The Meprolight FT Bullseye Sight is an all in one sight system that replaces your rear sight and makes your front sight unnecessary. In a land of white dot, fibre optic, and tritium sights, this sight system is incredibly unique. Thanks to CGN user airbatic for donating this sight for testing and to fellow hunter and 3 gunner Tyson Goes Outside for use of his M&P. The Meprolight FT Bullseye goes for about $180 US.
FT Bullseye Specs
- 3 fibre optic rods
- Comes in Glock, Springfield, and M&P versions
- Green or red
Basic Principals
The basic use of this sight is that it illuminates a circle that is kind of your rear sight, and there’s a dot that needs to be aligned in the middle to act as your front sight. When the sights are aligned and on target, pull the trigger and off you go. Because it uses a fairly long fibre optic, the sight glows intensely in anything above medium light and is very easy to see. The sights also use Tritium so that they can be used at night.
Because both the “front” and “rear” sight are on the same focal plane, you can see both of them and clearly align them. This is different from traditional pistol sights where you usually focus on the front sight while the rear sight is out of focus.
The sights are very low to the slide, helping keep them out of the way when drawing and keeping the sights close to the bore.
Potential Uses
New Shooters
I’ve take some people out to the range who cannot for the life of them, figure out a standard blade and notch sight system. It’s also hard to troubleshoot such an alignment, as I can’t see what they see. I’ve tried this sight system with some newer shooters and they picked up on what to do very quickly, potentially more quickly than they would pick up using a traditional sight system. So it may be beneficial to start some new shooters on this system as an intro to pistol shooting.
Low Drag Concealed Carry
Because you don’t need a front sight when using this sight system, you could pull it off and have one less thing to snag when pulling from concealed carry. Not much of a worry for us Canadians who don’t have concealed carry rights, but this may be a potential use for Americans who want to remove as many snags from their draw as possible.
Sight for Short Sight Radius Pistols
On pistols where the sight radius is excessively short, causing accuracy issues, the FT Bullseye could help provide better alignment than a short 2 sight system.
Drawbacks
Not for Competition
Because the rear sight is illuminated as well as the front and because it’s possible for the front sight to disappear if you’re misaligned, it’s not fantastic for competition use. It can make for a bit of a hunt for the front sight, especially for new shooters who don’t have natural alignment of their pistol ingrained in their muscle memory. That slowdown wouldn’t be great for competition.
Cross Dominance
As a cross eye dominant shooter, the sight was difficult to use with both eyes open. Different views of the sight from different eyes presented a confusing visual picture.
Non Adjustable
The rear sight is non adjustable. You can loosen the top screws and tighten them with the sight slightly skewed the way you want and it might work, there’s no vertical adjustment, so you just need to get used to how it shoots. Hopefully your rear sight dovetail is perfectly straight and aligned.
Conclusion
Combining fibre optics, tritium, and a floating dot sight, the FT Bullseye combines a really interesting set of features. For some users out there, it’ll be the ideal combination and package for use. For others who are competing or doing more traditional shooting with their pistol, it’ll be hard to justify the cost of the sights and usability compared with a front fibre optic and standard rear blade.
