If you need to be able to defend yourself at night, then you’re looking for an awesome Glock night sights review. In this article we will cover a wide variety of sighting systems. We’ll talk about the best iron sights, and some great red dot sights for low light self defense. As you’ll see, most shooters aren’t really focusing on the right details when trying to find the best night sights for their particular needs. Keep reading for more.
When doing my research for this article, it was readily apparent that most of the Glock night sights reviews were written by robots, or people who hadn’t shot more than a box of ammo in the last 7 years. It’s also patently obvious that most most reviewers don’t do much shooting at night.
As many of you know I’m, a competition shooter, as well as a police officer. I do a lot of shooting, in all hours of the day and night. While this doesn’t make me the worlds greatest expert on night sights, I can tell you that there are several issues that come up when you actually need a good sight system. Here’s a quick overview of the article.
Table of Contents
Glock Night Sights Review
- Iron sights with tritium inserts are the best Glock sights for simplicity and durability
- Using a weapons mounted light can negate the need for night sights
- Red dot sights are good options for low light defense, provided it’s set correctly
- Stay away from exposed fiber optics sights for self defense use
- Rear sights with a ledge allow for one handed weapons manipulation
- Many of these sights come in different colors, follow the links for all options
Before we get to the details in this Glock night sights review, we need to discuss if you even need night sights. We will also talk about some facts and fallacies of low light shooting, which may help steer you towards one sighting system over another. Remember, there is no best system for everyone.
Do You Need Night Sights for Your Glock?
If you ask this question to most self defense minded, or tactical shooters, they will tell you that you need night sights to shoot at night. Unfortunately, they would be wrong, or at least no right enough. To illustrate this point I’m going to give you a little scenario.
You’re in your home, and you hear the proverbial bump in the night. You grab your Glock to go clear your house by yourself (not a good idea). You have a Glock 19 with standard tritium night sights, and no pistol light. You eventually confront the intruder, who is stealing your $3000 Taylor Swift tickets they saw on your kitchen counter.
You challenge them at gunpoint, and your sight picture is a dark blob, with three green dots in front of your face. You see nothing else! You can’t tell if they’re armed, or a drunk neighbor in the wrong house, or any other useful information. But hey, you can see your sights are in rough alignment!
You would be better off with a pistol light, and the standard Glock sights in this scenario. If you light up the person with your light, you will see a clear outline of your sights. You will also take away the intruders night vision, and disorient them. Most importantly, you can see if they’re armed.
Choosing Your Self Defense Pistol Setup
Don’t take this to mean I’m anti night sights for your self defense pistol. I’m simply pointing out that the ability to see three dots won’t solve this difficult and dangerous problem. I would argue that it does very little if you can’t ID the person in your house. It’s an all too common tale for someone to shoot a family member at night because they thought they were an intruder.
Night sights certainly have their uses, and they really shine in mixed lighting conditions, where there are areas of light and dark. These would be areas like parking garages, street lights, or lights around your house that provide some dim illumination.
After reading this article you should have a good idea of what Glock night sight set up you want. After that it’s up to you to train with your setup. Don’t be the guy to buy all the high speed gear and have no idea how to use it. I see this all the time at matches, and it makes me cry inside. The best part about having awesome gear, is learning to use it well!
I’ll get off of my soapbox now, and we’ll get to the equipment part of this article. I encourage you to follow the links, some of which are affiliate links, for the products that seem most useful to you. They will tell you more detailed info, and you can read other useful things like customer reviews. Rest assured, I won’t link to any terrible products. Don’t forget to join the email list below for more awesome articles.
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5 Best Glock Night Sights
By now you should have some idea that I’m not only going to include standard iron sights, in this Glock night sights review. I will include several iron sights options, and red dot options for low light shooting. I will also include the very best night sight option, a pistol mounted light!
1. Surefire X300U-B Pistol Light
The Surefire X300U is my favorite weapons mounted light. I have one on my duty gun, and I have another on my home defense pistol. It’s a very bright 1000 lumen flashlight that is compatible with nearly any pistol on the market. It also works well when mounted on a long gun, giving it nearly unlimited uses.
I tend to pair it with Surefire’s DG grip pressure switch, wich makes one handed activation easy. That pressure switch isn’t a must have, as I ran this light for many years using my support hand thumb to activate the light. The light uses a dual action switch that gives you momentary on, when pushed forward into the light body, and constant on when rotated down.
Of note, if you do opt for the pressure switch, the light still retains the standard rocker switch as well. This allows you to use it as a back up, and have constant on functionality. This is crucial if you actually find a bad guy, and need to keep him illuminated for 5-10 minutes, waiting on the police to arrive.
As of this writing, the light retails for a little over $300. The switch is a little over $100. While that isn’t chump change, it is a great option because you can move it to any firearm you care to use, quite easily. Next we’ll move on to my favorite iron sight system.
Trijicon Glock HD Night Sight (GL1010)
The Trijicon Glock HD night sights are used by police and military forces all around the world, for good reason. They’re durable, simple, and reasonably priced. This model features tritium inserts, which is a phosphorescent green chemical that will glow for 10 years or so, with no need for additional maintenance. The Trijicon HD night sights also include an orange front sight circle, around the front dot tritium insert. This helps to capture your eye in all lighting conditions.
This system will require gunsmith installation, unless you have a sight tool like this one (Amazon Affiliate Link). You can see in the video below that, putting new sights on your Glock isn’t all that hard, but you do need the right tools. One of the best features about this product, is the ledge type rear sight. This allows you to rack the slide off of objects with one hand. This isn’t likely to happen, but it’s a nice bonus feature.
As of this writing, the Trijicon GL 1010 retails for around $120. With the sight pusher linked above, you’ll be spending around $180 in total. Next we’ll move on to another great set of iron sights.
Meprolight Adjustable Tritium Sights
The Meprolight adjustable night sights are a great option for those that want a more accurate sighting system, with a snag-free design. These sights feature tritium vials for reliable low light performance, with an adjustable rear sight. This allows you to fine tune your sights for your shooting style, and ammunition choice. This is one of the biggest differences between these sights, and stock, white dot factory sights from Glock.
I know some shooters really enjoy having adjustable iron sights. I’ve shot both standard and adjustable sights. To be perfectly honest, I almost never adjust them. I would also point out that the rear sight has a very small ledge that would make one handed manipulations harder. That wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me, but it’s something to consider.
These sights have good reviews on Brownells, and they’re currently priced around $145, which is a great price for all the options these sights include. In the next section of this Glock night sights review, I’ll cover two great red dot options for those that need to shoot at night.
Holosun SCS Multi Reticle Red Dot Sight
The Holosun SCS is one of the best choices for low light shooting, and general everyday use. It also has some distinct advantages over other red dot sighting systems. The biggest advantage is that it features an extremely low deck height. This allows you to use it without installing suppressor height back up sights.
This means you can maintain whatever iron sights you have installed, which can save a lot of money. Suppressor height front post, and rear dot sights, can be expensive.
If you have a newer Glock with the MOS optic plate, you can install the SCS directly to the slide, without using an optics mounting plate. While many mounting plates are very durable, you can run into issues where the plate screws shear, leaving you with your red dot sight tumbling through the air.
Realistically, this is something most Glock owners will never experience. I’ve put around 6,000 rounds through my CZ Shadow 2 Optics Ready competition gun, and I’ve had no issues with this.
This dot has a solar charging system with a rugged titanium housing. If you’ve read the Sage Dynamics White paper, you’ll note that this specific sight is still going strong after more than 6,000 rounds, while being dropped directly onto the optic every 500 rounds.
As of this writing, the SCS for Glock pistols retails for about $370, which is a great price for a very durable optic. This is the best choice for the vast majority of Glock models. Next, we’ll talk about another great red dot optic.
Trijicon RMR Type 2 Red Dot Sight
The Trijicon RMR Type 2 is by far the most rugged red dot pistol sight. It’s been around for several years, and Aaron at Sage Dynamics has one variant of this sight that is still going strong after 30,000 rounds, and dozens of drops onto concrete. At this point, I would say its as durable as iron sights.
It features a tremendous battery life, with up to 2 years of normal use. Moreover, it has a sensor that automatically adjusts the dot brightness, for different lighting conditions. This is great for those that have a pistol mounted light.
Because Trijicon has released an updated version of this optic, which is much more expensive, you can find this 6.5 MOA variant for $470 at the time of this writing. This is the cheapest I’ve ever seen this optic.
If you plan on putting your sights through some abuse, then this is your best choice. Next I’ll cover some good advice for setting up your pistol for ease of use.
Setting Up Your Sights and Lights
In this section I want to review a few practical recommendations to help you choose the right sights. First, and foremost, do not use a red dot sight if you don’t plan on practicing with your gun. You have to get enough live fire, and most importantly, dry fire reps, to develop a natural point of aim.
I shoot Carry Optics in USPSA competitions, and I regularly notice lower ranked competitors have a lot of trouble finding their dot. This demonstrates a lack of practice. I rarely if ever see a B class shooter, or above, have any issues here. If you’re willing to practice, then dots are great. If not, go with iron sights.
Secondly, if you do run a red dot sight, then you need to pick the correct brightness setting when your light is illuminated. For self defense, you need to err on the side of brighter rather than dimmer. This is especially true if you have a pistol light. Bright light will wash your reticle out, if you set the dot to dimly. If this seems like too much hassle for you , then go with iron sights.
Lastly, I strongly recommend that you go with the pistol light, and then worry about changing your factory Glock sights later on, if needed. The light will be much more useful in a self defense scenario, and it works well with stock sights, as well as night sights. Now, let’s finish this Glock night sights review up.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of considerations when discussing this Glock night sights review. The most important thing you can do is practice with whatever setup you choose. Time and again, I see shooters buy a gun, or a piece of equipment that promises to give them some new capability.
They purchase these products like a talisman, thinking that if they own them, they can do the thing it says they can. This isn’t true. You must learn to use it proficiently before it does that. I recommend finding a good instructor, and getting into competition shooting. You will get more bang from your buck in one match than years of flat range training.
You can also find links to great training ammo, and self defense ammo here. Don’t forget to join the email list below. Now get out there and get training!
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