Night Sights, TruGlo Long Term Durability vs. Trijicon vs?

[cloudsrest]

Who here is running or has run TruGlo night sights? I’m looking at putting some tritium sights on my XDM (home and woods defensive weapon, currently has fiber optic front) and the TruGlo ‎TG231X has caught my attention, being half the price of Trijicon, but so have the reviews. I’m seeing lots of reviews out there, albeit mostly older ones, where the front sight goes dark after a few weeks or months like the vial cracked and the tritium leaked out (no bueno). The forum threads on it seem to be older ones as well. Is this an ongoing issue? Is the Trijicon worth the price jump? If so, I really didn’t save any money by going with Springfield over Sig…

I’m also seeing that some people are putting Sig night sights on their XDM’s, with the dovetail being the same but Sig sights seem to come in different sizes (#6 and #8). Are Sig sights a better choice? They’re about $20 more than TruGlo.

 

[EMC45]

Trijicon vs. TruGlo......Trijicon. Also you can send the slide directly to Trijicon and they will put your sights in for you.

 

[cloudsrest]

Trijicon vs. TruGlo......Trijicon. Also you can send the slide directly to Trijicon and they will put your sights in for you.

Is there a noticeable difference when using them/performance, or mostly just a difference in build quality/durability?

 

[CodeSection]

I have Tritium Speed Sights on my XDSC's and Sigs.... https://speedsights.com/products/tritium-speed-sights/https://speedsights.com/products/tritium-speed-sights/

Below is a comparison between Trijicon HD vs Speed sights.



Below are Speed Sights on a couple of XDSCs.

 

[Jimfern]

I have Trijicons on my Les Baer TRS and recently sent them the slide to "recharge" the sites. The work was done quickly and the sites are like new now. I also have TruGlos on my Glock G26 and I'd say the build quality is about the same. When installing the TruGlos I snapped the screw on the front site and TruGlo sent me a replacement for free. I don't think you can go wrong with either option.

 

[trackskippy]

Ive been using Meprolights for a couple of decades now. They are a good bit cheaper than the Trijcons and work just as well. I think thats who makes the Glock branded NS's too.

I think all of them are warranted for 12 years, and all of them seem to start losing brightness at around 9 years or so.

Ive had a number of guns that came with Trijicons and they worked fine. Early on, I really didnt like them as they didnt have a white outline on the vials, just the aluminum ring that held the tube. Their tubes/dots also seemed to be a bit smaller too, but that might have just been my perception at the time, I never actually measured them. They have since changed that in both respects from what Ive seen.

I havent tried the TruGlo's but wouldnt be opposed to trying them if the price was right.

I highly suggest looking around too. There are often deals/sales out there, and you can get sets for reasonable prices. Ive bought a number of sets for $50.

I put them on myself, so I dont have the gunsmith surcharge. Its easy enough to do, and there are generic sight tools out there for reasonable prices, if you plan on doing more than one. Im not a fan of pounding on the NS's with a hammer and punch, but I have done it on a couple of guns. More work and a bit of a PITA, but if youre careful, it works. The tools also let you make fine adjustments at the range, and thats a big plus.

 

[md7]

I use Meprolight tritium 3 dots on my Glock 19 and Trijicon tritium 3 dots on my edc Glock 26.

Running both a couple years I’d guess. Still bright, and I recommend either brand.

 

[9mmepiphany]

(home and woods defensive weapon, currently has fiber optic front)

I'm not a fan of front and rear night sights in general, but I have tried most of the ones on the market. for your stated use, a fiber optic front sight would be almost ideal

The TruGlo set I tried exhibited some shoddy workmanship in how the vials were installed. You could see the difference between them and Trijicons as soon as you picked them up. Trijicons do set the industry standard, but they do charge a bit more. A lot will depend on your intended use of the gun/sights and how much abuse you intend to subject them to. The Trijicons will hold up better to being bumped around or dropped. The TruGlo will be fine if you intend to baby them, either in a protective holster of in a gun rug

I’m also seeing that some people are putting Sig night sights on their XDM’s, with the dovetail being the same but Sig sights seem to come in different sizes (#6 and #8). Are Sig sights a better choice? They’re about $20 more than TruGlo.

I have a set of SIG XRAY3 Night Sights on a Pro Cut slide I got for my SIG 320. I haven't had a chance to change them out for a fiber optic front and blacked out rear yet.

I was a bit surprised at how well they work in general as the rear dots can be easily ignored when focusing on the front dot. I had to paint out the rear dots on the Trijicons that came on my SA EMP

 

[shoobe01]

I don't know of anyone who makes bad tritium tubes. They all last about the same. Very rarely see one leak, and almost always due to specific oddities like trying to heat cure a finish with the sights installed, etc.

Since hardly anyone knows:

Tritium tubes are all hollow glass tubes, filled with tritium gas (a short halflife radio-isotope). The inside of the tube is coated in a phosphor that reacts to the decay. Every time a particle decays, it sends electrons out. When those strike the phosphor layer, it glows. Yes, exactly like a CRT TV. The various colors are the phosphor. They have varying brightness. The yellow/green are the brightest. You can use the varying brightness to choose not just color-differentiable front/back, but dimmer rears (two of them, and closer to you: make the front brightest).

Tritium starts to loose energy the moment the gas is pulled out of the reactor. HALF life is 12.3 years. Phosphor reaction is directly in line with the beta decay so the tube is half as bright after 12.3 years. And... half as bright again after another 12.3 years, and so on.

For sights and compasses, I find that around 1.5 half lives is a good brightness still. Somewhere over 2 it starts getting dim. I've replaced all tritium on pistols after around 20 years.

The phosphor is all over the inside of the tube. The tritium is transparent, so the side phosphor glow comes out the back when installed in a sight, a little. A few sight makers add lenses, etc. to the back to "magnify" the light coming out, they pointedly polish the end of the tube, etc. That can also change the effective visibity in theory but in practice just drilling bad tubes and replacing with new tubes works about the same.

Someone has figured out how to make brighter tubes (likely: just got regulatory approval to add a little more gas or something) so there are things like the Mepro HyperBright line, and... someone whose brand I forget that are all super bright. Large tritium vials may be too bright when new but will be useful longer, over 2 half lives I'd think.

It is easy to reversibly dim too bright tritium sights. Just color them with a sharpie. Too dark? Use a non-black Sharpie. Sharpie dissolves in alcohol, so just wipe off to change or when too dim. I mostly have three dot sights, and just dim the back ones with sharpie.

 

[EMC45]

I recently installed MeproLight TruDot sights on my G48. I am pleased so far.

I install Siglite night sights on the guns at work and they are bright as well.

 

[sr1971]

My XDm just got a new set of Night Fisions after about 10 years of TruGlo TFO's, now almost dead. At the time were a great offering for day and night shooting. All my other Tupperware tooters have the Night Vision sights. They are economical and the brightest I've ever seen. I've had Trjicons, Siglite, Meprolight, and other factory offerings that were not ever as bright when new.

Made in the USA in the upper Midwest, with Swiss tritium of course.

Now if they'd just make them for revolvers!

Left to right for comparison: G19LS Trijicon HD (wife's), XDm Night Fision, G19LS Night Fision, G19 Night Fision (all yellow glow dome front and white rear with square notch). Overhead light, background light, lights off.

 

[sr1971]

 

[nettlle]

The Novak Trintium's that came on my Dan Wesson Vigil Commander are nice. And I am not a fan of night sights.