Night sights on handgun for home defense, or any sights and a flashlight?

Blitzkrieg · Nov 2, 2012

longcolt said:
As crazy as this sounds if you are a 1911 shooter you will notice that when you aim your arm and shoot a lot you will get to the point where you can almost always hit your target without even looking at the sights. In a dark house you will be just fine by point shooting, nice if you have a front sight that you can see, but if not you can defend yourself. This is the advantage of the 1911, its a natural extension of your arm. Try it at the range, forget the sights and shoot. Its strange but you can even do well if you close your eyes and shoot at a target, not at the range of course. I am speaking now to those who have spent many years training with the 1911 and have lots of rounds down range. They will back up my theory.

I prefer the BHP but a close 2nd is my 1911s

freestoneangler · Nov 2, 2012

Good thread/question. I'm in the market for a pistol and zeroing in on either a G19 or P228. I see most of the 228's have the glow in dark night sights, but wonder how effective they are -- most fluorescent material requires some light to get them fluorescing. No expert here by any stretch, but it would seem in a panic mode of being awaken in the pitch of night to a threat, not so sure they'd be of that much use.

wichaka · Nov 2, 2012

Most night sights are 'tritium', kind of a radio active variant of hydrogen. So no need for light to charge them, they are always ready to go. But with an average shelf life of about 10+ years or so.

EagleEyeEOD · Nov 2, 2012

biggie24420 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ynmOFCAGlQ

I have had the pleasure of shooting with Tactical Response instructors and give credit to the many great things I have learned from their experience. getoffthex is an amazing forum for serious tactics discussions as well

Blitzkrieg · Nov 3, 2012

wichaka said:
Most night sights are 'tritium', kind of a radio active variant of hydrogen. So no need for light to charge them, they are always ready to go. But with an average shelf life of about 10+ years or so.

They usually last a lot longer than that but start losing illumination. The Meprolights on one of my 1911s still had some visibility at 18 years