I currently only own one tritium sight setup. Dot front, bar rear. And I have the rear blacked out. Did that with the three dots I had as well. (I HATE e dot sights, NS or not and always black out the rears.)

I read the warning about these things in the manual... perfectly safe as long as you don't break them open and then burn the stuff....

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Here's the thing. Much can be debated about this or that.

One fact remains-

If you can hold a pistol in such a fashion that somehow the front night sight gets lost outside of the two rear vials, you need training, not a quick fix by way of a front sight only.

Having a front only isn't going to be any "faster" in low light/no light inside of a residence. Yeah, I get the fact that there are situations to where you won't need a light to ID the target, but can you really give me a common scenario to where you need to speed shoot someone with no light to the point to where you're debating one set up versus another? Be prepared for anything, right? I get that too. But, I think you are to the point where you are trying to pull fly shit out of pepper. Both systems will be about the same if you were to put it on a timer. The human eye try to center things such as sights, and that is why it doesn't like to accept gross misalignments. Whether it tries to center a front in rear blackness, or front dot trying to center the rear. It just tries to center.

I can't see that front sight only would be any faster, and the greater issue is alignment confusion of front to rear. That is most definitely a training issue that needs to be addressed.

Aside from that, I think that its six in one, half dozen in another. The important part is some type of night sight. After that, you're 50/50.

Thanks very much Jerry.

I know like fiber optic front sights, with tritium rears. I did some work in the dark, and I picked up tritium sights a bit faster - fiber optics were still better than metal, when using a light.

However, that requires having my glasses on. I'd rather rely on a laser sight, for very dark condition, and mainly just use the tritium with the intent of finding/indexing in the dark.

wrightd, I've used a Tritium front, with black, 2-dot, bar, Heinie Straight-8/dot over dot, etc. rears. Did a fair amount of low light,ambient light, with/without flashlight, etc. training during some years in LE. The black rear, or horizontal bar under the notch, rears worked best for me. But that's just my brain, and others find other combinations superior.

FWIW, Years ago a friend told me he had done some testing on this issue for an article he was writing. He reported that in his tests, a front night sight with black rear was fastest, and the 3-dot front/rear night sight combination was more accurate. I wasn't present for the testing, so don't know exact test conditions, but do know he's a very knowledgeable and proficient shooter.....ymmv

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Here's the thing. Much can be debated about this or that.

One fact remains-

If you can hold a pistol in such a fashion that somehow the front night sight gets lost outside of the two rear vials, you need training, not a quick fix by way of a front sight only.

Having a front only isn't going to be any "faster" in low light/no light inside of a residence. Yeah, I get the fact that there are situations to where you won't need a light to ID the target, but can you really give me a common scenario to where you need to speed shoot someone with no light to the point to where you're debating one set up versus another? Be prepared for anything, right? I get that too. But, I think you are to the point where you are trying to pull fly shit out of pepper. Both systems will be about the same if you were to put it on a timer. The human eye try to center things such as sights, and that is why it doesn't like to accept gross misalignments. Whether it tries to center a front in rear blackness, or front dot trying to center the rear. It just tries to center.

I can't see that front sight only would be any faster, and the greater issue is alignment confusion of front to rear. That is most definitely a training issue that needs to be addressed.

Aside from that, I think that its six in one, half dozen in another. The important part is some type of night sight. After that, you're 50/50.

Thanks very much Jerry.

It is my pleasure. To what I think you are trying to ask, most of the replies have gone away from your question, and toward "This is what I like and I think it is better because XYZ".

The brain tries to center things. It doesn't care about eye sight, it doesn't care about dots, vials or dashes, and it doesn't care about lighting. The Russians spent a ton of time studying this concept in their Olympic shooting programs, and they came to the consensus for their purposes that the "fastest" sight were black on black serrated because the brain simply wants to line things up, and it doesn't care about the things. This is why many people struggle with yanking the crap out of the trigger when the sights look right. The brain doesn't accept misalignment, the shooter makes the sighting correction, and thinks NOW (Boom). It is the scientific pretext to Robby Leathams "Aiming is Useless" video that many people often refer to. Aiming is not useless, but how we process the data, and how it directly effects items such as follow through can't be disputed.


Enter our own preferences. I *think* for my 50 year old eyes that are still working as they did when I was 30 that the Trijicon HDs work the best. I *think*ow that it assists the brain in somewhat centering the front sight for me and my needs "faster". Truth be known, I am probably just as "fast" with any sights, in any lighting condition. I have just conditioned myself to prefer the HDs. I like them, that is a fact.

That kind of goes with what I'm thinking of trying with my new Sig P320compact with Romeo sights... I'm thinking what will be actually quicker is instead of trying to find the dern little red dot just do the natural thing of lining the sights up and then the dot will be right over them... another nano second to steady the dot and 'boom'.