Night sights?

[xdforme]

I have been thinking about night sights for my xd and in talking with buddies they suggested getting my existing sights painted with a special paint instead.. Anyone have any recommendations?

[Hk940]

night sights allow you to see the sights and better aim your weapon in low light conditions and at an un-illuminated threat.  if the threat is illuminated night sights are overwhelmed by the light reflected from the target and all you see is the silhouette of the sights.

my advice is to use a weapon light and or other tactical light to illuminate and more importantly identify the threat.   

[xmunckx]

I don't know,
the cool thing about night sights in my opinion is it makes it easier to find your gun in the dark. . 

[Kevin]

Love the night sights... Go ahead and buy the Trijicon sights. Skip the paint. Good point made about the flashlight, and knowing how to use it, but every now and then, batteries go dead, bulbs burn out when bumped hard, switches fail... Nice to have an extra tool in the drawer if any or all of those happen right when you need them. And it is easier to find your gun in the dark...
-Kevin

[Great Plains Scout]

Do not etch this in stone but I have been told that the life of the Trijicon night sight that are optional on XD models have a 10-15 year life cycle, if I am wrong feel free to correct me. So with that said are they worth the extra $100.00 or more is your choice, personally I enjoy mine, and also agree with using a lighting system when in a dark environment.

[tacmedic45]

If you can't see your sights you can's see the target.  If you can see the target you can see the sights so.........whats the point of night sights?  THe only time i have used my night sights was a pig pile on a suspect and my gun got kicked.  I found it from the glow of the sights.

[Embershot]

Recently I was woken up in the middle of the night by a noise which turned out to be the dog wandering around the house. Before identifying this however I was comforted to see those three dots glowing from my sights in dark on my nightstand.

Even though they can't be seen well when my flashlight is on a target, they still add a measure of confidence when needed. Also I think they offer the tactical advantage of being able to line up the sites on the door way while waiting for an intruder to bring the fight to you before you hit them with a flashlight.

[wingsprint410]

the cool thing about night sights in my opinion is it makes it easier to find your gun in the dark. . 

Do not underestimate the value of this fact. Try quickly finding your gun in the nightstand at night in a dark room without those little green lights...

[Chris]

+1 to finding the gun in the dark! As for usefullness in shooting, my jury is still out and I don't have them on any of my guns.
Chris Christian 

[Movinfr8]

+1 to finding the gun in the dark! As for usefullness in shooting, my jury is still out and I don't have them on any of my guns.
Chris Christian 

+2, Cause I like that ability too.
My Trijicons are 16 years old this year, and they have faded a bit, maybe to 60 percent what they were new. This is radiation, and half-life comes into play. This could be a plus, as when they were new, they were bright enough that a friend said they slightly illuminated my face behind the gun! I would say to go for the Trijicons, or maybe XS Big dots.

[James O.]

I like painting my sights to something that's easy to acquire and see, mainly cause I have a hard time focusing on the front sight with 3 dot sights. But that being said, I'm sold on night sights, I bought a used Sig (w/factory night sights) this week and wanted to try it, but the only time I had free was in the evening. It was pretty dark, AND cold, I could easily see the 3 dots fine and had no problem with hitting the target. I tried the sights with a light as well (in hand, and weapon mounted), no problem seeing the sights either way and the target was illuminated. I wasn't shopping for a gun with night sights, and never really had an interest for them, but I am pleasantly surprised and will consider them for other guns.
Just my experience.

[dom1104]

The paint he is referring to is Europium.

It glows VERY bright in the dark. Brighter than night sights.

However it does need sunlight or other light to charge it, so it is "ALMOST" useless as gun sights.

This is a "internet commando" thing to do to your gun.  Looks awesome on pictures on the internet, in practice it is 100% dissapointing.  I use the paint, the crystals, etc to make pulls for zippers, glow in the dark dots on my knives, flashlight rings etc.

I would never use it on a gun, which would sit in a drawer, or concealed, and thus not have enough light to charge the sights.

This is your life we are talking about, glow in the dark toys, however bright and neat, are not an option. You need self-luminescent.

Drop the 85 bucks.  besides the paint is expensive.  $30 - 40 dollars a bottle. which could do like 900 guns I understand but, still. its a novelty not an option.

I speak from experiance with europium based GITD items.

[Rob Kroupa]

If you can't see your sights you can's see the target.  If you can see the target you can see the sights so.........whats the point of night sights?  THe only time i have used my night sights was a pig pile on a suspect and my gun got kicked.  I found it from the glow of the sights.

I know in my house there are several large windows that let in light from street lights.  This creates "pockets" of light where it is very easy to identify a target but there are also corresponding pockets of darkness.

I could easily envision a circumstance where my target could be illuminated by I wouldn't be able to make out my normal sights clearly.

[dom1104]

If you can't see your sights you can's see the target.  If you can see the target you can see the sights so.........whats the point of night sights?  THe only time i have used my night sights was a pig pile on a suspect and my gun got kicked.  I found it from the glow of the sights.

wow. I didnt know cops used the term "pig pile".

I use them, because ... I dunno. I can?  I wouldnt call them a must, but they arent expensive, so my thought is, "why not?".

Also, its possible there would be a situation you want to aim your gun without the light being on. I cant think of what that might be, but I will always go with "more options" than "less options" every time.

Night sights have very little drawback.

[Rob Kroupa]

I will always go with "more options" than "less options" every time.

Exactly, that's what I was getting at.

[Migo]

I don't know if night sights are useful in an emergency night scenario, but I tried buying the glow in the dark powder and mixing it with epoxy to make my own solvent resistant glow in the dark paint. I painted the sights first with white paint, for a reflective base, then overlayed it with a bead of the glow in the dark epoxy.

After all that work on an XD and XDm, I could not get either pistol's sights to glow as brightly as the glow in the dark sights that came on my HK45. A couple of seconds from a Surefire light on the HK45, and those sights were on fire! With the glow in the dark powder, I could barely see the sights. I tried this multiple times with more glow in the dark powder and less epoxy, but they still wouldn't glow like my HK.

Also, while HK claims their glow in the dark sights will last for hours, they only last about 30 minutes after zapping them with a Surefire light. Maybe I need to hold the gun up to the sun to get multiple hours of charge time...

I ended up sending the XD to Geneseo to get night sights installed.

For me it was too much of a hassle to close my eyes, zap the rear sight with the flashlight, reposition the light over the front sight using Braille, zap the front sight and then open my eyes.

That's probably about the time I'd find a G17 pointed at my face...

[haskovez]

Which do people think are better on the glock (17).  Trijicon night sites or Glock night sites (which I think are meprolight).

[Aaron L]

Which do people think are better on the glock (17).  Trijicon night sites or Glock night sites (which I think are meprolight).

I have Trijicon on my Glock 23 and I'm happy with them if that helps any. I don't know about the Glock night sites, but after finding out the stock sites are plastic (yes Eric, plastic) I was kind of disappointed in that.

Aaron

[xmunckx]

I have the trijcons on my glock 17 and I could not be happier with them.
From the experience I have had they are my official "go to" sights to get for any handgun I have.

Provided of course they are available, , , as its stands they don't make them for my Para GI.

[mailman]

I put the Tru Glo fiber optic with tritium on my Glock 19 and really like them.  They work well in bright light or in the dark.  For me it is the best of both worlds.  I'm running green in the front with yellow in the back.  I'm not sure if it is better than all green but it seems to work for me.