium vials for low-light and night work. The Big Dot Series of sights are slightly different, but again, are incredibly intuitive. All one has to do is “dot-the-i” by placing the Big Dot atop the vertical line. It takes minimal retraining to get used to these fast-acquiring, high-visibility sights.

XS Sights can be used standalone, or as an adjunct to a red dot optic, where they can serve as a companion or backup. Fast-acquiring sights like these may actually be faster than a red dot optic at close range, say within 10 yards or so. At longer distances – say, 20 yards and out – the optic may offer both a speed and accuracy advantage. And in any case, suppressor height sights are a phenomenal backup for a red dot optic in the event the optic fails and should always be on your gun!

XS Sights – Your Go-to for Suppressor Height Sights for Glock

High quality sights are one of the best accessories you can put on your Glock pistol! The ability to hit a target well enough, fast enough, under any conditions is imperative for a gun upon which you bet your life. If you have a red dot sight, run a suppressor, or have some other need for suppressor height sights, look no further than XS Sights.

To learn more visit our blog loaded with articles just like this one, about sights and sighting systems. Check out our YouTube channel for even more installation tips and tricks.