|
My thoughts on night/low-light sights changes now and then. But the following is based on where I am today.
Also, keep in mind that eyes differ. What works for me may not for you. At classes with night shoots, I'm often amazed at the people who are eagle-eyes during the day find their eyes do weird things at night. Often they are surprised to learn it also. Don't decide anything, or eliminate any possibility, until you've shot your gun in all lighting conditions. Strange things happen.
That said, here are my OPINIONS...
-I'll bring it up once, then leave it alone- The most important thing to me is to keep a light handy. I know you said you have them around, but I'd try to keep one on your person.
Learn to use it in several flashlight "holds"- I haven't seen a single hold yet that will do everything.
Having a light and knowing how to use it several ways can give you more advantage than any night sight.
-The white rings around tritium inserts show up OK, but I wouldn't call them eye-catching (at least to my eyes).
-If it's dark enough, you can see the tritium; if it isn't, you can see the black sight.
-It has to be pretty dark before plain black sights are too hard to see.
-There is a big overlap where you can see both. Most of my practice is done in the woods behind the house, and in I can often see the tritium glowing if it's a late in the day or a little cloudy. I'm still using the black sight long after that point.
-I'm not as nuts over tritium as I used to be.
I never liked the fact that many times, the point of impact was different depending on whether I aligned the tritium dots or the tops of the sights. I don't need to keep track of two zeroes.
I think they give me a too-cluttered sight picture. Too many things to look at, with black sight, tritium dot, white ring, and sometimes a little glare from the tritium's vial.
Then, after taking some classes with a night shoot portion, I'm not sure how often they are even needed. I was surprised at how visible plain black sights are, even without using a light. If there was any light at all, be it a little excess light from a shooter's flashlight several positions down the line or just a little glow from the moon, I could use my black sights. I've shot these with black sights and tritiums and can't say tritium made it much easier (if any). If it was THAT dark, the tritiums were somewhat of a drawback, since they glowed so much they were a big distracting green blob.
(I later colored over the dots with a green marker, so they glow just enough to see in the dark, rather than in dim light. If your gun is used primarily in a house, where it can be a lot darker than outdoors, you might consider doing that.)
As a result of the above, I've gone from thinking tritium sights were a requirement to thinking they were a nice bonus at best.
In fact, when I had a Browning HiPower customized by Yost-Bonitz "just the way I wanted", I didn't get tritium sights. I did something different...
I got their gold line front sight. It is like a standard black serrated sight, but with a gold bar inset vertically. When it's light, or when held against a light background, the black sight shows up. When it's dim light, or held against a dark background, the gold shows up.
It gives me a mch cleaners ight picture. I won't lose my night sight if the gun is dropped, breaking the tritium capsule (I've done it). It also has the same point of impact regardless of whether I'm concentrating on the black part or gold part of the front sight.
I always have a couple of lights on me also, although having them doesn't guarantee I will have the chance to use them.
Fiber optic sights always seemed a little fragile to me. I have a shotgun that came with a fiber optic front and it had been fine, but I'm leery of them on a handgun that gets carried all the time. They get bumped a lot- maybe more than we notice- and I'd worry about damage.
One fiber optic that has looked interesting, but I know very little about, is the TruGlo (I think that's the name). They have fiber optic inserts, plus a tritum capsule that "lights" the fiber optic tubes in low light. My experience with them is limited to sighting over someone else's gun that was equipped with them. They may be garbage, or they may be a Godsend, I don't know.
|