We commonly get questions about night sights. If you’re not familiar, night sights are essentially glow-in-the-dark dots on your sights — designed for shooting at night. Yes it is more technical than that, but we’ll keep the science for another time. People like the idea of night sights for their usefulness in lowlight and dark conditions. Sounds awesome, right? We’re not so sure, and here’s why:
Reason #1: Night sights are only beneficial in the dark. Meaning they only work in the dark. In light conditions they have no benefit.
Let me explain, night sights only work in the dark, we know we mentioned it already, but remember that. If you wake up at night and hear a noise, you may grab your gun. You leave the lights off for effective concealment (plus, you have your night sights). You hear them in the kitchen; you sneak in. You see a silhouette against the cabinet doors and BANG! BANG! Turn the lights on, now that the threat is deterred. You find your teenage son dead on the floor with some ice cream in his hand. Should you shoot something you cannot positively identify? Never, ever. Absolutely not. No.
Reason #2: Sight picture. Every instructor will tell you your rear sight should be blurry and you front sight clear. See below:
When you are trying to get this sight picture in the dark, the rear sights appear brighter than the front. Your eyes will naturally focus on the brighter dots. This means your accuracy goes down the toilet, especially with the adrenaline in a pull-your-carry situation.
We wish there were positive attributes to all this negativity but… there really isn’t. Night sights are a waste of money, and frankly one of the biggest hoaxes of the firearms industry. However, we do have a great night time recommendation. Buy yourself a weapon mounted light. (WML)
WMLs come in various shaped and sizes; different features and brightness. They add a little weight, but that can be useful for recoil management. These lights work in the dark and in the light… as well as lowlight, twilight, dim light, and gaslight. Please don’t gaslight.
With WMLs, you can always ID you target, so you’ll know if your target is actually a threat.
Finally someone outlines the “night sight hoax”. Respectfully, there is another flaw in using night sights. As was mentioned, the night sights are designed to glow, and in the dark they glow bright. When you raise your gun to a firing level, the glow will actually illuminate YOU to the target. PROOF? Take a firearm with night sights into a room with a mirror. Turn off the lights, and raise the firearm in front of the mirror. To be truly proficient in real life handgun shooting, training the ‘minds eye’ of aligning the front and back of the firearm for accuracy is essential. Frankly, I have reservations in using sights at all on a hand gun for this reason. Are you using target sights when you park your car in a parking lot between those two lines? No. After practice, your brain is subconsciously taking over, conducting all the required “parking algorithm” calculations. Mind’s eye shooting is no different than wadding up a piece of paper, and throwing it into a garbage can. Practice equals proficiency.