Night Sights

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nanney1

New member
Looking at the M&P Shield. Local shop has it in stock with night sights and an extra 8 round mag. Very good price. Sales guy says if you plan to carry concealed, then you definitely need night sights. And they are heavily discounted in this package.

I can get the base gun cheaper online. Don't know that I really want or need the night sights. The extra mag is nice, but the difference in cost could be used for ammo and other items. Cost difference will be $60-65 between the two after transfer.

Why are night sights a "definite need" for CC?
 
They're not 'needed' as some claim. They do make shooting in low light ranges easier, but thats about it. If it's that dark where you can see the night sights, but can't identify the target, what's the point? Carry a small flashlight instead.
 
I disagree, there are times in low light conditions when you can identify a potential target but have trouble seeing your sights. Night sights give you the advantage of hitting your target without giving away you position as a flashlight does.

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I think night sights are a scam. I carry a flashlight instead. Flashlights may "reveal your position", but I'm not planning to sneak up on someone in the dark and shoot them, if I'm ever in a CCW shooting scenario it's because I'm facing imminent danger. I can't imagine a scenario where my position isn't already "revealed" in that context, otherwise how could I be facing such an imminent threat? Flashlights are pretty good at blinding people who look at them as well which I consider a tactical advantage.

Some swear by night sights though so hopefully someone who believes in then can better articulate their value.
 
For carry gun purposes I think night sights are a waste. If you ever do need to fire your gun in a life threatening situation you will not even notice the sights. It will be a point and shoot situation not a case of lining up your shot like at a range. Just my opinion anyway.
 
For carry gun purposes I think night sights are a waste. If you ever do need to fire your gun in a life threatening situation you will not even notice the sights. It will be a point and shoot situation not a case of lining up your shot like at a range. Just my opinion anyway.
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Fully agree.
 
My G19 has been wearing it's plastic sights for years, they are 100% fine.

If you must have night sights Glock has the best deal around for their guns. 68.00 bucks? or thereabouts. You can just send in the slide, no shipping issues.

I have though a couple times I would send mine in for night sights. So I would be needing a second set by now, had I bought it with new ones.
Naw, just have better priorities for the money.
 
I wouldn't call night sights a waste, but I wouldn't say they are needed either.

Night sights can give you an advantage in the dark. So does a light. Just having a gun gives you an advantage. Getting good training gives you an advantage. Being in good physical shape gives you an advantage. Having good situational awareness and common sense to avoid a confrontation in the first place gives you an advantage. These may be all cumulative advantages BTW, depending on the circumstances.

I use Truglo Night sights with a fiber optic. It gives me bright dots on my sights day or night. I also have a Crimson Trace Lightguard Pro 90 Lumen light on my gun as well.

If you can pick the time and place someone will attack you, then I would say just don't show up. But very few get that luxury.

Since I don't know where I might be or what the conditions will be if I'm ever attacked, I like to be prepared for as many contingencies as I can.
 
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My opinion is they are helpful and nice to have, but aren't absolutely required as some would tell you. Here's the thing, a lot of mass produced guns have not so wonderful stock sights. And three off-white dots are hard to see when things get dim, especially if you've got aging eyes or eye issues to begin with. It's not as simple as dark vs sunny, you've got low light situations such as parking lots, areas in the home where it's a little less dark than others, etc. If you've ever been in a big parking lot at night, you know there are spots where it's dark and spots where it's bright, and plenty of shadowy spots for someone to pop out of unnoticed. The lighting isn't consistent basically.

Night sights can help you pick up a potential target a bit quicker in such conditions. Being a bit foggy is another good example. We're not going to fire if we can't see our target clearly enough to see friend from foe or their actions, but a light fog can really do a number on standard sights. Look at it this way, if you hate your stock sights and are going to change them anyway, what will it hurt? Most night sights don't cost a lot more than a really good set of standard sights.
 
I'd personally want to make sure I have a good handheld light first (in fact I keep reminding people that don't own firearms that they should get a light every time they ask me to borrow mine). After that I think weapon mounted lights can have advantages. After those I can see night sights being useful.

I've done a full day low light pistol course (indoors, obviously). What I found in that is that in many cases by the time the glow on night sights is finally starting to pay off it's too dark for me to see the target and I need a light. Once the light is on the backwash completely drowns the nights sights.

Now all that said, there are some cases where I do think night sights are useful. Parking lots are one of them. Generally there is enough light to identify a threat but not enough to really acquire sights. While I get the argument that most shootings will be reflexive in nature without full sight pictures, and the force on force I've done leads me to agree with that, I do think having the ability to acquire your sights on the off chance of needing to make a longer range shot or a more precise shot is important. In those cases night sights pay off. They also pay off if you're in a dimly lit area and shooting into a brighter area, which can happen when shooting from a dwelling to the outside or from one darker room to a room with much more light.

So again, I think there are situations where they can help, I just think a light of some form is a bigger priority.
 
One benefit of nighters is gun orientation in low light conditions such as home defense. I keep my Beretta on the nightstand and at any point can look and see exactly where the gun is and it's orientation in case I need to fetch it.
 
For carry gun purposes I think night sights are a waste. If you ever do need to fire your gun in a life threatening situation you will not even notice the sights. It will be a point and shoot situation not a case of lining up your shot like at a range. Just my opinion anyway.
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. . . And that is the thing a lot of CCW people don't seem to realize. One ain't gonna be using sights in the first shot usually. That's why CT lasers and other auto activate lasers are so very useful.

Going back to night sights - they help . . . just another tool in the box.
 
That's why CT lasers and other auto activate lasers are so very useful.
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If you have time to hunt for the laser dot on the threat you have time to acquire sights, IMO. I've seen people at the range spend more time hunting for the dot than if they had just used acquired the front sight. In total darkness it is faster to acquire the laser, but again then you need to illuminate to identify the threat. If you're running thermals or nightvision that doesn't allow you to fully acquire sights in some cases then I get the point of an IR laser and I also get the point of them for those with poor vision. But frankly at the distance where you have to be start getting hits as soon as possible, even out to say 7 yds, you can still get good hits reflexively without sights or the laser, just using your body to index.
 
If the target is illuminated but the sights aren't, then the tritium vial could be helpful I guess, but fiber optic may be just as good. The glow of tritium disappears quickly in even a small amount of direct illumination.

In my opinion, they may not help but they won't hurt.
 
They are nice, but they are not a must have. I have two guns with them but would not spend much extra money to buy a new gun with them.
 
I get them on every gun, if possible. To me, the bright white circles around the tritium are easier to see than plain white dots, usually. The white dots are usually in small depressions. If you walk around your house... as you walk thru shadows, they can disappear for a second here and there... Depending on the particular way the sigbths are made (newer guns with polymer white dots that sit flush to the sight usually do not suffer from this).

I also shoot at a dimmly lit indoor range. I always do better with tritium sights. Not because the place is dark enough to see the tritium, but because those white circles around the tritium stands out more, because it is flush with the rear of the sight. For me, they are required on a gun.
 
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