Survival Arts

Tip 'o the day: black out those tritium night sights

About 5 years ago, at a General Pistol class at NRA Whittington supervised by Col. Jeff Cooper, one of the instructors at the class, Col. Robert Young, saw that I was having some slowdown issues with acquiring my Glock's sight picture. I had a new set of Trijicon low-light self-luminous sights with tritium inserts (your standard so-called "night sights", which are really better called "twilight sights"), the type with a sealed gas tube in a white plastic sleeve which presents as a green dot in a white annulus on the face of the site surface facing the shooter.

Col. Young suggested I black out the entire surface of the front and rear Trijicons with a Sharpie marker. I was told that under low-light conditions, the gas tubes would shine through the indelible ink, exactly at the only time I would need them. He was right! With the sights blacked out, I picked up my front sight much faster, in respect of focussing on that part of the sight which needs the hardest focus: the very top line of the sight. No distractions on the rest of the front sight blade.

I've confirmed this in training at other schools over the last 5 years, and have seen this tip work beautifully when picked up by friends whom I've advised on the matter. Try it!