As pretty much everyone has noticed, it’s dark at least 50% of the time.
One of the nice things about the Ruger GP-100 series of pistols is an easiliy swappable front sight. In fact Ruger sells different colored inserts inserts of color so you can find pretty much whatever you want. Unfortuantely, a self-luminating (self-luminous?) front sight was not one of them. Not to fear, the free market abhors a vacuum. I went with the Meprolights since, to be honest, there’s not a huge amount of choices when it comes to revolver night sights, unlike, say, Glocks where everyone makes them.
The rear sight was an easy install, the front sight took a little time with a stone to remove a bit of excess material from the sight.
The finished product, of course, needs to go the range and be sighted in with my usual load of Unique under a 158 gr. JHP.
I have met people who have said that night sights are pointless…if you can’t see your sights, then its dark enough you can see your target. I want to call this a rather stupid argument but I’m a bit more diplomatic than that so I’ll just call it ‘shortsighted’.
These arguments discount the possibility of scenarios where, for example, you may be standing in a darkened area but your target is in a lit area. Or the light is dim/fading and theres enough light to see a target but not quite enough light to rapidly acquire your sights.
But here’s the most important reason for me: because I believe they have a utility to me.
Crom forfend, but if I am ever in a situation where gunplay means the difference in terms of my immediate and long-term safety, I’m going to want every advantage possible. Night sights are an advantage.
I put night sights on all my Glocks, and whenever possible I add a tactical light as well. I am surprised that night sights on revolvers are such a seemingly rare commodity these days. I understand that it’s kind of a pain in the butt to make a Model 60 with an interchangeable front sight blade and a dovetail for what would normally be a fixed frame, but, cmon, a gun designed for self-defense should recognize that often those moments take place in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. Ruger, at least, recognizes this and offers a version of their excellent SP101 snubby with front and rear dovetail sights.
I’m pretty sure someone in comments is going to say something about how night sights give your position away to anyone with NOD/NVD’s and therefore you’re not being tactical by having them on your gun, etc, etc. For that, I refer you to the paragraph three above this one.
I go with red dots
If possible I put night sights on all my defensive handguns. I plan to purchase a new J frame solely because the particular model has a
front night sight and a rear (vs u shaped trench) rear sight.
Personally I favor a front “night sight” and a blacked out rear sight. It’s a coke vs Pepsi thing though.
“ I want to call this a rather stupid argument but I’m a bit more diplomatic than that so I’ll just call it ‘shortsighted’.”
I saw what you did there.
“I’m pretty sure someone in comments is going to say something about how night sights give your position away to anyone with NOD/NVD’s and therefore you’re not being tactical by having them on your gun, etc, etc.”
They would be self-revealed idiots, because anyone with NOD/NVDs would have already seen you long before the sights on your pistol became an issue in either direction, and killed you deader than canned tuna long before you cleared leather.
This from someone who’s used NOD/NVDs under tactical conditions.
Night vision and an IR sight and/or IR targeting laser is the closest thing to being a hunter with a bat clubbing baby Harp seals you’ll ever find in the world of interpersonal combat.
Thermal is even better/worse, in that in finally takes “If you can be seen, you can be shot, and if you can be shot, you can be killed” to the point that whoever sees the enemy second is going to die first.
Every. Single. Time.
Anyone who thinks that won’t eventually (probably sooner than later, in fact) trickle down to the Bump-In-The-Night Olympics should see me about a bridge I have for sale, for cash.
did not XS sights have revolver sights?
I prefer them over Meprolights.
well, in the old days we used to put white tape on the front sight post. say about 1/4 inch wide or so. also did a white tape strip on the top of the shotgun barrel for the point guy. then the army came out with night sights for the M-16.
I still use white tape myself on the house shotgun.
although I am thinking of getting night sights for my SA-35 here soon.
used to keep a small strip of white tape on the top of my old 1911 slide.
like , about 1/4 wide right before the ejection port and tapering down to a point
behind the front sight. not real fancy, but it did help out a lot in the dark.
I have the same sight set on my Ruger .357 Match Champion and need to order a set for the same gun in 10mm. Except for several of the blue cities, most predators of various leg counts hunt at night. GF
night time outdoors = 12 ga, 3″ mag turkey load, backed up by 00 buck. no precision necessary. just an option, it worked for me
May be, I don’t think thats a reason for omitting something like night sights. Last time I needed to shoot something, it was so close I didn’t even need regular sights, but that doesn’t mean I think theyre unnecessary.
My house howitzer came with a bright orange tape on the ramped front sight and a OG pre sure fire friend.
I do use #1 buck which shoots a nice pattern at the range that concerns me but I’d prefer to have the ability to center that pattern where I mean to.