What's the lifespan of Tritium Sights?

H

Hook_N_Bullet

New member
I've had my Kimber CDP for about 3 months and I noticed my Front Sight is no longer visible in the dark. The rear sight is still excellent though.

I e-mailed Kimber, and they will replace the front sight under warranty. But how long will it last? Did I get a faulty front sight?...I Hope so.

Please Advise

Dave
 
I think the way to look at it is: "What's the half-lifespan of Tritium sights". That's because the tritium gas (a special form of hydrogen) that reacts with another element (I can't remember which one) to make the sights glow is mildly (safely) radioactive, and therefore degrades in a natural logarithmic, or progressively declining, fashion. Trijicon guarantees their sights for 12 yrs, which is roughly the half-life of tritium (12.5 yrs). Therefore, at 12.5 yrs, the sights should be 1/2 as bright as the day they were made, and then dim further as time passes. If yours degraded that quickly, it was most likely due to a leak in the gas tube that contains the tritium.

Apologies for the half-baked science lesson.
 
My CZ99 has factory night sites (tritium tubes). I purchased almost 12yrs ago...and by chance I looked at the sites in very dark dark conditions last weekend.. and...they have lost about half the brightness they had when they were new.
 
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