I went with the FO fronts as the solution to 50 year old eyes. It helped a bunch. The bigger and brighter the better for the dot.
After having a set of right eye reading lens - left eye distance lens shooting glasses made up I decided the dot cost too much precision and started going to smaller dots. Then it became apparant the dot was too easy to find and the visual confusion after finding it was a bigger problem than finding the front sight faster. The FO also greatly exagerated the effects of changing light the way I was using it, which was basically the dot on the target with it bottomed in the rear notch and filling it.
Back to iron. Then from a .190 to a .225 height (with appropriate rear sight adjustments) and had an easier time picking up the front sight.
Then I noticed I liked shooting my wifes gun better with a .115 width front. I went to mill my .125 front down to .115 and found it was cocked ~.005". It was effectively a .135" wide sight. Huge difference. Starting with a wide front sight and milling it thinner along the slide axis has its advantages. Too much windage in the rear sight might produce a similar problem.
Sooo, we have thoughts on the width of the front sight, the ratio between the front and rear width, the relative merits of FO and black iron. What are the thoughts on rear sight depth? The Bomars on my wifes gun are half again as deep as the adjustable Novak slot LPAs on mine. It seems this aids pickup on the other axis. I'm also thinking about making up a front sight with the stepped S&W profile, but weighing the few hours to do it against the probability it will just be another element that adds visual confusion.
I think in the end it just comes down to repeating the presentation/reloading/follow through properly until you align the sights smoothly without thinking about it, but not being side tracked or distracted by the hardware while you're developing that skill seems worthwhile.
In other words there are no points to be found in the gun, but there is no point in leaving points in the gun.
Thanks for the great info already provided and any other thoughts on this.
