Night Sights

Night sights on all your carry/defensive pistols?

  • Yes

    Votes: 33 57.9%

  • No

    Votes: 16 28.1%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 8 14.0%
  • Total voters
    57
Ive been using them since about the mid 90's and have them on pretty much all the handguns I can get them on. More recently, Ive been switching over to red dots. Next step up. :)

I think a lot of people misunderstand the usefulness and benefit of the night sights and seem to think they are a "dark only" type of thing, which they arent. They help you in all lighting and backgrounds.

I was using mostly Meprolights up until a couple of years ago when I started switching over to Ameriglo. I always liked the Mepros for their brightness, but the gap between the front and rear sight notches were always annoyingly too narrow and not all that great for a combat type sight. Its only really an issue when you start looking at a traditional sight picture and I use the dots more than I do that.

The Ameriglo sights I went with have an flo orange front dot and the gaps are bigger and a lot easier to use.
 
Recently went to TruGlos on a Smith BodyGuard .380, and couldn't be more pleased. Really like the white dot around the front sight.
The 365s continue to wear the OEM's, and the Pro Series has-Trijicons?
Far better to think of 'night sights' as 'lousy light sights', which is where they are most useful.
Moon
 
I had Trijicon HDs installed on my 1911 in 2012. Now in 2024 after 12 years of carry they are beat to hell, the white paint is gone from around the tritium vials, and definitely not as brilliantly bright as when new but they still cast enough light to read by in darkness and I think that's pretty impressive.
 
dweis said:
I carry a Ruger Security 380. I comes from the factory with a front night sight and blacked out ready nots sight. I love it and so found it better than having both front and rear night sights.
Click to expand...
Oddly, the TruGlos have night sights in both front and rear, but no white circles in the rear. It's a great combination, for both daylight and lousy light usage.
Moon
 
frogfurr said:
I have them on a couple of pistols. When it gets dark they aren't much use if it's too dark to see what I'm shooting at. Flashlight on the bed stand works much better.
Click to expand...
No doubt you should use a flashlight if you have one available, but more often than not, things arent usually totally dark either. There is usually enough ambient light to still be able to identify your target and yet too dark to see your sights.

And they all work well together as a package too, and its the best way to go.
 
I have one pistol with Ameriglo night sights (front sight only). The conditions, for my uses, where they are useful, are so limited, when they die out I'll never know they've stopped working. The sights themselves are good sights, but the tritium tube is nearly useless for me.
 
The latest Italian made Beretta's are not available from the factory with night sights, at least the new PX4 model, and the reason that is being given is the Italian version of their EPA has either outlawed them or made using them prohibitively expensive or difficult.

It'll be interesting to see if other EU makers follow suit and I'm actually surprised our current anti-gun/"save the planet" US EPA hasn't already banned them.
 
Night sights to me on any carry or home defense gun are a must have, not even optional. I typically run Amerigo Trooper night sights on my Glocks, I like the lime green/yellow front.
 
SDGlock23 said:
I typically run Amerigo Trooper night sights on my Glocks, I like the lime green/yellow front.
Click to expand...
I'm not saying this is the case with you, but this is often a point of misunderstanding or confusion.

The green/yellow square/circle or the red/orange square/circle has nothing to do with them being night sights. It is the tritium vial in the post that makes them night sights. That green/yellow or red/orange circle or square is very helpful in almost all lighting conditions. I've found the tritium vial less useful.
 
I have Ameriglo I dots on my Glock 26. They're good sights but as someone said earlier the Tritium feature is of no real use to me.
 
AgentPickle said:
How many of you guys have night sights on your defensive firearms? ...I voice my opinion in the vid.
Night Sights
Click to expand...
I over looked the video and that you were pushing a viewpoint. I thought it was a simple do you or don't you.

While folks can do whatever they want with their own guns, I usually give a little push back on the "you need night sights" requirement. I don't know what the LE folks may need, but this from Tom Givens in this article may make you question the need for night sights. I know I post this often, but perhaps some have not seen it before and it may be worth their while.

civiliandefender.com

Low light, red sights, and Tom Givens’ Glock 35

If you’re a regular reader of my musings here, you already know that I am a Tom Givens believer. There is a simple reason for this…Tom’s materia…
civiliandefender.com civiliandefender.com
...in the 60 plus defensive shootings his students have been involved in, the lighting (or lack of lighting) was a factor in the outcome in exactly ZERO cases.
Click to expand...
and this Rangemaster article by Tom Givens

 
I've been using them for so long that most of them are dead. No joke.

Lately I favor a FO front. If the platform also supports an optic and/or light, so much the better.
 
JTQ said:
I over looked the video and that you were pushing a viewpoint. I thought it was a simple do you or don't you.

While folks can do whatever they want with their own guns, I usually give a little push back on the "you need night sights" requirement. I don't know what the LE folks may need, but this from Tom Givens in this article may make you question the need for night sights. I know I post this often, but perhaps some have not seen it before and it may be worth their while.

civiliandefender.com

Low light, red sights, and Tom Givens’ Glock 35

If you’re a regular reader of my musings here, you already know that I am a Tom Givens believer. There is a simple reason for this…Tom’s materia…
civiliandefender.com civiliandefender.com

and this Rangemaster article by Tom Givens

Click to expand...

That guy left out photos of non-night sights aiming at dark targets. Why didn't he line up the sights with that dark TV and post a photo of that?

Probably because those sights (with no light behind them) on a dark target would make the sights disappear.
5.jpg


Whereas night sights or a red dot in the same situation could help out greatly.

index.php


From this photo comparison.
 
If you want iron sights that work 24/7, in all light and conditions, you need sights with contrast and tritium, so you have some options options.

All black sights are fine for shooting bullseye targets with a 6 o'clock, popsicle stick hold, or against light-colored targets where you get nice contrast, or if you happen to have a light on the target, etc, they work, but the second you put them on a dark target, and/or get into lower light, etc, where you lose the clarity of the alignment and/or they just disappear, they flat-out suck.
 
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