Night sights?

[gobrob]

Are night sights the lamp thingeys on the rail, or are they an actual replacement for the sights, or can it mean both??
I read a couple articles where people rave over them, and when i look it up online, they come with like 12yr batteries, but i am not quite getting what they are.......
Rob

 

[phronq]

The night sights I'm aware of are sights on top of the gun that have some sort of phosphorescent marks on 'em.

The lamps for the rail isn't a sight, it's a light.

 

[Hitzy]

Night sights are generally your standard 3 dot sights with small tritium inserts in them.

What is Tritium?
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with atoms three times the mass of ordinary light hydrogen atoms. Simply put: it glows for a long time. The half-life of tritium is 12.5 years, giving a tritium micro sphere a usable life of more than 15 years. Tritium requires no external batteries or light and is a safe, reliable way for a shooter to obtain a superior sight picture in low-light conditions. These sights are a tremendous aid in delivery of precise and accurate fire at night and in low light conditions.Gunsights which are identifiable by radioluminescent capsules installed into front and rear sights. Decay of Tritium H3 creates soft beta rays that, when they strike the phosphor particles that coat the inside of the glass microsphere, are converted to visible light.

Tritium's half life (the time required to reduce the illumination level by 50%) should be about 12.5 years. With a functional life exceeding 15 years.

 

[foxbat]

Night sights imply irons sight, usually front and rear, that contain tritium
(mildly radioactive) that are visible without any ambient light... i.e. you can
see, and hopefully align the front and rear sights, when otherwise you wouldn't be able to... very useful for combat/defensive firearm applications.
This is very different than mounting an actual emitting, visible light source...
like a Surefire or Streamlight on a rail on the frame, which is useful for deciding whether or not you really want to align the iron sights on the intended target....

 

[hr]

Trijicon is a mfg of illuminating (night) sights (pictures too)

http://www.trijicon.com/user/parts/parts_new.cfm?categoryID=7

 

[gobrob]

Thanks!!
Rob

 

[Nine]

Here is a low light pic of the tritium night sights that came on my CZ SP-01.

 

[gobrob]

Man, night sights look really cool.
Good cool factor!!
Are they something you can buy, and install yourself?
Rob

 

[Nine]

Well, they can be bought as an after market accessory, but it would be a better bet to have a gunsmith install them. A set of 3 dot greens costs around the $170-ish mark. The Shooting Edge has Meprolight night sights listed on their website: http://www.theshootingedge.com/files/Price Guide.pdf (Page 9)