Rear Sight Channel Depth

[Faust9057]

I see a lot of competition sights with very deep rear channels, and some with much shallower rear sight channels.  I think I understand what the pros/cons are of the width of the channel and the width of the front sight; however, I can't find much on how the depth of your rear sight channel affects your shooting.  It seems to me you would want it as reasonably shallow as possible to avoid vertical stringing of shots.

 

What are the pros/cons of deeper or shallower rear sight channel depth?

[Jakobi]

Deep enough to clear the fiber dot on my front sight. Anything after that is extra. You should still be using to top of the sights as your aiming reference points so the depth of the channel really has no other purpose than to let you see more or less of the front sight.

[Faust9057]

So any extra depth beyond allowing your fiber optic to sit on the "shelf" at the bottom of the rear sight is excess and not desirable?

[Jakobi]

That's the minimum I would want because I tend to use the dot as an aiming point. A short channel would cut off part of the bottom of the dot so if I compensated to where I could see the full dot I'd be aiming high. My opinion is that it just boils down to personal preference. Too short and you can't easily see the light between the sides and blade and at some point I'd imagine there's a diminshing return on height.

[Kixx]

If you’re disciplined enough to use the top of the sights for a perfect sight picture in situations where you need one, the deeper or wider rear channel allows for more room to see a “sloppy” sight picture in situations where that’s all you need.

[Harlow]

I really prefer to have a deep rear notch. It definitely helps me track the fiber easier and makes acquiring the front sight from a draw quicker. I had a 1911 with a really shallow rear sight notch and I had a few issues during a match where I recall losing the fiber underneath the notch. Doesn't help that the gun was very much oversprung, but all things equal I still like to have a little extra room to help find the fiber. 

[pskys2]

To me the deeper the notch the easier, and quicker,  it is to gauge the proper centering of the FS.

So I always want the deepest notch possible as long as I have enough FS to fill it completely.

For instance it is easier to square 2 12" bars than a 2" bar against a 12" bar.  

Not an exact comparison as we don't "square" the front sigh to the rear sight, but align the gaps on each side to equal proportion.

[Slalom45]

Bob Vogel is a proponent of a deep (and wide) rear notch. You can read his thoughts on this if you check out the add for his sights. Also talks about it on some you tube videos. 

 

Personally I went from the fairly shallow "U" notch 10-8 sights to a set of Sevigny's  and much prefer the latter. 

[Harlow]

That makes sense. I have some.vogel sights on my Glock and they're definitely my favorite set of sights. 

[APL-G35]

I think I run mine around .115-.125 deep but I’d have to check. I run a deep, wide notch.