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Old May 17, 2008, 03:18 PM   #23
fastbolt
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Join Date: June 9, 2002
Location: northern CA for a little while longer
Posts: 1,930
Some interesting thoughts, opinions and experiences posted in this thread.

Not everybody is likely ever going to agree on the usefulness of 'enhancements' when it comes to the aiming devices we use on handguns. Not unexpected.

During the first 15+ years of my LE career I wasn't exactly a proponent of tritium night sights. This including working days, afternoons, evenings, indoors, outdoors, bright sunshine, bad weather, using flashlights, patrol car lights, ambient lighting, etc. etc..

Sometime between approx years 15-20 I developed a respect for the occasional benefits to be experienced when using night sights in some situations.

That's also about the same time I realized that these benefits were seemingly present, or lacking, to various degrees among the different manufacturer's night sight offerings. Why should that be surprising? Just like anything else, right?

I look at night sights as offering a balanced compromise.

They're useful in certain situations and circumstances.

Like all compromises, however, their 'benefits' may be negated in other situations, or even become 'disadvantages' in some situations.

For example, there are some production periods/designs where I do not find them as easily used as plain black or 3-dot (white) sights in conditions of outdoor/bright sunlight. This can vary with the user's vision a great deal, too. Two folks standing side-by-side may have exactly opposite opinions when trying the same weapon/night sight combination. They're each right ... for themselves.

Bottom line?

I don't think they were ever intended to be a 'replacement' for independent/supplemental light sources (like flashlights) and being able to clearly see your intended target.

In the third decade of my LE career I found many situations in which the night sights on my guns served a useful and immediately practical purpose ... for me.

In the 'right' circumstances, being immediately useful only ONCE might be well worth the investment.

When it came time to replace our aging inventory of issued weapons I suggested we consider the minimal added expense of ordering the weapons with night sights (new ones with nicely visible white rings surrounding the tritium capsule lenses ).

There weren't that many of our folks who even knew what night sights were when they learned their new weapons were equipped with them ... (come on, we're talking about cops, after all ) ...

But it also wasn't long before I started hearing feedback from some of our folks who discovered an immediate benefit to having them on their new guns, having had the opportunity to use them when weapons were drawn and presented during the course of their duties. Lots of pleased folks. Fine. That's why we decided to order them, after all. Seems to have worked out okay.

Nowadays a goodly number of my personally-owned handguns have been equipped with them, or ordered with them in the first place. Not all of them, by any means, but a goodly number of them.

I've come to prefer (not demand) to have the weapon chosen for potential night time HD to have at least a front post night sight, although I also keep at least one flashlight next to my sleeping mat. Night sights are nothing more than one type of enhanced sighting device.

It's still critical, however, to be able to SEE and IDENTIFY not only your intended target, but to understand what's 'downrange'. I prefer to emphasize using light sources for seeing what's out there beyond my weapon's muzzle ... and for employing that defensive/distracting (if only momentary) 'wall of light'.
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