SIGLITE Night Sights Question

[timmerk]

Hi, I have a question about the:

SIGLITE® Night Sights

Optional tritium night sights are recommended for use in low light conditions or when visibility is poor. A single dot of green glowing tritium is on the front blade and two dots bracket the rear notch. The tritium is recessed to prevent side glow.

Does this mean there is a battery and the green light will go bad or lose power after a while, or is there a chemical dot thingy?

Thanks!

 

[asiparks]

Nope, all the dots are self illuminating tritium chemical thingies. They will lose their glow over time (10-15 years) as the radioactive isotope decays.

 

[timmerk]

Thanks! Would it be cheaper just to buy the normal gun, and buy the sites seperate, or buy with the sites? And are these sites any good? What are some good night ones you recommend? Do the night ones work well in day too?

Thanks!

 

[tomkatz]

I have never priced the siglites, both my sigs came with them as used guns. Usually you get a better deal if you get them with the gun from what I've seen.
I prefer the meprolites I have on my kahr mk9, they seem brighter and the white plastic ring around the tritium seems to really stand out. The meps seem to run in the 70 to 80 dollar range, trijicons maybe 10 to 20 dollars more. The shop I deal with installs them for free........tom

 

[asiparks]

I think the difference in getting the gun with them is about $80 over the regular gun, and they should be zero'd in. After market sights tend to run between $90 and $160 +fitting if you don't have the patience to do it yourself. the advantage being that you can chose 3 dot, bar and dot, different colors etc. i put a set of pt night sights on my kimbers and they've been great, though I hear that they may not be as bright as some other brands. Most night sights seem to come set in with a white outlines around the tritium capsules which makes them pretty good for daylight use. Size and shape of the capsules/front blade width and rear sight gap will also play a significant role in how well they suit you. Ask your local friendly dealer if he can show you a few different guns with them fitted to see which you like best.

 

[JNewell]

Haven't checked lately but the SIG factory night sights used to not have the white plastic circular inserts around them, which made them a lot harder to use in decent light. YMMV but I'd pay extra for aftermarket sights just to avoid that.

 

[RTFM]

Have not heard any recommendations for anyone to go out and get SIGLITE® Night Sights.
I hear they are hard to see due to the plastic insert, and are not as bright as other Tritium night sights.
I have also heard that the yellow sights tend to fade faster than the green.
I have the Meprolights Green/Green on my Sig P229 and they work very well FWIW.

RTFM

 

[asiparks]

More discussion

 

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

I've had SIGLITE's on two SIG's; the first was a NIB P229,
and the other was a NIB two-tone P226. I found them to
be a disgrace to the "night sight scene"; as they were
extremely hard too see during daylight conditions, and
were not a lot better in low light or darkened conditions.
Therefore, I WOULD NOT recommend them!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[treeprof]

I like sights that are mostly black in lighted conditions, with minimal painted on distractions (they detract from my top of front sight focus, ymmv), and I personally like the factory Siglites for that reason. Also, for their good front width-rear notch width ratio. If you want white circles around your tritium inserts, then the Sig sights are prob not for you. Agree that they are not the brightest things in low light, but I find them sufficiently so for sight alignment verification.