Tritium Sights - How bright should they be?

[CarbineCaleb]

Hi folks - I just mail ordered some tritium sights direct from the maker to replace the current sights on my revolver, which are a Hi-Viz green fiber front, and a white outline adjustable rear.

Well, I haven't taken the sights outta the container yet, but it is clear plastic, and I am able to see the tritium, and am kind of dissapointed in the brightness.

It's a cloudy day, and I am looking at my current sights and prospective new ones in indoor/cloudy daylight. In rooms with windows, my current Hi-Viz fiber is *much* brighter, in fact I can't see the tritium glow at all under these conditions. It's only when I get into really dim shadows, like my bathroom, which has no windows, that the Hi-Viz fiber goes dark, and then the tritium glow shows up. Even there, while yes, I can certainly see it, it's not exactly a beacon, just a dim green glow.

Is this what other people see with their tritium sights too?

[Shaun]

I have night sights on my kimber, and they are fairly bright in the dark. At night i can see them glowing across the room on my nightstand easily. During the day or in semi lighted situations i dont notice the glow. So yours dont seem to be doing anything wrong in those semidark situations, but if they dont light up in the dark they are defective. Remember tho, they arnt lights in the sense of a lightbulb, but a radioactive glow, so they are not intended to be a beacon, more of a reminder/indication of where your sight dots are.

[jhenry]

The Tritium sights produce their own light while the fiber optic ones utilize ambiant light. The Tritium sights look just like regular dot sights untill you get into low light conditions. I personally find the fiber optic/HiViz sights a bit distracting.

[oldbillthundercheif]

I've got a set of Trijicons on one of my 1911s that glow fairly noticably in anything less than direct sunlight or bright indoor light. They are almost five years old. You should have seen them when they were new and emitting electrons in vast quantities.

What brand of glowing goodness do you have mounted upon your steel?

[NCHornet]

You are comparing tow totally different types of sights. The tritium sights generate their own illumination in low light or darkness. During the day they will look like regular sights. The Hi Viz sights take light and enhances it, in total darkness the HI VIZ will ne No Viz, so you see you can't compare the two. What makes the biggest difference in the tritium is the size of the cell that contains the radioactive material. I recently purchased a NAA Guardian with gutter snipes. The tritium cells are very small due to the size of the sight itself, however on a full size duty gun the cell is able to be much larger and thus contain more of the material so they will tend to be brighter. My slide actually is at PTSights right now getting the cells replaced under their 15 year warranty. Check them out they are doing a lot of work with different colored night sights. I may order a set of blue rear and orange front for my Glock. I hope this has helped you.

[CarbineCaleb]

What brand of glowing goodness do you have mounted upon your steel?

The new sights are from XS-Sights. I didn't expect them to be super bright, but expected them to be brighter than they are. The factory illustrations look like this, which makes it look like they can be seen even in the light, but mine don't look like this at all:


Maybe they have been sitting around awhile, I dunno. I looked up tritium, and it has a half-life of 12 years, so that means you should get a 50% dimming in 12 years from the 'birth' of the tritium material, but that's a pretty long time.

Unfortunately, Trijicon doesn't seem to make revolver sights, just semiauto, but it seems Meprolight makes revolver sights too.

[CarbineCaleb]

Here's a picture of the package, sitting on a book, in real dim light. You can see the tritium, but it's not much brighter than the book binding text, which has no tritium - it's not a tactical book.

Maybe I'll start by contacting the XS folks on Monday and see what they say...

[cheygriz]

The "glow" from tritium sights should not be visible in bright light. but it should glow well in the dark.

[Baphomet]

They look fine to me.

Night sights are designed to be able to be seen at night, not illuminate the entire room so you don't stub your toe on the coffee table. In normal lighting the white outline serves to define the aiming point and the tritium will be all but invisible. The factory illustration, I don't think, meant to convey that the tritium is always visible, but rather how the sights look overall, and how the tritium inserts compare to the rest of the sight.

[CarbineCaleb]

Well, if this is what they are supposed to look like, I will need to rethink this tritium sights thing. They are really only useful when being moved slowly so I can find them, in light so dark I can barely see the whole gun. In that case, I also could barely even see a person.

[oldbillthundercheif]

If you really have to struggle to see them in the dark, there is something wrong.

Maybe you got a set that had been sitting on a shelf for a half-life or two?

Did you buy them from some monsterous mail-order giant or directly from the XS folks?

[cheygriz]

Send 'em back to XS. My "Big Dots" look like green stars in full dark.

[scottl]

http://tooltechgunsight.com/index.ph...tpage&Itemid=1

[Frenchwrench]

I have the XS Bigdot sights on my Glock 22. They glow when you cup your hand over them. In full dark they are quite bright. Send them back, they have had this problem before. Try the search function on this sight.

[CarbineCaleb]

Thanks guys - I did order them direct from XS Sights, but maybe it's just a QC or age issue. I will return them for an exchange.

[chris in va]

I agree, those look kinda dim to me. Even the 12 year old stock tritiums on my Sig glow about like that.