What Do Night Sights Look Like After They Fade?

[sithanas]

For some reason, people will buy your old night sights for about half of what a new set costs. I wouldnt have thought they'd have been worth anything, but I was getting about $35-40 a set for the old ones I removed, which paid for my sight tool. So I'm not bitching.

Trijicon replaces the vials in any sights that carry their parts for 18 bucks a pop - that's why. Beats the hell out of buying a new sight set.

 

[Cannonball888]

 

[AK103K]

Trijicon replaces the vials in any sights that carry their parts for 18 bucks a pop - that's why. Beats the hell out of buying a new sight set.

Thats a pretty decent deal if your the original buyer and that $18 is for the set and not "each". Not sure if its worth it with buying them used, paying for the "repair" and shipping. A new set of Mepro's can be had for less than $70 if you shop.


The half life issue and brightness sounds better than they usually look at 10-12 years, assuming green all around. The red I've seen were not acceptable to me new, so I dont see any point of the other colors, especially if they are shorter lived.

All the 10-12 year or so green night sights I've seen were noticeably dimmer than the new sights. Yes, the old sights were still glowing, but were hard to acquire in dim light, or when going from bright to dim or dark. Once in the dark, without other light sources and your eyes adjusted, you could see them. The new sights are easily seen in any level of low light, dim to dark, including shadows with a bright background.

 

[brickeyee]

"Funny thing is, its not the Tritium in the night-sights that breaks down over time, its the pigment that glows the red/blue/green color that is broken down mainly due to 10 years of non-stop beta-bombardment from said tritium."

There is no "pigment that glows", it is a radio-luminescent compound Z(think phosphors) and none of them normally break down from low level beta radiation.
The average energy is just below 6 keV (kilo electron Volts).
A VERY low level.
They will not penetrate a sheet of paper.

The half life of tritium is about 12 years.
Half the original atoms will be gone in that time (they become Helium)

Depending on how much you started with sufficient decay may still be present, but the light output is going to be dimmer form the lower activity level.

 

[Tuxedo.Bond]

The half-life of tritium is about 12.33 years. It should stay bright for a long time if it doesn't leak.

 

[Ron in Seattle]

Night Sights

Even after they fade...the light that's emitted from them that the human eye cannot see is still very bright!!!!!