socalbeachbum
Member
can the green laser sights actually be seen in daytime?
Green laser sight question
- Thread starter socalbeachbum
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badkarmamib
Member
I have heard that green lasers appear brighter to our eyes than red. Ultimately, it will depend on the wattages that the manufacturers use.
GarySTL
Member
Depends on the background. White steel plate, sure. Tin can in grass, not so much.
herrwalther
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I carry a green laser on my firearm. And yes I can see it during the daylight. First time I ever checked the brightness, it was about 1 in the afternoon in south Alabama on a dark green trash dumpster about 20 yards away. Could still see the laser.
420Stainless
Member
Much easier to pickup the dot in the daylight than red is. Actually, it is much easier for me to see in any light condition, but particularly in lighter conditions.
Tinman357
Member
Yes. You will be able to see it much better in daylight. But there are downsides. A lot less battery life, you'll hear a lot about this.
One that you won't hear as much is how bright it is at night. Seriously, it's almost unusable. So bright it's more like a flashlight than a laser. Much better outside. But inside, it's distracting.
I have the CT laserguard. Great accuracy, stout, no zero shift. But I wish I had gotten the red. Daytime, I would just use the irons. Night, laser.
One that you won't hear as much is how bright it is at night. Seriously, it's almost unusable. So bright it's more like a flashlight than a laser. Much better outside. But inside, it's distracting.
I have the CT laserguard. Great accuracy, stout, no zero shift. But I wish I had gotten the red. Daytime, I would just use the irons. Night, laser.
Zerodefect
member
Yes, but not well enough to actually use.
Maybe indoors it would be ok.
Maybe indoors it would be ok.
Coyote3855
Member
Might depend on the manufacturer. I have Crimson Trace green on my S&W Shield and it's actually usable out to 25 yards in daylight.
Hunter2011
Member
If ever they make a green laser for my PT709 I will buy it.
I have lots of experience shooting with a green laser, but on airguns. They will work perfectly at any normal SD ranges in daylight.
Yes they are very bright at night. But that is not distracting to me. It actually helps to light up the area a bit.
I will not hesitate to recommend a green laser over a red laser. The red laser is TOTALLY useless in daylight when used outdoors.
I have lots of experience shooting with a green laser, but on airguns. They will work perfectly at any normal SD ranges in daylight.
Yes they are very bright at night. But that is not distracting to me. It actually helps to light up the area a bit.
I will not hesitate to recommend a green laser over a red laser. The red laser is TOTALLY useless in daylight when used outdoors.
Some of the more popular priced lasers on the market can be seen out to 50m and there is video to prove it.
ALL lasers are now power restricted to 5mw and that made the ability of the human eye to see green better than red a major factor in the switch. The problem is that green is a power intensive and inefficient color to generate. The actual mechanism is putting out over ten times the light, it's just getting trimmed and filtered to the single wavelength. That's why battery life went down so drastically.
For tactical use it's a momentary on application anyway, the operator uses bursts of a broad beam light to ID the target then switches to the laser to pinpoint the hit zone. Hunting it's still the same thing - so having it constantly on is a rare introductory experience. The point is that if you have the beam on a target then it works in the other direction - the beam leads back to you.
Be advised 5mw is still enough for an airline pilot to report - use muzzle discipline and know where you can. I moved from an older neighborhood to a small town outside the metro but it put me directly under the local flight path for medical helicopters - and Stealth bombers on exercises. After 911 we could observe them refueling for quite a few years.
ALL lasers are now power restricted to 5mw and that made the ability of the human eye to see green better than red a major factor in the switch. The problem is that green is a power intensive and inefficient color to generate. The actual mechanism is putting out over ten times the light, it's just getting trimmed and filtered to the single wavelength. That's why battery life went down so drastically.
For tactical use it's a momentary on application anyway, the operator uses bursts of a broad beam light to ID the target then switches to the laser to pinpoint the hit zone. Hunting it's still the same thing - so having it constantly on is a rare introductory experience. The point is that if you have the beam on a target then it works in the other direction - the beam leads back to you.
Be advised 5mw is still enough for an airline pilot to report - use muzzle discipline and know where you can. I moved from an older neighborhood to a small town outside the metro but it put me directly under the local flight path for medical helicopters - and Stealth bombers on exercises. After 911 we could observe them refueling for quite a few years.
I have several red lasers, and two green ones: one is a Streamlight light+laser, and a pair of Crimson Trace grips.
I haven't done extensive side by side red/green testing. I haven't done so because my experience is that there are many lighting conditions where the green isn't useful outdoors. My summary would be that indoors, or outdoors in dim light, either red or green works well, and outdoors in full sun neither is useful.
I see that I'm out of step with most other posters, so let me elaborate. My definition of 'useful' means I can use the laser, quickly, on any background. At night or indoors across the biggest room in my house, for example, you can always see either laser immediately. In those conditions, the laser is always faster to acquire than the iron sights.
Outdoors in full sun, though, neither can be depended on to be faster than the iron sights. For example, if I'm sighting in a laser at the outdoor range, I make sure to be there at dawn/twilight in the winter, or a seriously overcast day in summer, and expect to have to hunt a little to acquire the laser at 25 yards.
It may be that there are times and backgrounds when you can see the green laser at 20 yards and the red at 10; I dunno. I just know that in full sun there are times when the green laser isn't useful at 10 or 15 yards (because you would spend longer finding the dot against green grass or a fuzzy sweater or whatever than it would take to use the iron sights).
My laser doctrine is to not expect the laser to work. If I've decided to shoot and happen to see the laser dot as I acquire a sight picture with the irons, then I'll use the dot, otherwise I just use the irons. That doctrine means that the dot has to be really obvious to be useful. In that context, I don't see a particular difference between red and green.
In other contexts - maybe plinking, or squirrel hunting, where one is more time to pick out a dot - then there may well be significant differences. I haven't explored those issues.
Or maybe my eyes are just different, I dunno. YMMV!
I haven't done extensive side by side red/green testing. I haven't done so because my experience is that there are many lighting conditions where the green isn't useful outdoors. My summary would be that indoors, or outdoors in dim light, either red or green works well, and outdoors in full sun neither is useful.
I see that I'm out of step with most other posters, so let me elaborate. My definition of 'useful' means I can use the laser, quickly, on any background. At night or indoors across the biggest room in my house, for example, you can always see either laser immediately. In those conditions, the laser is always faster to acquire than the iron sights.
Outdoors in full sun, though, neither can be depended on to be faster than the iron sights. For example, if I'm sighting in a laser at the outdoor range, I make sure to be there at dawn/twilight in the winter, or a seriously overcast day in summer, and expect to have to hunt a little to acquire the laser at 25 yards.
It may be that there are times and backgrounds when you can see the green laser at 20 yards and the red at 10; I dunno. I just know that in full sun there are times when the green laser isn't useful at 10 or 15 yards (because you would spend longer finding the dot against green grass or a fuzzy sweater or whatever than it would take to use the iron sights).
My laser doctrine is to not expect the laser to work. If I've decided to shoot and happen to see the laser dot as I acquire a sight picture with the irons, then I'll use the dot, otherwise I just use the irons. That doctrine means that the dot has to be really obvious to be useful. In that context, I don't see a particular difference between red and green.
In other contexts - maybe plinking, or squirrel hunting, where one is more time to pick out a dot - then there may well be significant differences. I haven't explored those issues.
Or maybe my eyes are just different, I dunno. YMMV!
I think Pintler summed it up well. Lasers aren't the primary choice in daylight anyway.
One area of use is simply practicing putting the sights on target - the new shooter gets a lot of feedback quickly about how to hold and aim when there is a graphic line drawn to the target. It visualizes the sight light much better than an imaginary one thru the irons.
One area of use is simply practicing putting the sights on target - the new shooter gets a lot of feedback quickly about how to hold and aim when there is a graphic line drawn to the target. It visualizes the sight light much better than an imaginary one thru the irons.
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