AR15: Tritium sights vs. Red dot

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Dave3006

New member
I want to be able to have decent night fighting capability on my rifle. Naturally, many of the red dot scopes accomplish this pretty well. I hesitate to go with a scope due to cost and I just hate to hang stuff on my rifle. A tritium post seems like a good compromise. I am curious if anyone has one on their rifle and how do they like it?

Dave
 
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RikWriter

New member
I have not seen an AR with a tritium post, but I've seen an AK with one. It's all right, but I have to tell you that I have personally used an Aimpoint Comp M XD for hunting in low light situations and it worked like a charm. I wouldn't go with anything else for nightfighting.
 
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AK103K

New member
I've been looking for a tritium front sight for an AK. Any idea where to get one? I havent been able to find one anywhere, web or otherwise.
 
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dengel

New member
I just got an EoTech for my AR .. its very sweet! Its a holographic sight, so this way it doesnt project onto the target, just in the eyepiece. It has 10+ levels of intensity, a feature to allow use of night vision gear, and is pretty easy to mount.

A huge nuber of law enforcement agencies, federal agencies and military units are using them, and from what I hear, they are very happy with them.

check it out ... www.eotech-inc.com
 
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Mo_Zam_Beek

New member
Dave, I have Ashley Tritium front and same plane rears.

Thoughts on one vs the other:

dot - has batteries (can fail), need to be mounted (can be damaged), is generally faster in sighting.


Tritium post - well... its gonna glow for about 10 yrs, is protected from damage by the design of the weapon, is slightly bigger than the oringal front post so it is not quite as accuarate, is slightly bigger and thus is faster (than a stock sight) to aim.


Two notes on Trit sights -

1 do not get illuminated rears. In low light the are not noticable. in darkness there are too bright and make for a bright blurr in front of you eye - thus making it virtually impossible to see the front post.

2. Get a standard sized dot (not big dot - it will be less accurate) ROUND top style front post (not square top). The reason is that it keeps POA / POI much closer together for night and day.

I believe in K.I.S.S.

Suit yourself
 
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yorec

New member
I don't own a tritium sight equipped AR, but I used one in a class once. It had the rear planar sights as described by Mo_Zam_Beek, and worked just as he said except I didn't have much problem with the rear sights washing out the sight picture in total darkness. Maybe its the distance of the rear sight ring to where we each hold our eyes when sighting that different - don't know, but I could find a good sight picture in just about all situations and the rear sights appeared as blurred points to either side of my eye - not really even a part of the sight picture, more of just reference points so I knew to look between them when finding that black hole in the black rear sight ring in the dark...

Anyway, worked well for me and I've been wanting a set, or four, ever since. (I think I would be happy with just the front sight post too since I rarely have trouble even in the dark in finding the rear sight aperture - its that front sight that needs lighting up!)
 
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johnwill

New member
I went with a compromise on my AR, an OKO reflex sight, and a pop-up backup A2 sight. If the batteries or other parts fail in the OKO, I can flip up the standard sight and keep shooting. The few times that tritium would be an issue with the backup sights isn't worth the cost to me...
 
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jtduncan

New member
Go with the red dot scope.

I was just testing out my bud's Trijicons on his front post and the two dots on the rear peep on his Bush A2 shorty and those things are worthless.

Night sights are great on handguns but when you have to see out 15-20 inches for the front sight, it's too slow for me.
Couldn't even see the rears at all.

Now the Ashleys maybe much better since that front post has a huge dot on it. But not the Trijicons.

Gotta have a scope!
 
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Dave3006

New member
I just had a chance to see a shotgun with a tritium post. The tritium is too far away to see well. I think the red dot will be the better choice.
 
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Erich

New member
I don't like having to rely on fragile optics, so I put a trit front post on my AR a couple of months ago. It's wider than the milspec post, but what the heck. On the advice of folk here and at AR15.com, I forwent the back sight . . . turns out it's not a problem with a nose-to-charging-handle cheek weld. I put a light on the side, too . . . it's only polite to identify what you're shooting at.
 
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brembo

New member
Anything out there that operates on fiber optics? All that you'd need is a smallish battery and a switch. The fiber optic wire can be tiny, hardly even noticable I'd think, and a rheostat to control the brightness. An LED can operate years with one battery too, tactical is not my bag, but somebody has to have something like this on the market.
 
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yorec

New member
One thing to remember about Tritium sight is thier visibility and I don't mean to you! If you're out in the dark trying to remain concealed for some reason and you have a tritium sighted gun - remember that those things can be pretty good indicators to anyone watching that oneone is there.

Learned this walking through a dark building with a buddy and a holstered pistol with night sights. Couldn't see him, but if he turned just right you could see two little dots bouncing across the room as he moved. Called his attention to it and he looked at me and my sidearm - sure enough he could see mine too nearly everywhere I went...
 
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yorec

New member
Nope. I was jsut talking about with the naked eye after they adjust to dim light.

I did wonder about night vision though - guess you answered that question!
 
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