I just turned 21 a few days ago, and just purchased my first handgun today. I bought the SD9VE, and I'm looking to upgrade the sights on it. Has anyone tried to use the William Sights FireSights for the M&P?

Nice first pistol, won't be your last.

I haven't upgraded anything on mine beyond adding Traction Grips.
Most M&P sights are supposed to fit.
Try practicing with the stock sights to see what you think. And to get a feel for the pistol.

Enjoy!

I have kept the stock sights on mine. Wish they were night sights but they are very effective. They pickup easily and allow me to be as accurate with my SD9VE as any other pistol that I have shot. Enjoy your SD9VE. It is honestly among my favorite for the range and even for CCW.

Changing sights is not always easy. Before I bought a sight-pusher (the MGW model) I would use a small block of wood to knock the sights out (they go from left to right, towards the ejection port). Some sources recommend using a piece of brass or a metal punch, but those can very easily mark the sights. So I recommend you consider a sight pusher, if you think you are going to change the sights on the SD and/or buy an M&P in the future (the same sight pusher works for both). The sight pusher also allows you to make adjustments to the sights...

Haven't tried the sights you mention. My all time favorite is a Warren Tactical plain black rear sight and a Novak fiber optic front sight. As mentioned, M&P sights work on the SD's, and the same sight pusher works on both. I don't have much use for night sights -- in daylight, they are harder to see than plain white dots, and if you are shooting a pistol in conditions so dark that you need a tritium insert to see the front sight, it is probably too dark to really discriminate and confirm the identity of your target. Just a thought.

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S&W Rover

I feel the same. Why replace stock sights with night sights, or any other sights for that matter? If you are in a home self-defense situation the distance can't be far and you wouldn't even consider shooting if you didn't see the target.

I did buy a laser pointer but haven't installed it except to see that it fits. I will, some day, put it on at a range and see just how well it can be aligned and how well it holds alignment during firing. I did spend all of $30.00 on it and it looks like a nice thing to have. I'll find out, some time, just how useful it is.

Fiber optics are great in the bright sunlight, but dim in low light. I prefer fiber optic for daylight, white dot for low light and tritium for darkness, although my WML washes out the sight dots in darkness.

I've always used brass sight punches on sights with zero problems. Any brass residue will come off with solvent.

M&P factory old style, TruGlo TFX, TruGlo TG231MP

To blacktalonjhp what are the part
Numbers of the sights of the truglo sights you used in the pic I want to replace the sights on my sd9ve

Meh I know I want to replace the rear sight on mine as it's plastic-if you carry the thing a lot that part will get juked up trust me,I had a Glock 21 I carried for close to eight or so years and the sights looked like hell (so much for Glock perfection) so that needs to go.

The thing I'm debating is go full out and get front and rear glow-in-the-darks or just get a metal rear,the thing I've found with testing is if you clamp a light on it the glow sights are for naught.

Fiber optics,especially green ones are neat if there's light as they are RIGHT THERE as far as seeing them,but a standard dot works just fine for 99% of what one needs to do.

Put it this way:if you're going to carry it a lot get a metal rear at the least,if you want to fool with something else you can but the issue sights style will do almost anything you need to do.

If it's going to be a house gun you don't need to do anything just maybe get a light for it if that's your thing.

My two cents.

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Life's a grave,dig it!

2 good reasons not to change sights. 1st of all, the stock sights are EXTREMELY easy to see. You can't shoot if it's too dark to see what you're shooting at, so if you can't see your sights because it's too dark, you can't shoot. That's pretty simple.

Then the next thing is, if you ever have to use your firearm in a SD situation, prepare for any mods you put on your firearm to come up in court or any sort of investigation thereafter. Night sights, lightening up the trigger pull, etc., all get faced with the question "if you weren't looking for trouble, then why did you make those mods?" You probably had a very innocent reason for wanting to do that stuff; maybe you think it looks cool. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and maybe it's for a legit reason ("I use this for competition shooting," or, "I make movies for a living, and needed a firearm to look like this."). I'm sure almost nobody is going to find themselves in a bad way just because they upgraded the grip on their SDVE or whatever. I just like to put this out there because it was brought up to me one day and I thought it was a really, really useful issue to consider.

In a life or death situation, my priority is survival. My primary method of survival is situational awareness and avoidance. My secondary survival tactic is escape and evasion. Employing my weapon is my absolute last resort.

In the total of my 42 years on this Earth, the sum total of my life decisions haven't put me into a life or death situation. Thank god, knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder...

If for some reason my day goes so wrong that I must take a human life to preserve my own, I will install sights on my carry weapon which provides the highest probability of successfully engaging the bad guy under stress: bad guy gets hit, no stray shots, no collateral damage. I will install any factory OEM part to the fire control system of the firearm that increase my potential for accuracy under stress so that I can hit the bad guy, no stray shots, no collateral damage.

Survive a lawful self defense shoot out, and I fully expect to go to local jail, then county lockup. Even if I am not charged with murder or I survive a murder trial, I'll face a civil wrongful death lawsuit from the family of the criminal because he or she was a good child. Burden of proof is less in a civil trial than murder.

Kiss $100K+ goodbye. Say hello to unemployment for the duration of my legal woes. Watch some friends and some family disavow me. Even though I took out a bad guy, it is still a human life. I fully expect some form of temporary post traumatic experience.

^^^ All of that is why employing my weapon is an absolute last resort. I posit no tactical, mall ninja, chest thumping bravado. A dose of reality will always take some steam out of forum threads that start to go in this direction.

IMO, instead of worrying whether or not that set of night sights will be the tipping point in a murder trial, spend time searching for the appropriate trial attorney and keep his or her card in your wallet. Consider purchasing a membership to the Armed Citizen's Legal Defense Network or other such service. When questioned by the police, remember to positively assert your right to remain silent and consult an attorney. Be smart, not paranoid.

"Hi officer. I was in fear of immediate deadly threat to my life from that criminal. I want to press charges. I am a bit shaken up at the moment. After I have had a chance to recover, I am more than happy to make a statement at the police station with my attorney present."

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-John

Who on earth taught you that line of cow manure??? I mean if you load exploding bullets sure you're gonna have a whole set of problems but if you change your sights or stick a light or laser? come'on don't be daft.

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Life's a grave,dig it!

Putting night sights, fiber or upgrading to factory metal sites should not come under scrutiny in a court hearing. These are options for multiple models from almost every manufacturer out there. In fact, the newest Academy Special SDs come with metal rear and Fiber Optic front, from the factory. I am no lawyer, but I do have common sense enough to know that any smart prosecutor will not chase that ball and expect a win.

I Agree Papa_D.
I think the poster is stirring the topic!

mb

If not broke don't fix

My SD9 performs exactly as I need it to. If I wanted other options I would have purchased some other weapon. The only thing I added was talon grips. BTW never a failure of any kind with almost 1000 rounds through it.

Want some free advice from an instructor? Well, probably not, but here it is anyway:
Learn to shoot the gun first before you start redesigning it.

Put your money into lessons and ammunition, try to wear out your SD. Go shoot IDPA for semi-realistic practice, and shoot some more. Then when you get good enough for Level 2 and above matches, buy an M&P 9 Pro with factory installed FO sights and a competition trigger.

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Science plus Art

I have the SD40ve and it is still stock. I have put over 650 rds. through it and the trigger has smoothed out nicely.
It is still a long heavy pull, but very predictable and always breaks clean at the release point. I respect the always accurate
point of release and find I can shoot it with over and over without any variance. It just takes patience and practice! I would not change anything on my SD40ve!

mb

I installed fiber optic sights on my M&P 22 FS and find it much easier to quickly see the front sight now. That stock itty bitty front sight just didn't do much for these eyes that aren't getting any younger. Ordered FO sight for my SD9VE this week, we'll see (pun intended) if it helps
Norm

I am an Amazon Prime member. When I make my order from them for my Glock 20# guide rod for my SD9VE, I am adding an order of this night sight glow paint. I will try it on an old Ruger P85 that the sights need to be painted.

Disabled1,

I used that same Glow-On sight paint on a few firearms. They were range only guns, no need to mount night sights. The only drawback is that the duration and intensity of the glow is directly proportional to the amount of light exposure, particularly UV light exposure.

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-John

Just my opinion but to me it would seem that if you want to aim your gun in the dark or low light a laser or tactical light or both would be the way to go.
The laser on my LCP works & stays on center pretty well.

Guys, I think we're all smart enough to know that no case is going to hinge on night sights. I'm just saying, it's possible for it to come up and it was raised to me to consider. It didn't sound stupid to me when I heard an ex-police officer make the point, so I thought it might be worth passing on.

The other thing I'd like for folks to consider is that while there are options (insurance that a partner of the NRA that can provide to help with the legal bills, exercising your right to remain silent and researching and using a good lawyer), is that many counties in California like Los Angeles is just the type of place where you will hear something silly like firearms cosmetics come up in a case. Other jurisdictions are probably not so strange as to try and work a case that way, hopefully.

Thankfully, SD doesn't mean automatic jail either, BTW. There were just recently two SD incidents in the news where it was stated that the shooter was not taken into custody and was "cooperating with the investigation."

Glad I don't live in Illinois.

Gentlemen, if I might? I think what dlombard mean't in his statement is be ready for the Defense to start looking for any modifications you do to your weapon, so as to redirect the blame of the incident. We now know that weapon inspection is getting to be "de rigueur" for Defense Atty's looking for anything to get the heat off of their *** client. Not all the time, but more and more. Using a super tuned "Race Gun" for EDC is asking for major problems these days. Mas Ayoob was right about this problem, years ago, him having seen it first hand, and it is happening more and more. Good sights are very unlikely to be considered a problem, but then again, w/ some of these weird Atty's these days, I would not discount anything. Just be aware.

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LEO, Instr, Armorer, Gov's 20