glow on sight paint

S

siloshooter

New member
after looking at different night sights , meprolight , truglow etc. i decided the paint was a viable alternative . glow on seemed like the front runner in the paint options AND it was much more economical than replacing the sights ! has anyone used this glow on paint and how do you like it . ?
i will admit that the tru glow sights seem really useful and some of the u tube videos showed how radiant these sights are .... even in the day light. i simply didnt want to lay out the big $ , $150-$200 per gun , depending what firearm you were putting them on .
decided to try the paint , my order only came to $25 , and buy some more mags & ammo.

















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has anyone ever used the glow on paint on their guns ... handguns , rifles or whatever ?
 
It's simple luminous acrylic paint available at Walmart or any good craft or hobby shop. About $1.79 a bottle. Works very well.

I tried it, but night sights are a no go for me. They glowed bright enough, but I have a dead spot in the middle of my eye that does not allow me to see night sights in the dark unless I glance from side to side.:(

(As an aside, you can also paint some on your light switches.:D)
 
There's some europium glow powder on united nuclear's website that isn't nearly as scary as it's name sounds, mostly science project stuff, but they do sell the parts to make a high intensity infrared laser "death ray".

Apparently the green will visibly glow for about 12+ hours after exposure to uv light. it can be mixed with clear paint in more concentration than your likely to get in glow paint, there are other colors but they are not as bright or glow as long.

Link to their glow powder and paint.
http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?cPath=28_45
 
I've used the Glow On paints. Best glow paint I've used. Charge it for 5 seconds with a UV light and it'll glow for an hour or more. Charge it for a minute and it'll glow for half a day.

Make sure you have a good bright white base coat. Once the glow paint is on and dry, seal it with a clear coat. The reason is that the glow paint is slightly grainy and can rub off without a clear coat.
 
I have a bottle of it right here. I bought it a few years ago to see how far luminous paints had come. I'm not impressed.

It's a neat toy for things that get quite a bit of ambient light, but it sucks on gun sights. Gun sights aren't normally exposed to bright light. The Glow On stuff glows brightly for a few minutes after charging, but it deteriorates rapidly.
I guess you could "charge" your sights with a bright light (and destroy your night vision!)

Learn to point shoot your gun and you don't need glow sights.

Should you still determine that you need little lights on your gun, spend the $100 or so and put real tritium sights on.
 
Learn to point shoot your gun and you don't need glow sights.
Click to expand...
The ultimate solution for shooting in low light, except for one thing, target identification.
The same for night vision sights.
If you can't positively ID the target, the sights don't matter.
But learning to point shoot cures a lot of shooting ailments.
 
I tried glow-in-the-dark paint on one of my guns.

Not really worth it in the end: would need exposure to UV or a torch before use, which is not something you'd have time for if you ever needed to shoot in a situation where you needed to shoot in the dark.

Finally settled on a FO front.

On two other occasions I just picked guns that had night sights fitted.
 
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Tritium is the current answer.

Paint is not much help. If you wanted a complete outfit, a UV LED in your holster would keep your luminescent paint ready to go.

Once upon a time you could get miniature lamps imbedded in your sights with a battery in the grip and tiny fine wires in grooves milled in the receiver and barrel.
 
I have night sights on all my carry guns. They are worth the money for potentially helping save your life. However, I recently acquired a full size p320 for cheap that had contrast sights on it. Since I don't carry it and got it worth the money I didn't want to sink a lot into it for resale purposes if necessary. I got some nail polish from the gf and blacked out the rear sight and used a neon yellow for the front sight. Turned out awesome. I have 1000 rounds through it and still holding strong. Best of all it was free. Can get pics if anyone is interested.
 
I use Model Master Fluorescent Red on the sights I don't want to go to the expense of replacing with fibre optic.

A night sight with the blade painted around the tritium lamp is a big help in all lighting conditions.
 
well shoot !

painted a couple of handgun sights with this stuff . some of you were spot on ...... i am not impressed with this glow on paint ! :confused: tried shining a light directly on the painted sights , worked for a very short time. BUT there is no info in the paint instructions stating there is any need to do this .

when the smoke clears , read that work up some more $ , i will be looking at replacement nite sights .... anyone reading this can weigh in on the best choices in these . definitely want something that is very near the same size as the factory sights . talking mainly glocks .
is it possible to put night sights on fixed revolver sights with out a lot of trouble/expense ? !
thanks
 
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