Tritium vs Fiber Optic sights?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Eyes ain't that great.

Got a chance to see a Buckmark with a front fiber-optic sight, which was real easy to see.

Do Tritiums such as the XS Big Dots offer much improvement over the ordinary iron sights with white painted dots, for day time shooting? At Prentice Cooper shooting from under the shade at a sunlit target, iron sights don't show the white painted dots. It is just a black silhouette of the front and back sights, and against a black target it is all black against black. Hard to see.

For Kahr P9 carry gun, am thinking some kind of tritium, though it would be a bonus if the Tritium also makes daytime shooting easier to see.

If Tritium has any advantage on daytime shooting, might consider putting a tritium front sight on the CZ-85, but otherwise a fiber optic front sight on the CZ-85 would be a vast improvement. The CZ-85 is 99% a range gun, though would be eminently usable for home defense.

Seems almost a no-brainer to put a fiber optic front sight on the Mark II slabside, since that pistol is 100% a range gun.

Looks like a Beretta 92 would need a dovetail cut on the slide to install any alternate front sight. The 92 sights are relatively easy to see, but it would be nice to see em better. Dunno if it would be worth it to cut a dovetail into the front slide. The 92's are mostly range guns, though if there were ever a zombie outbreak, the 92 would be the go-to pistol. In case of zombie outbreak, night sights on the 92's would be nice.

[Guest razorblade]

Tru-glo fibre optic for me, day or night. Love 'em.

[Smith]

Tru-glo TFO's are by far the best thing out there. They are fiber optic and tritium. They are super bright during the day and night. If you get the contrasting colors, they are even easier to pick up.

[crashgordan]

Agree with above with this thought: I also have the tru-glo and, to my knowlege there is nothing brighter (daytime) or more versatile out there. it's great for range and would be a good choice for HD. That being said, just by the nature of the design and in my experience, there is an increase risk of some types of failures. My experience may be one in a million, but when running this sight in a EDC gun and running that gun hard in training, the fiberoptic tube did break out of the front sight. The tritium insert remained intact and bright, i'm sure the manufacter would have taken care of it but it was not hard to repair with a new piece of FO.

Understand the sight remained on the gun, and useable.

so here's my take:

It is NOT a ditch fighting sight or a EOTWAWKI sight.

This IS a great sight for 90% of the time for EDC, and certainly 100% of the time for the range.

(YMMV)

just my 0.2 cents...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks much. Didn't realize that Truglo makes tritium fiber optics. Sounds great.

Only problem, doing some web-searching at Cabelas and Midway, looks like Truglo doesn't make em to fit any of my pistols. Sig, Glock, H&K, some S&W looks like the only ones. Unless Truglo makes some tritium models that folks don't usually stock, maybe the only option would be to try to find an off the shelf model with dovetails a little bigger than my slots and apply bubba engineering to make em fit.

There are some other brand fiber optics that are sold for my pistols however.

Night sight would only be 'really super desirable' on a defense gun I suppose. Kahr sells several models of night-sight, and several fiber optics, just no night-sight fiber optics. The Kahr P9 stock sights are not real difficult to see shooting from the shade into sunshine, so I guess a night-sight variant wouldn't be any worse than what I've got for daytime shooting.

[tntnixon]

To my knowledge, Tru-Glo doesn't make sights for CZ's. You'll have to have the slide machined for them to fit. czcustom.com (Angus Hobdell's shop in AZ) can do it for you but I think the cost is around $200.00. I'm probably going to send my SP-01 Phantom out there for a trigger job and have the Tru-Glo sights put on (will pretty much double the price of the pistol when all is said and done). They also have a wide array of night sights and fiber optics that will fit without having to machine your pistol, but without the advantage of both.

[Guest The Highlander]

I just replaced a set of faded out tritiums with plain old Tru-Glo fiber optics, and it made a huge difference in daytime. My tritiums on this particular gun were quite old and just didn't do that much anymore. If I had not been in a hurry, the Tru-Glo TFO's are the best of both worlds for sure in my opinion. I'll end up putting a set of them on a couple of my Glocks that see carry use.

I just can't see black posts well enough anymore. The tritium was never my first choice for daytime anyway.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks for the great info.

Think I'll "get my feet wet" by putting a Hiviz fiberoptic front sight on the Mark II slabside. As best I can tell this part ought to do it, but if it doesn't fit properly can either eat the cost or return it to Midway.

HIVIZ Front Sight Ruger Mark 2, Mark 3 Steel Blue Fiber Optic Green - MidwayUSA

[Guest Tuck]

My father, having poor eyesight, has the same problem as you (lack of proper contrast). I recently had a set of XS Big Dot NS put on my G27. He picked it up the other day and the first word out of his mouth was "WOW!" He said he could see it VERY easily. I let him take it for a spin and I could tell that his shooting was greatly improved. Who would've thought that actually seeing the sights played such a big part.

I dont care for fiber optic sights due to not working for crap at night, but Smith mentioned FO and Tritium in the TFO's. Sounds like those would fix my complaint.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks Tuck

For daytime target practice, am not certain that fiber optics on the rear sight would be essential. When I was handling that guy's Buckmark with the fiber front sight, just having the front sight easily visible against the silhouette of the back sight seemed perfectly adequate. Have noticed that a lot of target guns seem to have fiber on front sight only.

Ordered that HIVIZ Mark II front sight last night,.

Also ordered some XS Big Dot for the P9 which is the carry gun. The big white dot in itself ought to improve daytime target practice on the P9, and the carry gun ought to have night sights anyway.

After playing awhile with the Big Dot on the P9 and the Fiber Optic on the Ruger Mark II, will know better whether to investigate alternate sights on the other pistols. And what kind of alternate sights.

Looks like both the CZ 85 combat and the Beretta 92's would need slide machining to accept Truglo tritiums, so would have to want Truglo's pretty desperately in order to mutilate the guns.

[Guest Tuck]

Glad to hear my $.02 was worth something.

Good luck with your sights.

[Guest cheez]

XS Big Dots are the best defense sight ever produced. IMO

[Guest truthsayer]

FWIW, I have the Hi-viz fiber fronts on a couple of my glocks and they work really well for me.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Truthsayer, do you think the Hi-viz fiber fronts would be any easier to see than stock iron sights, in well-lit night-time situations? Under streetlights in a wally-world parking lot, outside a Waffle House at 3 am, that sorta thang? Would streetlights be bright enough to supply some extra visibility to the fiber front sights?

Was just thinkin, a lot of night time urban self-defense situations could happen in pretty well-lit areas, though of course if it is really dark one might be hosed without night sights.

[Guest cheez]

Was just thinkin, a lot of night time urban self-defense situations could happen in pretty well-lit areas, though of course if it is really dark one might be hosed without night sights.

This scenario is where some instinctive shooting practice would come in handy.

[Guest truthsayer]

Truthsayer, do you think the Hi-viz fiber fronts would be any easier to see than stock iron sights, in well-lit night-time situations? Under streetlights in a wally-world parking lot, outside a Waffle House at 3 am, that sorta thang? Would streetlights be bright enough to supply some extra visibility to the fiber front sights?

Was just thinkin, a lot of night time urban self-defense situations could happen in pretty well-lit areas, though of course if it is really dark one might be hosed without night sights.

I found that if there's enough light to make out a stock front sight, there's enough light to illuminate a fiber optic front. Granted, I always carry a flashlight so I won't have to worry as much about low-light scenarios.

[kwe45919]

TFO's..............gotta be some of the best sights out there.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Got a chance to try out the Hi-Viz fiber sight on the Mark II, and the Big Dots on the Kahr P9.

Both are easier to see. Perhaps with further practice, accuracy or at least speed might improve with the more-visible sights.

Accuracy was about the same with the old factory sights or the new Big Dots on the P9. But the biggest issue with the P9 is mastering the trigger rather than a clear sight picture.

The fiberoptic front sight on the Mark II is MUCH easier to see. The Mark II made fairly small groups with the old factory sights. The groups were about the same size with the new front sight though it is much easier to see. The old sight picture was a rectangular block centered in a rectangular notch. The new sight picture is a bright round dot in a rectangular notch.

First time out, this widened the grouping vertically a little bit. Had previously been vertical-centering the top of the old rectangular front sight with the top of the rear sight notch. With the fiberoptic front sight, centering a bright round dot in the square rear sight notch is just a new thing to get accustomed to, for tightening up the vertical slop in the group.

[Guest DanE479]

Somebody already mentioned it, but I have seen TFO sights get shredded in serious training. Mostly when doing one handed malfunction drills where you are using the rear sight to rack your slide. There's not a lot of protection built into those sights. I really prefer enclosed steel sights for my carry/combat guns. It's a durability thing, to me.

I use Big dot 24/7 sights on both my Glocks, and I will have a Big dot front on my Remington 870 very soon. XS makes the best front sight out there, in my experience. It's so easy to acquire in any condition.

As for the Beretta 92: If you want a tritium set installed, ToolTech will drill the exsisting front post, and insert a tritium tube, and replace your rear sights for you. They are the goto shop for Trijicon night sights. Home