Glocks are reliable and capable, but they come with a few quirks. Thankfully, many accessories are available to improve performance and ease of operation.
One of the most important upgrades is a trigger. A good trigger will make your gun more accurate and accessible to shoot. It will also save you ammunition.
Getting Started
Glock factory sights are adequate for self-defense. However, if you plan to take your pistol into competition or want better visibility during low-light conditions, upgrading your sights is a non-negotiable upgrade. Luckily, there are plenty of options at almost any price point.
Fundamentals are the key to acquiring and maintaining sight alignment and getting on target. Spend some time working on your stance, grip, and trigger management, and you’ll soon be able to put the lead where you want it at any distance.
Nothing gets you on target for the competition faster than a red dot sight. There are plenty of options for a Glock. Choose one compatible with suppressor height iron sights for the best performance. Also, consider a weapon light to increase your illumination capabilities in dark environments, especially when training.
Sight Picture
While many people don’t see anything wrong with carrying and shooting a Glock as it comes from the factory, upgrading the sights can be a worthy investment. While vanity changes like laser engravings or rear slide plates with sayings or pictures are nice, a new set of sights can improve your gun for competitive shooting, home defense, and low-light situations.
A proper sight picture is essential to accuracy. Physiologically, the shooter’s eyes can only focus on three objects at once (the front sight post, the rear sight, and the target), and they must have all of these elements correctly aligned for a hit to occur.
The best competition Glock sights can enhance accuracy by providing a more transparent, defined sight picture and allowing the shooter to consider mechanical offset. Iron sights have three main types: standard, fiber optic, and night. They can also be broken down further by height (standard or suppressor height, which are taller to allow use over a suppressor), fixed or adjustable, and whether they have a tritium front sight dot.
Trigger Management
While Glocks are great pistols straight out of the box, they can be upgraded for greater functionality and performance. These upgrades can make a Glock more useful in tactical situations like law enforcement duty, home defense, and competition shooting.
Trigger upgrades are a great way to improve a pistol’s overall trigger feel and accuracy. These upgrades reduce trigger pre-travel and over-travel and increase the trigger’s “click” or reset point. These enhancements can be as simple as a trigger shoe or as complex as a new trigger spring, shoe, and connector.
Other upgrade options include night sights for improved visibility, flared magazine well inserts to speed reloads, and ambidextrous slide-stop levers and magazine releases. These features are essential for law enforcement officers in high-stress scenarios.
Sight Alignment
The Glock is one of the most popular pistol platforms with vast aftermarket support in parts, mods, and upgrades. Many of these enhancements revolve around sights. There are standard sight options, fiber optic sights, and night sights, as well as fixed vs. adjustable sight heights.
A key to competitive shooting is having a precise sight picture—a good picture results from aligning the front and rear sights to the target.
A proper sight alignment is having the front sight post, even with the shoulders of the rear sight aperture centered in the aperture’s notch. This allows the shooter to hit where they are aiming accurately.