Tritium / Fiber Optic iron sights for M&P 40

adrock1978

adrock1978

Joined
May 30, 2009
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I'd like to put some night sights on my Smith and Wesson M&P 40 and I've narrowed it down to two manufacturers. Does anyone have any experience with with Trijicon Bright & Tough Night Sights or the TruGlo Brite Sight TFOs. Both use tritium front and rear. The truglo also uses fiber optics front and rear, but they also have a traditional tritium only model too. My M&P is a home defense gun. Its fitted with an Insight LED weapon light and even in good light, the iron sights are marginal. I'm open to other brand suggestions as well, but I'd really like some feedback on the two I mentioned before I move on. Thanks in advance.
 
I've had good luck with Trijicon never tried the other. Did you look at the XS Big Dot sights?
 
I have some Trijicons on my 1911 that have worked well for a long time. I got a set of Tricicon HD on the way for my Glock 32, they have an orange outline around the tritium front sight and a wider U shaped notch in the rear. I don't have any experience with Truglo. I have used Meprolights on my Glocks with good results.
 
XS Big Dots all the way!! , but I have a set of TFO's on a G19 and they are okay. Ive been meaning to change them out to XS Big Dots, but keep buying blades instead.
 
I've got ameriglo tritium sights on my glock21 and they work well, plenty bright and well made. They have held up with 45+p's and when I pop in my 10mm conversion barrel and hot loads still no problems. I've had them for 3 or 4 years now. Makes it easy to pick off a raccoon or possum in the night. Oh and good god what a 10mm hotload does to a possum is unreal.
 
I have tried a bunch of Tritium sights in the past, but the only ones I use now are Heinie Straight Eights, the "stacked dots" just work for me in low light and they don't distract from a very sharp daytime sight picture when your punching holes in paper. I have never cared for fiber optics or big dot's, I mean you can see them but for me they make accurate shooting harder because I use the sight picture (small gaps on each side of the front sight post and a level top) to shoot accurately. But that's just me, I prefer black sights and if I get night sights they are Heinie's!
 
I forget why I didn't look at XS. Did I hear that only the front is tritium and the rear is not? I'll take a look. I like that Straight Eight set up! I've used vertical alignment sights before, and liked them. Maybe I'll consider Heinie. Still leaning towards Trijicon though.

So no one has any experience with a FO setup? Is truglo's TFO just overkill?
 
I have tfo's on my bump in the night gun. A Glock 17 rtf2 with plenty o' bells & whistles. The tfo's are the brightest iron sights I've ever used. I mean stupid bright. I paid $100 cash installed for mine. Shop around, you should be able to do the same.
 
^^^^^agreed. The TFO sights are the brightest I've seen. I own trijicon and meprolight too. And whoever makes Ed Brown, wilson combat, and Les baer's tritium... I have those also since they came on the pistols.

That being said, I'm not sure that brightest is always best. They don't 'need' to be too bright, really.

.
 
What part of the TFO sights are tritium? Because they look like they're just FO tubes, front and rear.
 
They're a tritium vial encapsulated in fiber optic. So they give off their own light & gather it in the fo, & they have a cut out in the top to gather ambient light too. Compared to all the tritium sites I own, I like 'em the best, but I've also got a thing for tritium, in general, so I might be a bit biased. Anyways, in complete darkness, they're equal to any other "new", as in 1-2 years old tritium, where they shine is in moonlight or very poor ambient light, as they gather what the shooter wouldn't even percieve, and it really makes 'em pop. Then, there's at the range, in bright daylight, or flourescent. Then they're just about rediculous.
 
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adrock1978 said:
Thanks man. I think I'm gonna pick up a set of TFOs. Are they difficult to install?
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Looks simple enough, but where i got mine, it was actually cheaper to have them installed, than to buy the sites & do it myself. Installed was $100, not installed was $120. Crazy, I know. Also, mine's on a glock, so front site has a nut underneath, but rear has to be pushed in/out with a site tool that I don't own. I'm not too familair with the m&p. Maybe M67 could chime in here. You should be pretty happy with the TFO's. A buddy of mine showed up with a glock he won at a local match & he basically got all the options he could since it was free, and his was the first tfo's I had ever laid eyes on. That minute I knew I had to have em!
 
Meprolight are supposed to be the brightest Tritium sights available but, I have found that they are about equal to the Trijicon with the Trijicon having a slightly crisper dot outline.

Always try to find out the Date Of Manufacture on any Tritium sights that you buy. Before you buy. It should be printed right on the package. That is important because all Tritium has a radioactive Half Life of 13.5 years.
SO...that means that in 13.5 years any Tritium night sights that you buy will be half as bright as they were when they were spanky new.

Sometimes Tritium sights that are on sale have already been sitting on a dealer shelf for 5 years and then a dealer will decide to blow them out the door for a really reduced price. Especially be wary of reduced price Tritium sights on Ebay.

Just a helpful hint.
 
Bullcarver said:
Meprolight are supposed to be the brightest Tritium sights available but, I have found that they are about equal to the Trijicon with the Trijicon having a slightly crisper dot outline.

Always try to find out the Date Of Manufacture on any Tritium sights that you buy. Before you buy. It should be printed right on the package. That is important because all Tritium has a radioactive Half Life of 13.5 years.
SO...that means that in 13.5 years any Tritium night sights that you buy will be half as bright as they were when they were spanky new.

Sometimes Tritium sights that are on sale have already been sitting on a dealer shelf for 5 years and then a dealer will decide to blow them out the door for a really reduced price. Especially be wary of reduced price Tritium sights on Ebay.

Just a helpful hint.
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This is true about the reduced price on the bay! Stay away from any tritium on there! However, 13.5 is a bit much for half life of tritium, 12.5 years is closer to half life.
 
I'm currently running Heinie Straight Eight (Two Dot) sights and Meprolight Three Dot's and currently prefer the straight eight/two dot if I had the choice.

I can also vouch for Meprolights being brighter than Trijicon's, my Heinie's (which are stuffed by Trijicon) seem to be about half as bright as the Meprolights. The Meprolights are brand new and the Heinies are only a couple years old so I don't think radioctive decay really factors in much here.

I'd also recommend avoiding the XS Big Dot sights, they are not very precise at distance and at bad breath distances point shooting is going to be much faster than aquiring your sights.

I'd also recommend looking at Warren Tactical Two Dot Night Sights. They feature a deep U-Notch rear sight which aids in fast target aquisition, I wish I would have gotten these instead of Heinie's or Mepro's but live and learn. You'll not find a bad review of Warren Tactical sights, they are stuffed by Trijicon and the tritium is extremely high quality.
 
Go with Trijicon, they are the best and the industry standard. Meprolight in distant second. Trijicon is the only one that uses Sapphires for their lenses, making them more brilliant, and stronger/scratch resistant than any others. Just pay a little more and get the Trijicons. Also, I prefer the HD's when possible. I have owned just about every brand out there. Some of the nicer custom brands like Novak and others, use Trijicon vials in them.
 
Bowman1911 said:
This is true about the reduced price on the bay! Stay away from any tritium on there! However, 13.5 is a bit much for half life of tritium, 12.5 years is closer to half life.
Click to expand...

You are right and I sure am wrong.

13.5 - I must have been thinking about when I kissed my first really pretty girl. :D
 
I really like the Dawson Precision Charger Rear Sights. Very bomb proof and great sight picture. Dawson is known for their competition iron sights.

I have the TFO's on my Sig P229 and they are bulky and I'm afraid that I will damage them. The Dawsons are very bright.

Always buy tritium new.
 
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