Night Sight Installation

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matai

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Hey, I'm looking to have night sights installed on some of my semi-autos. Just have a couple questions:

I'm thinking about getting Trijicons, with a different color for the front. Do you guys think that a different front color helps? And would you recommend Trijicon or sometthing else?

Also, are there any places I could send my gun to haave the sights installed and sighted in? I don't know any good places that will do that locally.

Thanks for any help
 
Stay with the green sights. Red is hard to see. My Sig 226 came with the red front and green rear sights. I didn't like it at all and had the front sight changed to green.

If your going to do several guns it might be worth buying the tool and some small files from some place like Brownells and do it yourself. They are not too hard to install. You can also call around to some of the local gun shops, one of them is sure to know of a competent gunsmith.
 
Green or yellow Tritium sights will last at least 12 years.

Orange and other colors about half that or less.

I'm pretty much convinced you don't need dots on the rear sight anyway.

At SD ranges, if you put the front glowing dot on the target, you will hit it every time.

If you stop to confirm you have three dots lined up, it slows you down.

If you confuse one of the rear dots for the front sight, you will likely miss badly!

rc
 
I agree with rcmodel. I do a lot of quick reaction type shooting, like pin matches, and I've found a bright front and plain black rear is fastest and easiest for me...
 
Green or yellow Tritium sights will last at least 12 years.

Orange and other colors about half that or less.

I'm pretty much convinced you don't need dots on the rear sight anyway.

At SD ranges, if you put the front glowing dot on the target, you will hit it every time.

If you stop to confirm you have three dots lined up, it slows you down.

If you confuse one of the rear dots for the front sight, you will likely miss badly!

rc

As usual, rc has posted everything you need to know.

A single dot is great, a set is ok too.

I buy Trijicon. Good product, from a Michigan company.
 
Green is easiest to acquire, yellow next.

I have sets with blue, green, yellow and red, but I have found that most other colors are harder to acquire than green.

If you want contrast, always choose green for the front site.
 
Everyone else has said everything else, so I'll zero in on this! :)

matai said:
Also, are there any places I could send my gun to have the sights installed and sighted in? I don't know any good places that will do that locally.
The Trijicon's aren't hard to put on. I did a set on my Glock 34 and it was easier than I though - though still "interesting" to be bashing on the rear sight to get it out (and put the new one's in). :)

If you decide not to try it yourself, where in Washington are you? I know a Glock armorer in the area north of Seattle. You may not be outfitting Glocks, but he's good people and should be able to help you in general.


Also, take a look at the following thread, it may help with a decision for some of your guns. You didn't say what you're outfitting, but I suspect that you'd rather not drop $100 on sights for a less expensive gun:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=446670
 
Whats that place north of Seattle? I'm planning on doing it for my HK P2000, Glock 20 and Sig P226.

I'm thinking it would be good if all my handguns I use a lot would have the same sights, might make easier transitions. Does that make any sense?
 
I had my Glock sights installed at the local gunshop... their rear sight tool was easy to use. But my Sigs needed to go to the factory. The sights on them were installed using a hydraulic press, so the little sight tool would not move them. A gunsmith would likely have a press for that type of gun.
I prefer the sights all green as well. My G26 has a green front and orange rear and I wish they were all green.
 
matai said:
Whats that place north of Seattle? I'm planning on doing it for my HK P2000, Glock 20 and Sig P226.
Sam's in Everett has a couple of choices. Howard is the Glock armorer I'm thinking of. He's the range master at Sams, doesn't work behind the retail counter too much, and can take some time to warm up to :) He's a great guy though.

There's also a guy named Rick Freudenberg who's a master gunsmith that leases space there. he'll do sight work, but he's more into full-on custom rifles.

ref:
http://www.beegc.org/samsgsr/samsgsr.html
http://www.freudscustomrifles.com/


I'm thinking it would be good if all my handguns I use a lot would have the same sights, might make easier transitions. Does that make any sense?
I think having the same color on the front sight (and general sight picture) will be more important than having the same sight.

For example, I have a Hi-Point 40 as a HD gun. I didn't want to put $100 glowing crystals on there (if I could even find them), so the NiteSiters and Glow paint were perfect. The sight picture actually ends up similar to the Trijicon's on my Glock (brighter actually) for a much lower cost - but at the risk of remembering to charge the sights at night (10 seconds with a UV flashlight).
 
xs big dots will cure ur ills. super close up sites and personally only the front site needs to be lite up. everything else falls into place when shooting...rembmer we are not shooting quarters are 15 yards at nite either...
 
It has been established that green is the easiest color for the human eye to see at night. I am not sure if night front sights are even available in any other color.

Something to consider, if you wish to have the sights installed by an out-of-area vendor, is that you can mail just the slide, saving a lot of money on shipping as well as the test fire/zero. If the same sight heights are used and the installer is careful to install them in the same position as the originals, the chances of needing rezeroing are minimal.
 
But my Sigs needed to go to the factory. The sights on them were installed using a hydraulic press, so the little sight tool would not move them. A gunsmith would likely have a press for that type of gun.
I have a SIG sight tool made by MGW, and have replaced a number of sets of night sights with it now. The tool easily removed and replaced each set.

I paid $80 for the tool, and "old" sights off the first two guns paid for it. I sold them on EBay for around $40 a set.

You shouldnt need any files to install them, a piece of fine emery is all thats usually needed. I personally would not be beating on night sights with a hammer and punch, but thats just me. Then again, I dont have to. :)

I prefer the three dots, and Meprolights over the Trijicons, as they have had bigger and brighter vials with a white ring around the vial, where the Trijicons I've had only had the silver dial. Then again, that was a while ago, and Trijicon may have caught up. The Mepro's are also usually cheaper from what I've seen these days too.
 
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