Many people say they’d want to have a cat’s life, because they could sleep all day. If I was ever to become a cat, it would be for its ability to see in the dark. Night vision is an important feature for many gun owners, especially those who often find themselves in tactical situations. One of the solutions to this issue are night sights, at which we will have a closer look now.
Types Of Night Sights
Night sights are small optic devices that are most frequently installed on the rear and front end of your handgun. They are designed to enable you to see better in low light situations and also enhance your accuracy. The night sights come in more versions – Photoluminescent nights sights, tritium nights sights, fiber optic nights sights. What’s a great plus of these sights is the fact that compared to, let’s say, red dot sights, night sights are much more compact, less noticeable, thus more ideal for your everyday carry.
Photoluminescent Night Sights
Your standard chargeable (by light) night signts. Expose them to light and they will glow afterwards. Many manufacturers offer circular dots with industrial adhesive. These have the photoluminescent chemical applied to them and thus glow. Their downside is that they have to be exposed to light in order to function, but that is just a small negative as they are otherwise self sustainable.
Tritium Night Sights
The vision added by these sights is emitted from an intrinsic energy source fueled by tritium gas, which is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. There’s phosphorous matter and when it gets struck by the electrons from the gas, a fluorescent light is created, which then delivers better vision in low-light or completely dark scenarios. . Most tritium night sights work as glowing green dots at night. In daylight, they are standard bright white dots. Tritium night sights are one of your best options if you are looking for a long lasting high quality night sight.
Fiber Optic Sights
Fiber optic lights don’t emit light but they help your aim because they function asa contrasting material in the sights that is easy to distinguish. Depending on the lightning of the space you are in and/or if you are using any hand held or rail mounted lights these may be a great and budget choie for your handgun.
Best Night Sights Brands
If you are interested in trying out a set of night sights and you don’t know where to start, these brands are generally considered among the best night sights developers – AmeriGlo, Trijicon, Truglo, Meprolights and HiViz. There are many more gun optics companies out there, but for now, let’s stick to these 5 and have a closer look at who these companies are and what products you can find in their offer.
Ameriglo
AmeriGlo Firearm Sights, a company based in Roswell, Georgia, focuses on production of high quality tritium, painted dot, fiber dot, and custom OEM iron sights that are meant mainly for wearers of modern handguns. Their main focus are gun accessories for guns by the most renown gun manufacturers such as Glock, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, and Beretta, but you can also find something for AR15s in their wide selection. They are a company with probably the largest number of night sight products and their price range is from $20 to around $130. Although some of their products might be more expensive, with AmeriGlo you can be sure that you’ll get the quality you have paid for.
Trijicon
Trijicon, a company currently residing in Wixom, Michigan, has been focusing on development of superior any-light aiming systems since its founding in 1981. They take pride in their cooperation with the U.S. Marine Corps as well as partnership with government, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Their production mainly focuses on industry-leading riflescopes, red dot sights, electro optics, iron sights, and night sights especially. They also offer products for archers or sight solutions for special purposes (reflex red dot sights). Moreover, you can also suit up at Trijicon, as they also sell gear for shooters such as shirts, pullovers, jackets and hats.
Truglo
TruGlo is a brand name that probably every single gun owner has already heard of. The company is based in Richardson, Texas, and they are among the leaders on the gun optics market. In their selection, you can find products such as red-dots, tactical scopes, hunting scopes, lasers and many others. What sets them apart from the competition is the fact that they don’t only focus on accessories for handguns and rifles, but they also produce various applications for bows and crossbows among their offer. They are probably more famous for their red dot sights, but they have a division of high quality night sight as well.
Meprolight
Meprolight USA are a Middletown, Pennsylvania company specializing in production of gun sights of various types, red dot sights, electro-optical red dot sights, day/night self-illuminated reflex sights, thermal weapon sights, and many more. The company’s vision is to provide the best aiming devices solutions and support for any of your shooting needs. They also promise to continuously improve their products based on the needs of the end user that they try to understand and fulfil. What’s great about Meprolight is the fact that they offer illumination and sight precision solutions for these areas: Military & Law Enforcement, self-defense, sport shooting, and hunting.
HiViz
HiViz Shooting Systems is a Laramie, Wyoming based company that focuses on production of handgun, shotgun, rifles, and tactical rifles sights as well as some other shooting optics-related products. Their Magni-Optic® technology that aids target shooters by encouraging a two-eyes-open approach regardless of dominant eye or which hand you shoot with. This technology is meant to deliver more rapid target acquisition, more accurate determination of distance and better hand-eye coordination. HiViz is a promise of the highest quality materials tested by real shooters “to ensure they’ll withstand the test of time.”
WHY WOULD I GET A NIGHT SIGHT? – BENEFITS OF NIGHT SIGHTS
Even if you aren’t lurking out in the streets at night often, a set of night sights could be a good solution for you, as there are definitely moments when you want to see a bit clearer. Night sights seem to be the right choice for a comfortable carry of night sights around the clock. These tactical and everyday night sights have some downsides, but advantages outweigh them anytime. In general, the biggest advantages of night sights are considered the following:
- Accurate shooting in low or even no light situations
- They are compact in size and ideal for everyday carry
- Can work as an upgrade over factory sights
- Longevity of tritium sights
- Come in different colors – green, red, yellow
- Can be used in daylight – they are not only meant for night
- Help you find your gun quicker in a low-light environment
- They don’t require difficult installation
No matter how you rank these benefits importance-wise, but it’s obvious that if you are looking for better visibility at night or simply in darker environments, night sights are a great and fairly affordable option for you. They won’t weigh your gun down by much and they will grant you better target acquisition and overall gun confidence in situations that are not that bright. Although they might get a bit pricey, if you go with the trusted brands, you’ll definitely not regret it.
How To Mount A Night Sight
Night sights installation is fairly simple. Although most people choose the easier way and go to their local gunsmith to have their night sights installed, you can definitely. However, if you are comfortable with tools and simple machinery, the job is not difficult and fairly straightforward. Well, of course it’s better if your hands are nimble and skilled at at least the basic workshop operations. Let’s have a quick look at what you’ll go through if you have a go at mounting a night sight set for your gun.
If you own, let’s say, a Glock, you will first need to get a set of glock make-respective night sights. Once you get hold of them, there will be a couple of other tools you will need. You’ll definitely need a table vise. Don’t be afraid if you’ve never worked the tool, a session or two will give you the basic understanding of it. You need to disassemble your glock first, but be safe about it, please. Night Fision, another night sights oriented gun accessories company, advises to apply their and other night sights to Glock aftermarket slides ready for applications, which have been growing in popularity lately. So if you get one of those too, even better.
You will need a punch, hammer and table vise, perhaps some sanding the material down too. Before you start, make sure the slide and the sights are cleaned well. The rear part of the set should slide in from some part easily and then you will need to apply some force with a hammer to get it in. If you have a problem pushing this part into the slide, you might need to file it down with sanding material. Although you will need quite a lot of force to slide the sight in, try to be gentle. The other part of the set, the suppressor sight, is attached to the front of the slide. Its application is fairly easier than the rear sight part. You need to glue it in, for example with Locktite, and then hand tight the screw inside of the sight with a fitting driver. Make sure you apply appropriate force, you don’t want to overdo it and perhaps even damage the pieces. After some time the parts should properly settle in and you’ll be good to put your gun back together. This was put in layman terms, but if you want a more precise guide on how to install a particular night sight on your gun, there are many video guides out there. I’m sure you won’t have any real trouble improving your gun optics at home.
Glock 43X Sight Alignment & Accuracy Tips
Aiming your Glock 43X correctly is a thing you have to master in order to perform better. The major keys to aiming and effective target hits are properly aligned sights, proper sight picture and little movement while you are on target. The hat of the battle or any dangerous situation may cause your aim to be worse, but practice makes perfect.
Aiming consists of two major elements, sight alignment and sight picture. The goal is to get the point of alignment equal to the point of impact. Sight alignment relates to the rear and front sight. Simply, the eye must be lined up with the Front and Rear Sights and the sights positioned so that the alignment is correct. Proper sight alignment of the two sights means that the TOP of the Front Sight is vertically centered in the NOTCH of the Rear Sight, so that there is an equal amount of white space on either side of the Front Sight post. It also means that the TOP of the Front Sight is LEVEL horizontally with the TOP of the Rear Sight. Of course, there are many different types of sights, but this general alignment concept works for all types of sights whether the front sight is a blade or a small or large dot and whether the rear sight is an open sight, two dots, U-shaped, V-shaped, or a simple notch in the back of the slide. No matter how the sights are configured, the front sight is designed to be placed on the same vertical axis as the rear sight.
Errors in alignment may be:
- Front sight too low – low hit on target
- Front sight too high – high hit on target
- Front sight skewed to right – right hit on target
- Front sight skewed to left – left hit on target
Don’t forget to use your eyes. This may sound silly, but using your eyes properly (using the dominant eye) is a key figure. The NRA suggests that it’s best to shoot with both eyes open. Sometimes of course, you get better results with the use of your dominant eye.
How To Determine Your Eye Dominance [In 6 Steps]
Sight Picture is the placement of the properly Aligned Sights on the Target. This is a short and throrough guide that you can use while determinig your dominant eye and thus improving the performance of your Glock43X
- Extend both of your arms and hands forward as in your preferred shooting stance;
- Place your hands together to make a small triangle between your thumbs and first finger of each hand slightly overlapping your fingers; your thumbs will form the base of the triangle;
- With both eyes open, look through your triangle while your arms are extended and focus on the bullseye of a target or some similar object in the room and put it in the center of your triangle;
- Now while looking through your triangle, close your left eye. If you see the bullseye or object centered in your triangle, you are right-eye dominant. But if the bullseye or object moves away from your view to the left and you can’t clearly see it, you are left-eye dominant;
- To validate your eye dominance, look through your triangle again and center the bullseye or object with both eyes open; close your RIGHT eye this time and if it remains in view, you are left-eye dominant. But if it moves away from your view to the right, you are right-eye dominant;
- To further validate your eye dominance, repeat steps 1 and 2 above, then with both eyes open bring your triangle straight back to your face; you will naturally bring it back to your dominant eye without thinking
If you are a right-handed person but your left eye is your dominant eye you don’t need to worry. The simple and effective trick is to move your head slightly to the right while aiming. You can then better align your dominant eye with the sights.
Once you have your Front and Rear Sights in the proper relationship to each other, the question then is “Where do you place the sights in relation to the target?” What is the “Sight Picture?” Do I put my Front Sight in the middle of the bullseye, at the bottom of the bullseye, at the top to cover-up the entire bullseye, or where? The answer is it depends. Guns which are sighted in for a Combat Hold mostly require the shooter to place the Front Sight where it covers the exact center of the target (Center-Mass Hold), while guns sighted in for a Target Hold usually get their accuracy when the Front Sight is aligned at the center of the bottom of the bullseye (Six-O’Clock Hold.) Self-Defense handguns usually (not always) use the quicker but less precise Combat Hold. There are several variations and personal preference plays a key role.
7 Tips To Improve yourGlock 43X Accuracy
Have you ever wondered how to improve your aim and accuracy with your Glock 43X? You can find it out below, but beware, there are some physics involved. Each firearm has a specific weight. This is the weight in your hand. Now add the weight that is needed to fire your 43X and you have a equation where these are compared. Let’s say that your firearm weighs 2 pounds and the trigger finger force is 12 pounds for the first shot and 5 pounds for subsequent shots. This means the force is more than the weight and we are getting to the conclusion – the gun will move. if the gun moves during the firing sequence, the shot will impact somewhere other than where it was originally aimed. This is a pretty simple concept. But how do you solve the problem? The answer is easy. Press the trigger and don’t pull it. This will end up in not moving your gun and this improving the aim. The best practice to learn it is dry fire practice.
7 [Easy] Glock 43X Dry Fire Practice Steps
- Step 1: Remove all ammunition from your gun.
- Step 2: Move the ammunition away from your practice area.
- Step 3: Choose a safe target and backstop.
- Step 4: Focus on your front sight!
- Step 5: SLOWLY PRESS the trigger.
- Step 6: Follow through!
- Step 7: Reset if necessary depending on your gun type.
