Best night sights?

Picking up my new S&W m&p compact today and want to get night sights for it. I know best is a very subjective thing but which do you like and why?

Ameriglo gets my vote. I have the Pro Operators on one gun, the iDots on another, and picking up a combination for a new gun.

The Pro Operators are a 3 dot night sight. Get the Green front / subdued Yellow rear. This turns the rear essentially into a black ledge sight during the day, since the tritium doesn't glow and there are no outlines around the tritium. The front is Green tritium with a white outline. Daytime speed of a single dot, nightime advantage of night sights, and the different colors keep the sights from being misaligned horizontally at night. Has a nice ledge for malf clearance and are low profile.

The iDots sit a bit higher by design. This can be good and bad. More of a ledge, good for suppressors, but can be a little less comfortable for concealed carry to some. The rear is a single dot (green or yellow) and the front is placed over top. I believe the rear notch is wider as well. My version has a Green tritium rear no outline and a Green tritium front with Orange outline. They did not have a Yellow rear when Ameriglo sent me these at release, but I'd strongly recommend it. You can't confuse the sights, but it makes a fast sight that much faster when alternating colors. These sights are incredibly fast and open. I much prefer the 2 dot night sights over 3 dots.

My newest set will be an iDot rear with Yellow tritium (no outline) and a Green tritium front with Green photo luminescant (SP?) paint surrounding it. Best of all worlds in my opinion. No dot in the rear during the day, but there at night for referencing the front sight. Nice big and wide notched ledge. Front sight is a large green circle (from photo-L paint) in the day, and a nice tritium dot at night. The only downside is these must be ordered separately, but I'm going to talk with Ameriglo about a package.

Hope this helps. I'd post pics if I was on my PC, but I'm not. And Ameriglo has great pics on their site. Email me for pics if you need them though.

Steve Stamper.

I like Warrens, Ameriglo front w/ 10-8 rear, or Ameriglo's offerings.

I like Warren's, the i-dot type setup. I've got a set of Heine Suppressor sights on my 1911 that are the i-dot style too and like those as well.

I've got three pistols with night sights:

My duty Sig P229 with Sig lites, (really made by Meprolight)
My G23 with Glock night sights, (they're about 5.5 years old, still bright as new. and as bright as the Siglites which were manufactured 6 months after the Glock sights)
My KImber Elite Carry which came with Meproliight night sites that burned out after 10 years. I replaced them with Tritium TFO's in green.....

Hands down my favorite between all three is the TFO's. In the daylight, the fiber optic sucks in any and all visible light and makes them more visible than the stock night sights.
At night, in the dark, the TFO's are visibly brighter than both the G23 night sights and the Siglites.....try some out before you decide on anything else...I was impressed.

Allegedly, cleaning solvent will eat right through the fiber optics, exposing the tritium and basically destroying your night sight. I use solvent, and because of hearing this, I am VERY careful with solvent around the upper surface of the slide. I dont know first hand if this solvent/fiber optic thing is true, and I dont want to find out the hard way that its true.

But the sights really are that bright.

Unfortunately, Smith M&P version is not on sale right now.,.....
http://www.natchezshooterssupply.com/Category.cfm?contentID=productDetail&brand=XR&prodID=XRTG131MPT&prodTitle=Truglo S&W M&P Tritium/Fiber Optic (TFO) Handgun Sight Set Front & Rear Green

But that's what I paid for my Kimber set through Midway....

Hope that helps...

Trijicon HD Series night sights. It's the best of both worlds - taking the speed of target acquisition of competition sights and making them rugged enough to stand up to duty use.

The rear sight is set further back and has a deep U-notch so you pick up the front sight easier. The face has horizontal serrations to minimize glare. The tritium tubes sit alone in the rear sight without white rings around them, again helping the front sight stand out.

The front sight has a florescent orange or yellow ring around the front dot which makes it impossible to miss.

I'm using Heinie Straight Eights on my G30 I like them alot, they are very bright in total darkness
My G21 has TruGlo TFOs and it does double duty as my primary IDPA pistol. The G30 sees IDPA use as well.
The TFOs are alot brighter than the Henies and really pop. Some shooters find them too"busy".
My only complaint about the TFOs is the tritium in the rear sight is totally dark after only a year of use, althought I suspect I may have damaged them when I installed them. I'm really not sure how long the rear sight has been dark.

I own several of the HDs and they are great

They are pricey but I like the HD's.

I'd like to chime in on the part in blue because I actually let solvent mess up the green fiber optic portion of the TFO sight on my SIG P220 Carry Equinox.

The solvent didn't destroy or damage the fiber optic; but it did dissolve the adhesive that held it in place and I lost it.

I called the company and they agreed to replace it at no charge if I sent them the slide; but I decided to buy some optic fiber from Midway and replace it myself.

Without the fiber in place, the front sight has a normal tritium capsule, its just recessed into the blade so that the fiber can slip into place so if you lose the fiber, the rest of the sight remains undamaged. In use, the tritium shines right through the fiber optic.

Since I installed the new piece of fiber with superglue, I've put more than 3000 rounds through the pistol and the fiber is in there solid; the pistol is now my daily carry, I trust the sights explicitly.

If anyone needs to know; the proper diameter of the optical fiber is .060"

Midway sells it in a plastic tube containing 3 inches of red, orange, yellow and green for 17 bucks and the fiber is as bright as the original.

Thanks for posting that. Its good to know and makes me less concerned that I'd be totally screwed if I got sloppy with the solvent while cleaning.

I appreciate it.

Warren tacticals or XS big dots

Warren tactical 2 dot

Heinie Straight 8, QWIK, Ledge

Thanks for the replies. Decided to go with the Warren tactical 2 dots. I liked the straight 8s better than 3 dot sights I tried when I had a Sig a long time ago, figured that probably hasn't changed and with my older eyes a little more room around the front sight might help.

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