So as my eyes age, I find it more difficult to line up the existing Trijicon night sights. I value the ability to see the sights at night but the front sight is harder to pick up at day time.

I've been thinking about replacing my front sight with what looks to be the perfect solution - XDR sight.


They are offered in orange or yellow - see below:





Since I have zero experience in either replacing a sight, or, deciding which color is better I thought I would ask all of you for advice.

Most of the NS I am installing for customers are tritium sights with an orange dot. My son feels he can acquire a target faster it the orange sights. I paint my front sight with yellow enamel and when dry use a pointed Q-tip to clean the tritium center. Yellow seems to work well for me in this manner.

Personally, I like yellow. In fiber optics, I pick up green better than red, so I went with yellow over orange. YMMV. You could always get a few bottles of brightly colored nail polish, paint your existing front sight with one color and try it out, then remove it and try the other color.

quote:

Originally posted by JAFO:
Personally, I like yellow. In fiber optics, I pick up green better than red, so I went with yellow over orange. YMMV. You could always get a few bottles of brightly colored nail polish, paint your existing front sight with one color and try it out, then remove it and try the other color.

good idea!

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:

quote:

Originally posted by JAFO:
Personally, I like yellow. In fiber optics, I pick up green better than red, so I went with yellow over orange. YMMV. You could always get a few bottles of brightly colored nail polish, paint your existing front sight with one color and try it out, then remove it and try the other color.

good idea!

Good start. Now we're barking up the RIGHT tree.

Generally, sight selection is a personal preference and is also related to the shooter's physiological eye characteristics/problems. Including color. Just because it works for one guy doesn't necessarily mean it works for another. This is especially true when it comes to aging. The definitive answer is listening to what your tired old eyes actually LIKE. There really aren't any shortcuts.

The processing of colors can vary from person to person. OP, you may want to see a good ophthalmologist if you're getting older and notice changes in your shooting vision and performance. Even if he is not familiar with handguns, he should be able to explain what is happening. You will then be "armed" (ha ha) with more information to help with the problem(s).

I'm 76 and have gone through several vision cycles and issues. As I got older, I was unable to use three dot anythings. OK, blacked out the rear dots. Then eventually, the front sight became fuzzier...and fuzzier. Later there was no light separation on my sight picture...just a big fuzzy blob sitting on top of my slide. Then I started using my computer glasses. Great sight picture but target itself was super fuzzy.

THEN, a few years later, my sight picture started returning. Slowly, but eventually I had a mediocre, slightly fuzzy sight picture back. Went to my ophthalmologist and he said that happens in many people. The process reverses itself somewhat.

THEN a few years later the SHTF. Nothing worked. I had glaucoma in both eyes as well as cataracts forming. Got used to working with a very fuzzy sight picture. I'm strictly a defensive shooter and have been at it for 50 years. With good fundamentals, I could still get decent groups at normal defensive distances.

The glaucoma and cataract in the right eye (used for aiming) deteriorated to the point I needed eye surgery. The surgeon had no knowledge of firearms. However, I brought in a slide and showed her what was involved. Before the surgery, she spoke with three other specialists and they came up with the specs for the lens to be used to replace the cataract. BINGO...I now have a perfect sight picture using my right eye. Some shooting issues can't be solved on a forum, even a very good one like SF.

FWIW, I don't use night sights. All of mine are black/black. Night sight vials cause me problems in sun and fluorescent lighting. Glare in direct sunlight and fuzzing under indoor fluorescent. Even after the surgery. Black works for me.

For those that laugh at the dummy for not using night sights on a defensive pistol. We have indoor ranges at our club and they are equipped with lighting controls, I've shot in pitch darkness all the way up to ambient lighting levels. No problem under those conditions keeping up with the other guys who all had night sights. After 50 years of defensive shooting and 25 years of teaching, I have good fundamentals. Can't speak for anyone else, but this works for me.

Sorry for the length, but there isn't any concise way to explain this stuff. Good luck.

It's mostly personal preference. Personally, I have a slight preference for yellow over orange.

However, it's also partly environmental. I have both orange and yellow HD front sight on various guns, and I've noticed that orange works a little better than yellow when shooting outdoors in bright direct sunlight, since the yellow starts to wash out a bit in bright light. Whereas yellow works a little better than orange when indoors in slightly dimmer light (like an indoor range), since the yellow stands out a tiny bit more in dimmer light.

But the difference is minimal. It mainly comes down to just personal preference.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
It's mostly personal preference. Personally, I have a slight preference for yellow over orange.

However, it's also partly environmental. I have both orange and yellow HD front sight on various guns, and I've noticed that orange works a little better than yellow when shooting outdoors in bright direct sunlight, since the yellow starts to wash out a bit in bright light. Whereas yellow works a little better than orange when indoors in slightly dimmer light (like an indoor range), since the yellow stands out a tiny bit more in dimmer light.

But the difference is minimal. It mainly comes down to just personal preference.

My preference is for yellow fronts as well.

I figure the times when I'll most likely need to employ my pistol, it'll probably be on the darker side of the day.

Orange night sights and red fiber optics are what stand out to my crappy eyes best. I believe it's personal preference.
What I did was purchase a Hiviz front sight and it came with a small collection of different colored FO rods. They can be easily swapped out at the range so you can figure out what color works best for you.

Thank you for all your replies!

Prefer orange then yellow in that order. Do not care for red at all.

quote:

Originally posted by JAFO:
Personally, I like yellow. In fiber optics, I pick up green better than red, so I went with yellow over orange. YMMV. You could always get a few bottles of brightly colored nail polish, paint your existing front sight with one color and try it out, then remove it and try the other color.

I've never messed with Yellow but have tried green, blue and red/orange on the 2 guns that have a FO front site. I like Green by far the best. At the range, a lot of targets have red on them and the red sight blends in. I would think yellow would be easier to acquire than red but would prefer green.

I prefer orange; I've found that I see it much better against all backgrounds than I do yellow. Yellow washes out against light backgrounds to me, but orange contrasts against almost everything, and I pick it up right away.

I use Trijicon HD sights and the XR (which is a thinner HD front), with the deep u-notch and subdued rear vials, with a non-reflective matte serrated rear sight surface.

This last week I had most of the orange on the front sight on a P320 disappear while I was running it on steel night. The sight became less visible, and looked uneven as the ring wasn't complete. Trijicon is sending a label and I'll send the slide to them, along with another to get XR sights.

The HD sights are on all my carry pistols, and all my Glocks. All orange, all identical.

I have orange and yellow on different guns. I definitely prefer orange. Yellow gets washed out in bright daylight.

Like Nipper, I have glaucoma, too, at 49 years old. Pressures are often high and I have to use 3 different eye drops to keep them down. Luckily, I have only minor optic nerve damage, but my right eye (dominant) is blurry 24/7. So, I see orange MUCH better when it comes to tritium sights (like Ameriglo Bold). The yellow fronts "wash out" in bright lighting conditions. I just don't see the yellow as well, even when contrasted with a dark target, such as a B-27, but I don't think I'm the only one. All of my co-workers run orange fronts on their Glocks and rave about their visibility, including a friend who has both yellow and orange on 2 different Glocks. He's 52 and strongly prefers the orange.

Ironically, I do see green fiber optic front sights better than red, but I've heard that this is common with aging eyes.

YMMV. Good luck!

Thanks all, orange it shall be.

I'll be celebrating the big Six-Oh 2 weeks from today, and sights have been an issue for me for about 10-15 years now (I've been wearing glasses for the past 6-7 years). I've found that my Trijicon XR HD's with the orange front post work pretty good.

Well, I took the advice and have "painted" my front sight with this:



The next pic is the result:



I've not been to the range yet but so far I think I like the front sight in orange!

I just got through installing Trijicon HD XR sights on my P229 with the orange front sight.

I have the same sights on my Glock 17, 19 and 41 so I thought it best to remain consistent.

I called Trijicon and spoke with their Tech Support. He said their sights are "cut the bullseyet" rather than Sig's POA/POI which covers the bullseye. I do not like SIG's sight regulation.

I've been using some Trijicon XR yellow sights lately to experiment, and I quite like them. I'll be running some on P320's shortly.