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 Night Sights 
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 Post subject: Night Sights
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:53 pm 
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I just put Trijicon night sights on my Taurus PT111. I can't believe I waited this long!

I was most impressed with the Trijicon rep's "red gun" at the Bill's show last year. The darn things were visible in any light, and there was a smooth transition from seeing the white circles to seeing the glowing dots.

I decided to get yellow rear, green front. They seem about equally bright, but honestly, in a stress situation, I doubt I could distinguish the colors anyhow.

What has your experience with glow-in-the-dark sights been?

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:47 am 
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I had a set of Trijicons put on my S&W 1066.

The glow is great, but appears to be only really clealry visible in very low light. I'm dubious about how much value it actually adds. Most of my practice with this gun has little to do with traditional aiming and more to do with more instinctive pointing.

Plus I think all bets are off after the first shot; muzzle blinding would make their use in a followup shot all but worthless.

I've never read any of the "tactical" defensive shooting books, but it might be interesting what they preach for tactics like this. I personally can see just kind of emptying the magazine at the target.

My guess is that they were primarily developed for LEOs that spend a lot of time in dark environments, don't want to be given away by back refelection (hence their glow vs. bright illumination), and don't really depend on them as precision aiming devices for sustained night time gun fights.


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:38 pm 
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I have done some limited night shooting at class with Darrell Mulroy, also attended Final Option, and Front Sight which both involved night shooting.

With my shooting experience and a 1911, I don't think I have any need for night sights even though my Kimber PRO CDP has them. The 1911 just point correctly for me, the sights seem to automatically line up and I fire, right in the zero zone.

Now if I was shooting a Glock and it's grip angle, that would be a whole different story. :P


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:07 pm 
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Quote:
The glow is great, but appears to be only really clealry visible in very low light. I'm dubious about how much value it actually adds.


This is by design. You should be able to see the white circle around the glow up until it's dark enough to see the glow.

Walk from a light room to a dark one while watching your Trijicons. You'll never lose sight of them.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:59 am 
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Whenever I've used night sights in lowlight training and competition (lowlight stages), I don't ever remember seeing the sights glowing in a sight picture once the action starts up. Granted, we were using flashlights and the targets are usually really close so a perfect sight picture was not necessary or even possible some times. That being said, I have night sights on all of my carry guns. Except the J-frame. What is really nice about night sights is that you can locate your gun in complete darkness, say in your bedroom, strange hotel room, etc.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:16 pm 
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I was lucky enough to use the range at Bill’s Gun Shop where I could control the lighting. It was the range usually reserved for police and rifles. It was before Bill’s had changed owners, and I doubt I could get away with it again. It must be noted that the range wasn’t occupied by more than one or two shooters.

I had walked in and asked if there was an area where I could practice low light shooting. The range master said “sure” than took me over to the range and gave me the remote control for the entire lighting system. It was really, really cool. I was able to adjust the lighting for thee separate, different distances and the intensity of each. I shot my handgun with night sights with any kind of lighting you can imagine and at many different distances. I must have gone through five boxed of 45’s. I could set the light brighter in front of the target, behind the target, or on me, with the target in the shadows. A could also make it pitch black entirely.

To answer your question, when placing slow deliberate shots the sights were wonderful. When doing rapid fire, I lost them and shot instinctively. During my time on the range I wanted to get familiar with shooting at a target in low light, I was not there to appreciate the sights themselves. I was able to get very comfortable (as one can) with shooting at shadowy figures without the aid of a flashlight. It’s is amazing that at a reasonable distant (and if you have all the time in the world) you can hit a target reasonable well. However, under pressure it would all go away

At any rate I would love to recreate this again, but never asked if, it was possible. I just assumed that I got away with “murder”.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:44 pm 
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I have Trijicons on my carry G19. I do not like the standard Glock sights, and the dealer I bought from had a deal on the sights, so I had them installed. I am planning on getting something else for my HD G19, maybe Ashley or something. But, I do like the Trijicons even during full light shooting. I never could shoot my glocks with the box sights very well.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:07 pm 
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I've been liking the new TruGlo combo sights lately. They are fiber-optics with tritium behind them. During daylight, the fiber-optics come to life with ambient light, and as the ambient light runs out, they are energized by the tritium bulbs. In thoery, I like the idea of a consistent sight picture, day or night. In practice... I haven't tried them and don't know anyone who has... so we'll see how they hold up. If they had them for 1911s, I have some by now...


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 2:28 pm 
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BigRedBowtie wrote:
I've been liking the new TruGlo combo sights lately. They are fiber-optics with tritium behind them. During daylight, the fiber-optics come to life with ambient light, and as the ambient light runs out, they are energized by the tritium bulbs. In thoery, I like the idea of a consistent sight picture, day or night. In practice... I haven't tried them and don't know anyone who has... so we'll see how they hold up. If they had them for 1911s, I have some by now...


I've installed these sights on Glocks for two of my buddies and I was quite impressed by them.

If I didn't already have multiple sets of Heinie Straight 8's already on guns, I would try the Tru-Glo's out myself.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:07 pm 
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They help to find your gun in the dark - REALLY!

My experience with “Radioactive” sights has been limited. Some years ago I had a SIG P226 with Trijicons. It was certainly much easier to hit targets in low light conditions. They are a worthwhile addition to a carry gun.

Muzzle flush is not a big problem with current factory ammo (however that may not be applicable to mobocracy when setting off his thermonuclear 10mm). We even tried 40 Auto (Glock 22c) with comps and found no objections to note.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:42 am 
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My "new" to me police trade-in S&W 6946 has them installed and I'm not sure of the make but they do seem to work well in the very dark .

How bright should they be?

I know this is a used gun but so far I like them. I'm not sure I need them but it is nice to have. :D

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 Post subject: Trijicons
PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:55 am 
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I have Trijicons on all of my handguns and like them alot. I had Novaks on a S&W 6906 and they were great too but also much larger than the Trijicons.

When they are new they should be much brighter than a glow stick when you first break it and shake it. Brightness also depends how long they have been sitting on the shelf at the distributor you ordered them from. Typically they have a 12yr life expectancy.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:04 am 
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The older I get, the less I can see my front sight :cry: I started to use the FIBER OPTICS, I have them on all my guns now (It HELPS!) this summer I got the TRUGLO / Tritum-Fiber Opitic, Put them on my Glock 19, It's the best of both worlds... Good in the day time and WOW! in the dark! I will use them in a IDPA match, Night Shoot in Holmen, Wis. this coming Saturday the 15th. Anyone want to try my G19 sometime? Just ask :D


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:26 am 
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Night sights? Absolutely. I use the Xpress 24-7 Big Dot on my carry gun and there is no downside at all...only great upside. In low/no light they excell. Also, although we may joke about it, don't diminish the value, the real value, of finding the gun in the dark. We tend to keep one as a nightstand/book shelf model in the bedroom, and it is a great advantage to find things very quickly.

From self defense type distances, for point and shoot, they cannot be beat. Night sights? Highly recommended.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:42 pm 
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phorvick wrote:
Night sights? Absolutely. I use the Xpress 24-7 Big Dot on my carry gun and there is no downside at all...only great upside.


I had a different experience. While shooting fast and shooting close-up with the XPress sights was easy, I lost a LOT of accuracy out past 10 yards. The front sight was bigger than the target at 20 yards, and did not allow a precise sight picture.

I love the Dawson Precision fiber-optic front sight with a Heinie slant-pro rear sight for my G17. I have the Heinie slant-pro sights on my G26 as well.


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