The Dead Air/KNS Precision Switchsight

Last year out of seemingly nowhere, Dead Air announced a product they developed in conjunction with KNS Precision–Switchsights. Currently only available for Glock pistols, Switchsights allow you to easily swap between standard-height sights and taller suppressor-height sights. You can think of these like flip-up backup iron sights (BUIS) but for your pistol.

So why would you want them? A few reasons, actually. Suppressor height sights sometimes require special holsters in order for the front sight to clear; this is especially true of those running Leupold Delta Point Pro optics on their handguns because they require a taller set than other micro dots.

Holster fit aside, if you're running a red dot on your pistol (come on, it's 2019) suppressor height sights allow for a cowitness with your dot–but they can also clutter your window. Switchsights should be looked as actual backup sights rather than training wheels to find your dot, and the view of your window is a helluva lot less obscured when these are folded down.

The front sight installs fairly normally, though you have to ensure it's square as you torque down so it doesn't become misaligned. The rear sight uses a small set screw (use some thread locker!) to hold it in place, though this also means that adjusting for windage, if you have to do so, is reasonably simple.

As factory standard, these alloy steel sights come with a typical 3-dot sight that should be familiar in either sight plane. However, we're looking for the least busy sight picture as possible so we grabbed a permanent marker and blacked out the dots for when the sight is folded. If you used something like nail polish undoubtedly it would look better.

Bear in mind that these are not night sights, but you can add some photoluminescent paint to the dots if you want to make some hoodrat ones. We didn't bother, as these are strictly backups.

For a while, some of us have been considering ditching irons on red dot'd slides entirely. While that may give some the heebie jeebies, remember that with many red dot failures the irons won't be useful anyway. Dot dies? Sure, no problem. Window cracked? Nope. Window fogged/muddy? Nope. While an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in the form of RainX and Cat Crap, these things can still happen. In the event of failures where you cannot see through the window, you need to be practicing alternative sighting methods anyhow (look forward to a future RECOILweb piece on this).

Instead of ditching the irons entirely, the Switchsights allow us to baby step our way there while still giving us an emergency iron sighting option.

You can visit either KNS Precision or Dead Air to give these a closer look.

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