Do You Actually Use Your Night Sites?

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by primeduck

Great thread, and a good subject of debate.

My across the street neighbor is a cop, & he told me when I first bought my XD45 not to buy the "low light/night sight" sights. He said as a cop, they are trained to "point & shoot instinctively" at night. This made sense because when I was in the U.S. Army, they taught us Night Firing with the M-16 by using a Daisy BB gun with the sights knocked off. We would "point & shoot" at a target 5 meters away and by the end of the day.....we were constantly hitting metal 3" round discs that were tossed in the air. At night, we shot our M-16's at silouettes that flashed lights to simulated muzzle blasts from the emeny. I was impressed at the number of hits to say the least.

According to him, you don't have the time to try to use the sights. When you raise your pistol, you should already be on target for close range shooting. This is accomplished by practice, practice, and more practice.

I can see where the attached flashlight would help........but what about the sights?

Your thoughts?

Based on the premise of being at home, I gotta agree. Defensively, a light will allow identification of a threat, but actually having time to use the sights means they are far enough away to not be a threat, or they are running away.

Of course some will say the threat might be 50 yards away and shooting at you, and in that situation, they're not in my house, and will really regret the mistake when I grab my rifle and use it's sights.

[slugger6]

Originally Posted by Ed Ely

Tru-Glo TFOs are my choice from all the rest
that are installed on my toys and I have them
all.

+1

[Tomcat088]

Many shooters use defensive shooting techniques like "point shooting". Although some people don't think this is using sights, alot of the time people are using the front sight, just not the rear. If you don't have night sights then you won't be able to see the front site to point shoot with. Also, experienced shooters don't have to be able to see the sights in focus to always necessarily shoot pretty accurately (especially at close distances), but most of us still like to know where they are in the general vicinity.

Something else to keep in mind is that not all confrontations at night are the kind where someone pops up and you just have to shoot instantly all surprised. Many times someone hears an intruder in their house and gets the pistol. They come upon the intruder, get the sights in the direction of the noise, and then light them up to see what is going on. In this kind of instance, you do have time to do some aiming, and if night sights give you that advantage, then why wouldn't you? Most of these sights are NOT visible if you're on the muzzle end of the pistol. Other than cost, the chances of these sights not being beneficial to you are pretty slim. Sure they take some getting used to like any new set of sights, but that doesn't mean you can't use them or they aren't a good thing.

[retired]

Primeduck, my former dept. also taught "point and shoot instinctively" at night. We also qualified in low light where we couldn't even see our sights (we were not permitted night sights when I was on, now they are [of course, I retired, why not]). If you couldn't qualify in low light, you had to remediate. If you still couldn't, you were deskbound, answering phone calls until you could.

It actually became fairly easy to do so as one practiced it. Your scores might not be as high as when the lights were on, but I was always able to qualify.

As was said, practice, practice, practice, so it does become instinctive.

That said, I have Tru Glo TFOs on my SC9 as my ccw. I have yet to shoot it at night as the ranges I go to always leave their lights on, but they certainly help these old eyes during the day.

[KEVWYO]

Originally Posted by lobster_roboto

I have a 4'' group at 10 yards rapid fire both eyes open... I just happen to look beyond where my gun is supposed to be... It's strange I guess... I tried shooting a friends gun with night sights and I found myself staring at the sights instead of looking at where I was going to shoot.

Good on you if you can shoot this well at 30 feet in the dark or very near dark ... as in your home. For me, my tritium sighted pistol is very easily found in it's drawer so I would vote for getting tritium sights if for no other reason than to make weapon acquisition easier.

This whole "I can shoot 4" groups" stuff amuses me. Who cares and so what. I'd rather have a scenario where I heard something like ... "my first two shots hit the BG in the groin/low abdomen and my next controlled pair hit the BG in his chest."

[Mercmar]

Originally Posted by jnclement

I don't expect to ever shoot without a flashlight anyway.

I've seen a lot of silly statements on the internet. The above is a classic!

[airbornerangerboogie]

Originally Posted by lobster_roboto

So these night sights err.... low-light sights... actually help you find the weapon lets say when it is on the night stand? I've never thought about that aspect of them before.

I'm looking at either Triijons or TruGlo and as I understand it the Triijons are good at night, but lousy for day use. The TruGlo's work for either night or day, but there is this nagging doubt that if you can see your TruGlo's at night, can't the bad guy see them and give him an aiming point? The marketing material says that they can't be seen by what you're pointing at, but still if I haven't raised my pistol yet to aim or I sideways to my target (unknowingly) aren't they going to be visible?

[ArmyGuy45]

suresights...are they low light or night at all?

[Magzilla]

I have the Tritium night sights on every pistol I own. I'm simply looking for anything that will help me "HIT" what I'm shooting at in my home. I think they are a fantastic visual aid in low light situations which is what most could probably expect to encounter. I'm not a Police Officer or ex-Military. I haven't had any specific training as I'm sure the majority here haven't either. I practice "point and shoot" at the range every time I go as I assume this will be closest to what I will need if an encounter should occur. They do nothing for me at the range, but do sometimes provide a bit of a glow if the range is poorly lit. They just provide a better visual "sight" for me and if that helps me hit what I'm shooting at then they did their job. I personally can't see why anyone wouldn't want this advantage.

Here are some pics in low light. XD9 Heinie Straight 8. Sorry for the grainy pics, but the camera just doesn't like the dark. I put some ambient light in there to show the improved sight picture. Yeah, I'm sure a plain painted dot sight would work in this situation, but I think you'd lose the argument that it would be BETTER.



Here they are in pitch black.



Here is my 1911 in the dark.

[rogerxd45]

Originally Posted by airbornerangerboogie

I'm looking at either Triijons or TruGlo and as I understand it the Triijons are good at night, but lousy for day use. The TruGlo's work for either night or day, but there is this nagging doubt that if you can see your TruGlo's at night, can't the bad guy see them and give him an aiming point? The marketing material says that they can't be seen by what you're pointing at, but still if I haven't raised my pistol yet to aim or I sideways to my target (unknowingly) aren't they going to be visible?

i held my pistol with the top[ of the gun faceing the mirror in a dark room and i couldnt see them in the mirror