Tritiums are a nice to have. Not necessary in my opinion.

Here's why:

I ALWAYS carry a torch with me. When in low light, I alway ID the potential threat. When my handheld torch or even WML is up, I only see the outline of the sights. For my eyes, to track the sights faster in low light. I need to sights that have thinner fronts, wider rears. This allows more light for me eyes to track the sights. So much like competition sights, I mirror my EDC sights.

The only time I have noticed trits shine (no pun intended) are when I don't have any light source. However, I cannot ID the potential threat in that situation.

How are you guys PIDing in no/low light?

If you use light to PID, then tritium sights are useless. At least a fiber optic front sight would glow red/green when used in conjunction with a weapon light.

Full moon (he'll, a half moon is enough) and street lights both help PID in low light

Tritium still works for me when using a wml in no light.

There are lighting conditions where you can ID your target but not see plain irons particularly well, even with a light.

If you have the time and interest, look up Tom Givens of Rangemaster. He has has over 60 of his students, almost all civilians, win gun fights.  Givens has some lessons learned about what is actually happening in civilian shootings that may influence your thoughts about using flashlights, wmls, and night sights. Also, his conclusions on what lighting conditions these events are taking place in.

If I ever, God forbid, find myself involved in a firefight in my house or on the street under low light (or any other) conditions, I want to be equipped with every possible advantage available to me, from training to equipment.  Most of us will probably never be faced with that situation, but if it happens, and if I use those $100 night sights for 2 seconds to line up my weapon on that dark shape on the stairs before I turn on my weapon light, I won't care about how much they cost or whether I'll be able to see them after I activate the light.  If they give me even a brief advantage by providing a better point of reference for a few seconds in the dark, they have served their purpose.  Maybe I've been trained differently or have a different mindset, but I don't plan on walking through the house with my light on, broadcasting my position and limiting my own vision to that cone of light.  I use my night sights as a frame of reference to give me just a little bit better awareness of how my sights are aligned and then illuminate potential targets only as needed.  I feel that night sights provide an advantage by adding one more data point, and now matter how briefly I may use them, they don't have any disadvantages - they can only help.  That makes them worthwhile to me.

I've thought about it myself. But it seems like I wouldn't need it since I'm going to add a flashlight + aiming laser to it.

I'm a certified Instructor and Advanced Instructor under Tom and actually disagree with his assessment on low light use. I terms of hitting a target in low light conditions, Tom made a believer out of me. On the other hand, I want LIGHT. Lots of it. I want all the lumens I can muster.

IMHO bright lights give me options that I wouldn't have otherwise.

This. As a guy that has cleared many homes and buildings in the late hours of the night with a Glock 17 and Surefire X300U, the tritium dots allow you to align your sights quicker. The whole point of three dot sights is that they are supposed to be faster than plain serrated sights. In low light situations, my tritium sights help with speed.

Also, I'm not always indoors. I can think of several times where I have lit a perp up at distance, and I could see my front sight glowing. Lighting is dynamic. Lights where you are and lights where your threat  is are two different things.

Yep. I rock 500 lumens for both indoors and outdoors.

Can you buy just the front sight ?

Okay, here's my $.02, I think they're a plus, but not needed as much as what's being stated. I believe in any self defense situation training and muscle memory trump all. Most SD shooting occur from 2' to 10' and lining dots up in the .7 seconds you have to identify threat, draw, point, and shoot could work against you. I think if you talked with people who where in real low light/no light SD shootings they would tell you they never saw the sights, lumenated  or not.

Anyone know in the M9's the armed forces use or the new incoming S&W pistols have night sights ? My daughter is in the AF and says theirs don't. I would think if they made a life or death difference the military would use them. Just a thought.

Usually getting a specific front sight isn't an issue. For most common handguns anyway.

Yes, Ameriglo lets you break down the sets, various vendors stock the individuals as well. I use AGLO Hackathorn rear, and AGLO steel standard dot(not night) fronts.

I've never seen an Army-issue M9 with night sights, although the M11 and G19 that I was issued briefly both had them (the M11's were really dim, probably 15 years old or so at the time).  That's really not a good measure of their importance though, because we're almost never issued WMLs for them either, which everyone here seems to agree is a critical piece of equipment.  There was one occasion on a deployment when I was issued an Insight AN/PEQ-14 Integrated Laser White Light Pointer (ILWLP) that came with a rail for the M9, which clamps to the front of the trigger guard and sticks to the underside of the frame. The PEQ-14 is huge (see below) - circa 2000 technology - but does include a white and IR light and both visible and IR aiming lasers. It would probably be more suited to mounting on a rifle, since the thigh holster that can accommodate it is also huge.  I never actually saw anyone use the PEQ-14 and haven't seen one since that deployment.  Theoretically, you could use the same plastic add-on rail for an X300, but we don't get issued those either.

I have to admit, with a 10-8 .140 rear, I am really wanting to line one of those up with the new HD XR front sight.

That would solve the issues I had with the original XD sights, give a nice bright (small) front sight with tritium.

I hope they start doing front sights without the rear, and give a few different heights.

Go join the military and let Uncle Sam worry about cost.

Us mere regular folks are neither the police nor the military.

Get a decent small push button flashlight and learn how to use it.

Take a low light pistol class and find out.

I found them to be useful and I prefer them on all non "range only" guns.

Yes to tritium sight but on the front sight only. Things can go south regarding lights and situations, and having a discernible front sight on an AR and pistol is an advantage.

why not tritium sights? esp when companies like dawson will make custom sights if need be. i understand there may not be that many narrow front sights available but some companies make them. i have been switching out my sights with .125 wide tritium front sights with what ever height i need. the narrow fronts work great vs other companies fat tritium front sights. i really like fo fronts but my agging eyes dont pick them up very well in low light. i also found out that all black rears work great. i had to try diff set ups to find whats best for me but having a company like dawson to work with on thin tritium fronts has been great. the problem is options....i would be smart for sight companies to offer thinner front sights in either tritium or fo for customers to choose. for me why not tritium fronts?

I called today and tried to buy just a front Trijicon HD XR sight. The guy I spoke with said they will eventually be available but only sold as sets for now. He said give it a month or two and check back.

Those will be a perfect match with the 10-8 or Wilson Combat rear sight.

It changed my perspective on everything.  The first one I took was a very basic class and it showed me how ill prepared I was for a low/no light condition and how I really knew NOTHING.  The instructor had everyone remove WML and you learn fast how valuable it is when you put it back on.  Hitting a target in the day time is cake walk.  Manipulating a light using the momentary and hitting a target makes things much different especially under stress.  After my first class I did some training on my own and with my cousin (SEAL) and I learned things I always took for granted.  I always through prior to my first course say you are clearing your house or a building turn the light on and go room to room.... WRONG (insert Trump Wrong meme here)  Also when using high lumen/candela lighting avoid lighting up right in your vision path unless you like purple spots.  Use the floor or ceiling or directly in front of your toes this will illuminate pretty much any room you are entering enough for you to identify everything in it.  It also prevents you from muzzle sweeping your sleeping child or being surprised by a family member and accidentally snapping a round off.  Also avoid keeping the light on constantly it gives away your position while frying out your rods and cones.  Night sights are worthless once you hit the WML switch they become black no matter how bright they are but FO front sights will draw in just enough to be faintly visible if you have a high lumen light.  Night sights are really only good as dusk lighting conditions where you can see what is in the background of the pistol but you cannot see the sights except for the green glow.  I will tell you this night sights can be useful but not as useful as most people make them out to be.  I also found 3 dot can be confusing after my first course and after shooting the instructors pistol is when I switched to 2 dot.  I have three pistols I use for carry all of which have a WML G17w/TLR-1HL with red FO front sight, G19w/XC1 and 2 dot sights, and G43w/TLR-6 with 2 dot sights.  Lasers are another story they have a place but only when shooting from retention/hip where you cannot align a sight and you are inside 7m but I am not a big laser fan because the grip activated ones I do not like and if you are aligning your sights the laser will be hard to pick up if zeroed properly.

I've taken several and taught several.

I bought a fresh set of trits for my first course at DARC years ago and I was surprised by two things: How my sights didn't appear to glow when I lit up my targets with my weapon light and how much smoke adversely effects using your weapon light. It doesn't completely block your light but it can complicate things. It's just not something you think about until you experience it for the first time.

You think smoke is bad. Try using a light in the woods. All the leaves with any sort of moisture or wax reflect the light like crazy. It makes it really hard to see past the first layer of foliage.

Some of these rationales for not wanting night sights are a little reaching. Of course ID'ing targets is important, of course having a white light is preferable to not, these two things have no relevancy to making your sights usable in the broadest parameters possible.

Why would you not want your sights as visible as possible?

Daylight
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.
Dark enough that seeing regular sights is difficult
.\
..\
...Night sights are useful in here
../
./
Dark enough that you can't see your target
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pitch dark

In the case of buying Ameriglo sights, the difference between tritium and fiber optic/plain steel is small enough not to matter (maybe $30 difference for my G42).

They are always better than plain steel and will have their own advantages/disadvantages when compared with fiber optic depending on the situation and lighting.  There is no right answer because every situation is different.

For me, sight width, rear notch, and hold configuration are equally as important.

Though some of my guns have them, I stopped buying them.  I believe they're a complete waste of money.  A better investment is a tactical light, if you must see at night!  I love my Streamlight TLR-1HL.

Go back to page 2 and look at the pix I posted. You will see that if you have your weapon light ON it makes your front sight silhouette against both light and dark colored targets, and the tritium will not appear to glow at all.

I have tritium sights on most of my pistols, but as soon as I PID with my light, they become useless and I use them as I would any other post/notch sight during day time.

If you are using a weapon light, which you should be doing, then tritium becomes superfluous.

But then we're back to my point that I can see the tritium when my wml is on but just have a shitty camera. You can also see your sights when the light is off and there is no need for the wml.

Shooting in pitch black with a wml, muzzle blasts, moving, someone else shooting, moving I like haveing sights that are easy to pick up in the middle of it all.

I need a better camera

I guess my take on the subject would be this:

There may be select circumstances where having tritium night sights can help.

There are no circumstances where having tritium night sights will hinder.

Why would you not give yourself every possible advantage?

I understand that if money is tight and the choice is tritium OR a weapons mounted light, the advantage for just one is clearly in favor of the WML.  In true arfcom fashion, though, the correct answer is "get both".

If you still see your tritium sights when your weapon light is on, what you really need is a brighter weapon light.

The pics you posted are indoor and looks like 5 yards or closer. while it's true in that instance tritium is useless, try that outside where the light has plenty of room to flood, or if your shots are further then 15 yards. also when clearing rooms indoors from what I've read/heard it's not a good idea to keep your light constantly on, it should be used intermittently to PID target/surroundings, having night sights allow me to keep sight alignment when light is off. IMO they're cheap enough and last 7-10 years so why not?

I would not carry a gun without them.

These don't suck.
D&L Sports sights on a J-frame 340PD.

This is a better way of phrasing my opinion. They're not some be all/end all, but save for cost I don't know why you'd not get them. They're better to have than not.

Absolutely necessary for something you may depend on to save your life.

When all you can see is your night sights and the bad guys muzzle flashes, you will appreciate them greatly.

I can't think of a justification to not have them. If you have enough ambient light or a light source to negate them, they are not a liability.

When your light shits out or you can't get to it because you are being shot at, they will be an asset.

Shit happens, plan accordingly.

I impulse bought the new HD XR sights for my glock 17 and I have to say I shoot much more accurately with these rather than the standard glock ones.  What little low light shooting I have done with them I feel much more confident with the tritium over the standard sights.