P T Night Sights: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

W

Will Beararms

New member
I had a set of the green PT's put on a Glock 23 today for $89.95 installed in 20 minutes. I asked about these on another forum and was told in spite of the 15 year warranty, they often fade or stop outright due to faulty containers for the tritium.

Has anyone had any experiences with PT's. Heck, if they do go bad, I'll just switch over to trijicon or mepro. In the meantime, I'll be the guinea pig. Thank goodness it's not something that is beyond repair.

Thanks for your time.
 
I have them on all four of my Glocks and one of my Kel-Tec P-11s.


I haven't had any problems in the three years I've been using them.
 
9X19:

If you haven't already, go to B&S Guns in Mesquite, TX @ I-30 and Beltline. They are super people and put my PT's on yesterday in less than 30 minutes while I waited.

They have beaucoup Glocks right now 17 through 30.
 
I have PT sights on a S&W 669 (had the front sight dovetailed). I originally bought orange and red and they faded to "out" in less than a year. Have replaced them, under warranty, with green. Will let you know how long they last.

They were GOOD about replacing them quickly; my only cost was shipping the slide to them.

When I talked with them about replacement, they talked me out of replacing the original colors, noting that the red, orange and yellow sights don't hold up as well (brightness) as the green.

One of my friends put PTs on several of his guns, and has since replaced them all -- because of fading and dimness.

I'll go Meprolight or Trijicon the next time. I have both. (I like a white ring around a glowing insert, which makes them easier to see in daylight.)

Mark at Arizona Response Systems, who refinishes and repairs guns, despises the PT/MMC sights -- because if you're not careful some cleaning solvents and other (otherwise) safe gun cleaning materials will melt the glue in the tritium inserts an cause them to fall out. That is NOT a problem with Trijicon adn Meprolight.





[Edited by Walt Sherrill on 11-23-2000 at 10:39 AM]
 
I have MMC sights on both of my glocks, 19 and 26, and haven't had any problems with either. I recently toured the manufacturing sight for PT and MMC and can say that the place was first rate. They take great care in making those sites and I wouldn't put anything else on any of my handguns.
 
Will,

Thanks for the tip. I have a Glock rear sight tool, so I install my own. I got them, via mail-order, for about $60 delivered.
 
I bought 3 sets of Meprolites for $59 each and put them on myself (easy if you are careful). Was considering the PTs but was unsure. Had Mepros before and liked them. Then I saw this from an outfit that refinishes guns and it relates to the durability between the brands (that may or may not have a real-world relationship to everyday durability);

"We remove night sights, if possible, before processing. ......PT/Innovative Weaponry/MMC night sights fail every time and if they cannot be removed, they cannot be processed. Trijicon and Meprolite fail about 2% of the time at the 300 degree curing temperature."

For whatever its worth . . .
 
I have PT Night Sights on all of my Glocks (G26, G27, G33, G21) and on one of my S$Ws (4013). I purchased the 5 year old 4013 from my supervisor who was retiring and its PT sights had faded. Carried the 4013 over to Jason at IWI and he had the tubes replaced with the colors of my choice within 20 minutes (just had to give the glue in the tubes 24 hours to cure before shooting). They also went above and beyond in lowering the front sight (as in replacing the front sight) at no charge to me. At the same time, they also replaced, at no charge to me, the rear sight on my G26 with a newer and more tactical (lower and longer) model which they had just completed developing and, at the same time, also replaced my front sight tube just so that they would all be the same vintage ... it was still as bright as the day I brought it home.

I know that there are those who have had bad experiences with PT and I regret their bad experiences, but my reading of posts on this and other boards has demonstrated that one can find members with good experiences and members with bad experiences regarding ALL of the major brands of sights ... including but not limited to Heine, Novak, MMC, IWI, etc. Any company that stands behind its products with a 15 year warranty has shown me a level of commitment that I respect.

Another reason I appreciate PT is their option on colors ... green front and red rear is common here in Texas, and PT offers these in all of its dot and/or dot/bar combinations.

Regardless, good luck Will ... and I believe that if you have any problems with your sights, IWI will make them right.
 
I quick note on night sites:
In 1994 I bought a Beretta 96 with Trijicon sites installed from the factory. I liked them so much I took my Glock to my armor and had him put a set on them. Recently I picked up a new Glock 30 and had him install them on it also. Opon geting home with the new Glock took all three in to a dark room to see if there was a differnce. Wow the new Glock was three times brighter than the sites installed in 1994. The sites Bought in 1994 are still good ( can still pick them up fast in a back lite setting ) but I am thinking about replacing the old ones.
 
DPS0348:

If you are familiar with B&S Guns in Mesquite, TX off of Beltline and I-30, you probably know the owner, Steven Melton and what type of man he is. I happened to be in there and one of his people urged me to replace that front sight on the Glock 23 as they are prone to break if frequent presentations are made during training. Steven personally did the job in 20 minutes with the rear sight exactly where I had the old stock sights.

The jury is out on the durability of the PT's but I like the manner in which the rear sight goes all the way back to the rear end of the slide increasing the line of sight. I chose the three-dot green as I was unaware that multi-color patterns are available. Even so, I have had no problems with front sight acquisition at night thus far.

This is purely subjective but I like the deep neon green of the PT versus the other makes out there which IMHO are not as intense. I also like the fact that they are nearby and that it's a Texas company.
 
I had some tritium MMC's, and from what I understand they are actually made by PT. At any rate, the were DIM as hell from the get go. Green front, with red rears. Sent them back promptly ;) If the PT's are anything like MMC's inserts, I wouldn't mess with them.

I WILL say however that the actuall MMC sight design is great. Too bad they use such lame inserts.
 
Hey Will,

Have never visited B&S in Mesquite but now will have to make it a point to get over there and meet those folks. Thanks for the heads-up on them ... it's always nice to have another shop to visit!

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the 3-green configuration ... it is probably the most common and for a reason. If, however, you should ever decide to try a different combination, I would be willing to bet that Jason over at IWI would change your two back tubes for either no charge or a very nominal one. Innovative Weaponry Inc. is located off of 820W in Ft. Worth. Email me if and when you need directions ... they can be a little tough to locate the first time (esp. if you get lost as easily as I do!).

10-4 on the new design with the sight extending to the rear of the slide and actually slightly overhanging the edge. Makes for a longer sight radius as well as a more secure sight in one-handed-racking drills. I've personally not had or seen problems with front-sight loss or degradation but that's not to say that it has not or does not happen.

Lastly, that's one reason why I've chosen to use PT sights ... it is good to support the local economy.

Good luck to you, sir!
 
Most of them use Trilux vials so good with the most affordable.

The folks at PT offer great customer service and their sales to LE are ever increasing.

So be happy. Nothing wrong with PTs.
 
Have PT's (bar/dot) on two Glock's, and both sets are working just fine. In fairness though, can't comment on long-term brightness, durability, etc., as the oldest set I installed about four months ago.

Will -- like you I like the fact that the rear sight extends back beyond the dovetail. Only negative I've found so far is I can no longer ignore the potential for rust on these two Glock's. The PT sights need to have a thin film of oil on them or they develop a rust scale very quickly.
 
I've always said that Mepros were my favorites... then I saw this comment the other day on a website...

"NIGHT SIGHTS
We remove night sights, if possible, before processing. Factory Glock staked front sights cannot be removed without destroying them. Add $40 for replacing factory Glock staked front night sights. PT/Innovative Weaponry/MMC night sights fail every time and if they cannot be removed, they cannot be processed. Trijicon and Meprolite fail about 2% of the time at the 300 degree curing temperature."

see the whole story at http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com

Just sorta backed up what I felt all along... YMMV
 
Why in the world would you not remove night sights or any other sites if you were refinishing or coating a pistol? If it gets to 300 degrees around my pistol, I will have more problems than failing night sights.

If this outfit you mentioned does not remove the sights during a refinish job on the slide, I wouldn't go with em'.

I certainly have no bias in this because of the PT's go bad they're outta here but it did strike me as odd when AZResponse Systems made or allegedly made that comment.

As to the rust, thanks Fred, I bathed em' in Breakfree LP last night.
 
Will Beararms,

Read it again. Mark at ARS removes the sights if he can. If he can't remove them, then he works with what he has. Sometimes the sights can't be removed without screwing them up, like staked in sights. Arizona Response Systems is a top notch outfit that I would send my guns to anytime.

Rob
 
Yes I did misunderstand what they do. That having been said, I won't argue that Meps or Triji's may be better than the PT's but I can tell you as someone who was heavily involved in engineering adhesives for four years. Anything can fail at 300F. I would replace my night sights regardless of the brand if they saw 300F temps.
 
I had IWI(PT) night sights put on my Kimber Compact several years ago. The smith doing the work was, unfortunately, across the country. I had selected green front and red rears. When I got the gun back, one of the rear sights was bad (wouldn't glow). Sent it back to the smith, he replaced the sight and returned it to me. Now both rears glowed, but one was visibly brighter than the other. Within a year, the sights turned a yellowish color and stopped glowing.

I recently had fair amount of work done on the gun, and the smith doing the work said that IWI had a bad run a few years ago. He's used their sights quite a bit, and had several customer's sights fail about that time. He sent my sights back to IWI, where they were replaced under warranty. I chose all green this time. I've only had it back for a couple months, so it's too early to tell how well they will work this time. The smith still feels IWI makes a good product, so time will tell.

M1911
 
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