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Picking The Best Handgun Night Sight: 5 You Should Consider

Picking The Best Handgun Night Sight: 5 You Should Consider

Let’s be honest. Handgun night sights are all pretty similar. What really are the differentiating features? In this article, we will get down into the nitty gritty and compare some similar night sights.

The sights that we will be reviewing are made by XS, Truglo, Night Fision, Trijicon and AmeriGlo. When it’s all said and done, we will give a winner for each category, and then make some buying recommendations at the end.

We will focus on sights that are made for a Glock, but all these brands make sights for multiple weapons. In terms of what we are looking for, we will talk about brightness, target acquisition, size, durability and price.

Before talking about specifics, we will give a brief introduction on each sight.

XS Sights

XS is most commonly known for their DXW Big Dot sight. This sight features a very large painted white dot with tritium inside of the painted ring. The rear sight is a white painted stripe, but a tritium rear sight is available at an added cost.

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While they are much less common, XS also makes a more traditional set of sights, which they call the F8. This sight changes up the norm. While most handgun sights utilize three dots, the F8 uses two dots. The rear sight has one dot, which is located below the notch in the sight. Essentially, you place the front dot on top of the rear dot, as opposed to in between two rear dots.

Truglo

Truglo has a pretty wide variety of handgun sights. They have sights that use only fiber optics and only tritium, but they also have their TFO sights which combines the two. These sights are bulkier, as there must be enough space to contain the fiber optic element.

Their TFX sights are similar to the TFO, but they utilize a painted ring around the front dot. The Tritium Pro sights are the same as the standard tritium sights, but with an added painted ring as well. The TFX Pro are their most expensive, and they utilize an orange painted ring for maximum brightness.

Night Fision

Night Fision is relatively new on the scene, and focus on strictly three dot tritium sights. Their sights utilize a tritium front sight with a painted ring. For the paint color, you are able to choose between white, orange and yellow.

For the rear sight, you can choose either square or U-notch. You can choose white paint around the dots, no paint, and you can even choose no tritium at all, and just have a simple U shape.

Trijicon

While they are very popular for their ACOG riflescopes, Trijicon is also well respected for their pistol night sights. These are also simple three dot style tritium sights, and you can choose between a yellow or orange front ring. The rear sights are a U shape, similar to the previously mentioned Night Fision sights.

AmeriGlo

AmeriGlo has a few different options for pistol sights. They have their Cap series, which utilizes a square front sight. You have the choice between a two dot rear sight or a rear sight that utilizes one line below the notch.

Their Classic sights are simple tritium three dot sights with painted rings. There really isn’t much else to them. They’ve also got their sights without any dots at all, which won’t be discussed in this article, as they serve a completely different purpose.

Lastly, they’ve got their Ghost Ring rear sight. This is a much different concept than any other sight on this list, as the rear sight is a large ring with two dots as a guide. Essentially, you put the front tritium dot within the rear circle.

Brightness

Our first comparison category is brightness. While there are a few different sights that appear pretty bright, there is one pretty clear winner.

The AmeriGlo Cap sight appears very bright due to the amount of high visibility paint that is utilized in the front sight. Similarly, the TFX Pro from Truglo appears bright as well due to the combination of tritium and fiber optics.

However, when using these sights at night, the Night Fision sights are by far the brightest out there. They apparently use more tritium in the lamps, because these sights are noticeably brighter than the competition.

Target Acquisition

The XS Big Dot sights allow for quick target acquisition due to the large front sight. However, this is somewhat of a double-edged sword, because at longer distance the Big Dot sight becomes much less accurate.

Other sights with quick target acquisition that will be more accurate at distance are the AmeriGlo Classic, Truglo Tritium Pro and TFX Pro, and the Night Fision sights.

One other factor to keep in mind is target acquisition at night. When it is dark out, the painted rings that many of these sights rely upon will not be as useful. In this situation, the sights with brighter tritium will be your best bet.

Size

If you are just looking at sights for your range gun, size won’t be much of an issue for you. However, if you are looking for sights for a carry weapon, smaller sights will be important, because you need them to fit in a holster. This almost immediately rules out any fiber optic sights.

With the exception of the AmeriGlo Ghost Ring and any of the Truglo fiber optic sights, any of the aforementioned sights will be suitable.

Durability

It may not seem like a huge thing, but durability is an important aspect to consider with pistol sights, especially if you are going to be carrying the weapon in a holster.

Trijicon prides itself on the durability of their ACOG riflescopes. However, their HD pistol sights utilize paint to circle the dot on the front sight. As time goes on, this paint is likely to chip. Similarly, the XS sights utilize paint, as well.

In comparison, Night Fision sights utilize a ballistic polymer material for the front ring. This allows for significantly increased durability. These sights are also made from quality steel and given a nitride coating.

Newer Truglo product sights have been known to have some durability concerns. While the lamps are protected, there have been some issues with lamps coming loose.

In terms of durability, your best bet is the Night Fision sights.

Price

These sights vary significantly in price, dependent on the features.

Truglo sights can get very expensive, and their less expensive models don’t have the features that you want. They won’t have anything to increase your speed of target acquisition, and will not be as bright as some of the competition.

Trijicon sights are comfortably overpriced, and will be easily outperformed by the competition.

The Big Dot sights are affordably priced, but adding in the tritium rear sight makes them pretty expensive. Similarly, the XS F8 sights are also on the expensive side.

The AmeriGlo classic tritium sights are affordably priced, but aren’t the brightest or most durable option out there.

While I could write a whole separate article just comparing this, we will keep it simple for you.

The Night Fision sights offer the best value.

Overall Winner

Some will be surprised to hear this, but the Night Fision sights are some of the best on the market. They offer an unreal combination of affordability, customizing options, and overall quality.

In terms of brightness, these are the brightest sights we looked at. The custom-chosen front ring will increase your target acquisition, and the fact that they aren’t painted will ensure that they will last for years. Similarly, the high-quality construction ensures they will last.

While these aren’t the cheapest sights on the list, they aren’t far off. They are extremely competitively priced, especially when considering the high value. In my opinion, I would stray away from the Trijicons and Truglos in favor of these Night Fision sights.

Do you agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the section below:

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