Recently BlueSheepdog obtained a set of Ameriglo Agent night sights to test and review on a former police-issue Glock 22 pistol. The particular sights we acquired come with an orange front sight and green 2-dot rear sight. Ameriglo sights form a familiar 3-dot sighting system that were developed in part to satisfy the requirements for a Federal law enforcement contract (FBI) for special agent handguns. The Ameriglo sighting system offers their unique enlarged front sight, with the benefits of Tritium for quick and sure targeting in low light situations.

Ameriglo is one of America’s leading pistol sights manufacturers, and their unique pistol sight designs have been very popular among shooters. The use of Tritium for weapon sights has been around for a couple of decades now, and has greatly enhanced the ability of shooters to acquire a solid target picture in low light conditions. Ameriglo improves that sighting picture through their unique and enlarged front sight design.

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Ameriglo Agent Night Sights

The Ameriglo Agent night sights are an excellent combination of enhanced sighting picture and top-of-the-line night sighting technology. In the early days of pistol sights, shooters were lucky to have some simple front sight post, and maybe a notch at the rear of the frame. In modern times handgun manufacturers have greatly increased sighting systems, and with the help of technology, have turned into fantastic night sights.

The Agent night sights from Ameriglo incorporate an enlarged front sight post, with a U-notch 2-dot rear sight. Agent front sights are framed in a post-style sight housing, with an angled front edge to help prevent snagging on holsters or clothing during drawing or withdrawing. The front sight housing is precision machined, and finished with a black oxide coating. Finally, the sight housings are oiled to ensure superior corrosion resistance over time and elements. However, it is not the housing that really sets the Ameriglo sights apart from the competition.

Inserted in the front post hosing is one of the most innovative and visible front sights on the pistol market. Front sights have a brightly colored circular edge around a smaller ProGlo Tritium center aiming dot (Model GL852). The Agent sights we selected came with the orange edge and Tritium combination, while there is a green edge and Tritium combination as well. The green edge is like traffic vest “green” with a more yellow appearance than traditional darker green. This combination is superb to draw the shooter’s eyes to the front sight.

Ameriglo Agent rear sights are built around a lower-profile frame with a distinct curved U-notch sighting picture. The curved U-notch is not slightly wider and taller than traditional U-notched rear sights with 90-degree box cuts. Adding to the overall better sight picture, Ameriglo tapers the slot for the U-notch from rear to front, creating a funneling effect for the shooter’s eyes into a more narrow sight picture on the front sight.

The front of the rear sight frame is a 90-degree face with just a slight curvature at the top. This is an excellent design providing ample surface to conduct emergency one-handed reloading drills, while tapering the sharpness of the metal sight frame to avoid unnecessary damage to clothing, holsters, and the shooter’s hands.

The Agent rear sight uses (2) green ProGlo Tritium night sights on either side of the U-notch to finalize the shooter’s sight picture. These rear sights have a clear cover over the Tritium inserts, which have a slight green appearance. The rear Agent Tritium sights are somewhat subtle, and may be less visible than other 2-dot sights that appear more white in color. However, they are plenty visible enough for shooters to acquire a solid sight picture in a very short time. In addition, the rear face of the rear sight housing has horizontal serrations. These serrations are designed to reduce glare and enhance the overall sight picture.

Mounting the Ameriglo Agent Night Sights

EDITOR’S NOTE: Replacing handgun sights is particular to the manufacturer of the handgun you have. Make sure that any work on a firearm is completed only when the firearm has been safely unloaded, double-checked (preferably by another person), and absent of the presence of ammunition in the work area. The Cardinal Rules of Firearm Safety still apply even when working on an unloaded firearm. Follow the handgun and sight manufacturer’s instructions to ensure the work is done safely and properly.

We selected to mount our Ameriglo Agent sights on a retired police Gen 3 Glock 22 (.40 S&W). To accomplish removal of the original Glock sights, and mounting of the new Ameriglo Agent sights, we needed two tools:

1. Glock front sight tool
2. Glock rear sight tool.

The Glock front sight tool can be picked up rather inexpensively from a number of vendors, and there are several options. We purchased the Fixxxer Glock front sight tool and have been very happy with our selection. Glock used to have the patent on their rear-sight tool, making the acquisition rather expensive. However, there are now several manufacturer’s making a viable Glock rear-sight tool.

The Gen 3 Glock 22 had the old pressed-style front sight, where a metal base insert is slid into the sight slot on the pistol frame and then hammered outward to lock the sight in place. To remove a sight like this requires a little finesse. Though there is a “release” notch inside of the base insert, designed to be hammered to cause the expanded edges to draw back towards center, we found this process to be more brute force than simple mechanics.

Regardless, we were able to knock out the front sight in due time. We recommend cleaning the sight notch area before mounting the new sight. We accomplished this with some Q-tips and a little Frog Lube gun oil (use the liquid and not the paste). Make sure to only leave a light oil coating, or you may face some difficulties mounting the Ameriglo front sight that uses a screw-in hex bolt design.

After cleaning the notch we prepared the Ameriglo Agent front sight for mounting. Now it gets a little tricky. The mounting bolt is quite small so be very careful. We recommend placing the hex bolt into the Glock front sight tool with the threads facing upward. Do this first before adding any Loc-Tite thread locker, or you’ll find it a messy struggle to get the bolt properly into the Glock tool.

It is so much easier with the hex bolt already in the Glock front sight tool, rather than trying to place the hex bolt into the sight slot and then trying to fit the Glock tool around the hex bolt edges. However, as the video above shows, you can place the hex bolt into the front sight slot, and then add Loc-Tite to the Glock front sight tool before beginning to tighten. Gravity and fluid dynamics will cause some of the Loc-Tite to envelope the hex bolt from the vertically positioned front sight tool, ensuring the advantages of the Loc-Tite are realized.

We recommend using a little blue 242 Loc-Tite thread locker to ensure the sight stays in place during shooting. Though the front sight is a screw bolt design, enough pressure from shooting could cause the bolt to work itself free without some Loc-Tite.

Now place the Agent front sight into the slot on the pistol slide, ensuring the bright orange ring and Tritium dot are facing back towards the rear of the pistol. Hold the sight in place with your finger, and turn the slide 90-degrees to the side. Don’t turn the slide completely upside down, otherwise when you try to bring the Glock front sight tool and hex bolt in for mounting the hex bolt will simply fall out of the Glock tool – gravity you know.

Now place the exposed threads of the hex bolt into the slot on the sight and screw in until tight. Do not over tighten the bolt, as you’ll only end up stripping the edges. Once resistance is encountered, simply tighten about a quarter turn, and let the Loc-Tite do its job to ensure the sight stays in place.

To remove the rear sight, place the slide into the Glock rear sight tool and tighten the screws so the slide will not move. Ensure the removal piece is lined up with the rear sight slot. Then simply turn the handle of the Glock rear sight tool until the rear sight is removed from its dove-tailed slot. Again, clean the sight slot with some Q-tips and gun oil.

Next, take the Ameriglo Agent rear sight, and align it to the slide slot. Make sure the Tritium dots are facing backwards towards the shooter’s face. Then turn the handle of the Glock rear sight tool in the opposite direction to insert the Ameriglo rear sight into place. You should not need any Loc-Tite for the rear sight, as the dovetail design provides ample tension.

The exact position of the rear sight is dependent upon each shooter. For the most part, a perfectly centered rear sight is the best choice, but I’ve seen some shooters with a rear sight aligned all the way to the right or left and it works just fine for their shooting style and how they align their sights.

Ameriglo Agent Sights Shooting Performance

Picking up a solid sight picture with the Ameriglo Agent sights is amazingly easy and confident.  During daylight conditions the bright orange (almost like hunter orange) front sight outline draws the shooter’s eyes quickly to the sight. The slightly larger front dot, with its bright orange circular ring allows the shooter to quickly bring their handgun on target. We were able to obtain the front sight on target remarkably fast.

The unique U-notch rear sight provides ample space for the shooter to align the front sight in the opening, but is not so large to prevent an accurate sighting system. The rear 2-dot Tritium sights finalize the shooter’s sight picture with the traditional 3-dot alignment. The Agent sights provide a very confident aiming system for accurate shooting.

While shooting with the Ameriglo Agent sights we were very pleased with the results. Whether we were shooting paper or steel targets, the bright orange ring on the front sight brought our eyes on target incredibly fast. The larger front sight made target acquisition so much easier than other 3-dot sights where each dot is the same size. Once on target, the bright orange front sight ring gave similar confidence to the shooter as when aiming with a red dot sighting system.

Shooting standard silhouette targets was a dream. The enlarged orange/Tritium front sight was ideal for fast target acquisition, and confident shot placement in vital areas. Instead of fighting to align same-sized dots, and sometimes mistaking a rear dot for the front dot, the larger Agent front sight quickly brought the sights into alignment with absolute front sight confidence. Shot placement was very good at various ranges. However, we did note the further the distance to the target, the larger front sight tended to obscure more of the target and could cause shooter’s less confidence their shot placement would be effective. This is where establishing and maintaining shooting fundamentals is key to success.

Before I go further I want to emphasize the Ameriglo front sight post is a standard sized post. It’s not like the post itself is much larger or wider than other posts. The obscuring I am talking about is the aiming point from that front sight post. In traditional same-size 3-dot sights, the front dot is smaller than the Ameriglo Agent front sight. When sighting in, the human eye will be drawn to the brightest, most contrasting part of the sights. The darker parts of the sight housings will become blurry and almost disappear. Thus, the traditional front sight appears smaller on target giving the impression of a larger sight picture. The Ameriglo front sight, with its bright orange (or yellow/green) ring, appears larger, and therefore provides the shooter a slightly smaller overall sight picture.

Shooting Steel with Ameriglo Agent Sights

The larger Agent front sight also created an issue while we were shooting small steel popper targets. I want to emphasize this “drawback” was minor, but definitely something worth noting for our readers. When we were shooting steel we were using an Action Target PT Dueling Tree Stand, with 6-inch paddles, set at a distance of about 10 yards.

During standard accuracy drills we were having no problems acquiring the targets and sending them flying to the other side. In fact, I would say my confidence in shooting faster was actually improved with the Ameriglo Agent enlarged orange/Tritium front sight. I would attribute this to not micro-analyzing sight picture that can happen with same-sized sights. I simply put that front sight on target and in the U-notch and fired away.

But hey, when you have a dueling tree stand you have to duel, right! Under time constraints shooting against another shooter, the larger orange/Tritium front sight could almost become a distraction simply due to the larger size of the sight in contrast to the smaller size of the 6-inch steel target. In other words, the larger Ameriglo Agent front sight will cover nearly 40-50% of the 6-inch steel popper at 10 yards. With that much of the target obscured, a shooter has to be on their A-game to make sure all the fundamental shooting techniques are in place, and accurate contact is made during the stress of a competition. Think, “aim small miss small.”

If you’re having any concerns about the Ameriglo Agent front sight you should stop right here. Despite seeing slightly less of the target with the larger Agent sighting picture as compared to traditional same-size 3-dot sighting systems, I was able to win a competition against several other shooters on the Action Target PT Dueling Tree. I found myself really dialing in my shooting stance, platform, sight picture, and trigger control (things we should be doing anyway but sometimes sluff with smaller sights).

The results were I had much fewer misses, and my shots were very accurate. Misses came from trying to go too fast, and moving sight picture (and pistol) to the next popper before actually hitting the popper I had been targeting. This is a common error in competition shooting, and something I fully witnessed from the other shooters in the competition who were using traditional same-sized 3-dot sights.

Dialing in all the fundamentals should be standard, but we all know this can fly out the window in a competition. However, the bigger Ameriglo Agent front sight picture was able to overcome the larger obscuring of the target through easier target acquisition and requiring a strong fundamental shooting platform. The orange ring worked like a dream, providing a much clearer targeting sight than those traditional front sights.

In fact, I really believe the larger Agent front sight made me shoot better, because there was less room to aim at the popper requiring me to focus more to keep the front sight from wandering off the small steel popper. Once I learned this adjustment, I was able to swing those poppers with great confidence and success. Smaller traditional front sights may show more of the target, but can fool the shooter into believing they can be quicker with an “area” shot, rather than taking the time for a precise shot.

Add in the equal sized traditional sight dilemma, and the speed of a competition, and a shooter can quickly have sight alignment fall apart and totally miss the target. Whether from failing to find the front dot, mis-aligning the equal sized 3-dots, or rushing to make an “area” hit from the false sense of security from a slightly larger sight picture, traditional 3-dot sights have a distinct disadvantage to the Ameriglo Agent sighting system.

Ameriglo Agent Low-Light Shooting

Our low-light shooting experience was somewhat limited, as we were only able to run through a 50-round qualification course on my Department’s indoor range. The results were mixed. Not because the Ameriglo Agent sights do not perform well in low-light conditions, they do. However, the biggest advantage we found using the Agent sights in daylight was the bright orange aiming ring, which is not present in low-light conditions.

During the low-light shooting the bright orange ring is not illuminated, and disappears leaving only the front Tritium dot as an aiming point. In essence, during low-light engagements, the Ameriglo Agent sights fall back to traditional, same-sized 3-dot sight pictures. The Tritium sights were plenty bright, and targets were able to be acquired without too much difficulty, but the absence of the bright orange ring was noticeably felt. If Ameriglo were to somehow illuminate the orange ring, these sights would dominate in low-light shooting engagements.

The plus side of the low-light conditions was the highly improved visibility of the Tritium dots. During daylight shooting the illumination is overwhelmed by the sunlight (or interior lights if inside). This leaves the Tritium sights as simple, somewhat opaque dots that have just enough clear/green color to provide contrast to the black sight housings. Once the lights go out, however, the Tritium glows bright providing (3) clearly visible dots for aiming.

There was an advantage of the Ameriglo Agent night sights over traditional 3-dot night sights. The large U-notch provides more space to acquire the front sight, and we found the ability to locate the now smaller Tritium front dot much easier than with traditional box-cut rear sights. It might not seem that a small design feature like this would make such a big difference, but the rear U-notch noticeably improved sight acquisition in both daylight and low-light conditions.

Final Thoughts

We first came across the Ameriglo pistol sights at SHOT Show several years ago, and were impressed with their design. However, handling show pistols and actually seeing the results from shooting are two totally different animals. We decided to buy a set of the Ameriglo Agent sights and put them on a retired Glock 22 pistol, whose original Glock night sights were dimming to the point of being useless.

Replacing the old Glock sights with the new Ameriglo Agent sights was relatively easy and accomplished in about 20 minutes. The fit and feel of the Ameriglo sights was top-notch, and the benefits of the orange ring around the front sight were quickly realized.

Shooting silhouette and steel targets did take some sighting adjustments when compared to standard, equal-sized 3-dot sights. However, this adjustment could be made in a magazine or two with the benefits of the Ameriglo design quickly making their mark. Daylight shooting will see the greatest change in benefits, as the orange ring dramatically draws the shooter’s eye quickly to the front post for target acquisition and sight alignment. However, the bright Tritium 3-dot sights are very beneficial for low-light shooting, with the U-notch providing a greater sight picture over traditional box cut sights.

Overall we were very impressed with the Ameriglo Agent sights, and would highly recommend these unique sights to any shooter. Whether you simply want a better target sight on your pistol, or are looking for a significant improvement in sights for self-defense or on-duty work, the Ameriglo Agent night sights are a great option to consider. We obtained our Ameriglo Agent sights from Brownell’s, but there are other distributors as well. Surprisingly, the combination set does not appear on Ameriglo’s website.