The front sight looks like a simple affair, but according to the designer it’s specially machined to collect light at its top and produce a glint under most usable light conditions.

Aside from my own experience with the sight, I’ve spoken to some others who have worked with it.

Sgt. D.J. MacMinn, supervising firearms instructor for Warren Township Police Department in New Jersey, became a proponent of the HexSite system after being introduced to it in 2001. Sgt. MacMinn successfully transitioned his department from traditional sights to the HexSite system over a two-year period beginning in 2003, and he reports a significant increase in the shooting abilities of his officers.

“They were better able to see the target and were better able to make a quicker, more positive target acquisition,” he says.

Currently, the HexSite is undergoing an extensive series of trials with police recruit classes at the San Joaquin Delta College Public Safety Training Center under the auspices of Chief Jared L. Zwickey. According to Chief Zwickey, the results to date have been positive.

Chief Thomas L. Klose of the Sanger, California, police department also became a believer in the HexSite after being introduced to it by Sheehan and having a set installed on his personal pistol. After working with the sights for a short time he was so impressed he ordered sets for every member of his 40-person department. Chief Klose will be preparing a base-line study once the sights are installed and his personnel have had a chance to adjust to the new system.

The sights are available in custom-fitted steel versions, which are installed by Goshen Enterprises, or user-installable production for Glock pistols made of reinforced polymer composite. I recently installed a set of the latter (price, $129) on my .40 caliber Glock 22.

Installation was easy, the sights look great and perform as designed, and the composite material is extremely strong--stronger by far than the polymer factory sights they replaced. According to Sheehan, during torture tests the new polymer sights sustained significant damage only when struck with a hammer.

For the record, while Tim Sheehan and I have become friends over the course of the past few years, neither I nor anyone involved with me has any type of monetary interest in Sheehan’s company or products.

I just want to make more people aware of the HexSite simply because he has developed an exquisitely thought-out and designed combat sight that I believe will assist pistol shooters to better engage threat targets during real-world encounters.

Tim Sheehan has laid his stone in the river. It will be interesting to see what affect the waters of time have on it.