Scary! My G23 needed Night Sights.

[seamusTX]

I am not exaggerating when I say that I cannot see my hands, gun or sights in my house at night with all of the lights off.

You can fix that. It's not a big deal to install lights on the eaves, and well worth the trouble.

- Jim

[stevie_d_64]

Are you talking about Glow Sticks?

I do not believe these devices ruin your night vision to the point where it would impede your actions, or gaining control over the situation...

Especially if you use red ones. Red light will NOT dilate the pupils. Ever wonder why the eye doctors office is lite with red lights. Helps when you get your pupils dilated for an eye check up.

Yep...Those are the ones...

I would also point out that since some folks package them in bundles of different colors and the different colors give off slightly different illumination values, you conduct a test to see what works out for you...

I know that a blue hues tend to work for me better than yellow or red which tend to difuse the shadowing effect of this type of low light area illumination...

I'm a believer in making sure your eye catches "movement" based upon contrast rather than actual sighting the target in most cases...Some light levels tend to make shadows kinda blurry, therefore movement is a bit harder to pick up, especially in the periferral areas of what your eyes actually pick up...So its good to see what your eye picks up, and contrast (or sharpness) even in low light situations really helps, and still gives you the advantage...

And I believe this is critical...

All I can say is give it a try...Be safe when you practice this though...

Train like you fight, and fight like you train...If you stub your toe in the dark, now thats realistic!

[KBCraig]

They make chem lights in two different brightnesses. The 30 minute sticks are pretty darn bright, but the 8 hour sticks won't give much illumination; they're more of a marker light.

They also make infrared sticks, so you can use your night vision goggles...

[stevie_d_64]

They make chem lights in two different brightnesses. The 30 minute sticks are pretty darn bright, but the 8 hour sticks won't give much illumination; they're more of a marker light.

They also make infrared sticks, so you can use your night vision goggles...

Well shoot, if you have one of those...Even the Gen 1 Russian stuff, that negates the whole illumination issue...

Now how you shoot with a NV monocular, I'm not even going to go there...

Its an interesting idea if you can make it work...

I have a Gen 1 monocular, and its really great outdoors in the scrub of N.E. Texas woods...

[NuBee]

Are the mountable lights easy and fast to take off? I have only 1 handgun and it is the one that I use for CHL carry. Any measurements need to be taken?

So if it just kind of slips on or off then great. Or should I start thinking about a 2nd handgun or mounting a light on my 12gauge?

I'm talking about on and off almost 7 days a week.

Thanks in advance.

[pbandjelly]

So if it just kind of slips on or off then great.

yes

[9mmGuy]

...should I start thinking about a 2nd handgun...

Heck YES!! and a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th etc.....

[NguyenVanDon]

I've been practicing dry firing in the dark before I hit the sack. IMO, I really don't need laser, flash light, or night sight. Wherever my handgun is pointing at, it will destroy the target right there.

[ForbidInjustice]

Firstly, Andy Gibb is the best. Believe.

Secondly, I have Tritium night sights on my Springfield XD-9.. but I want Trijicon sights on my Glock 23. That's a must; that's why I bought my first gun originally.. for home protection, mainly at night of course. Killeen, Texas is only a city of a little over 100,000 now -- but we have the highest burglary rate in Texas per capita. What's the use in even drawing my pistol at night if I can't see where I'm aiming? Go Trijicon!

[NuBee]

I broke down and got Meprolights (Tru-Dot, Sure-Shot) for my G23.

They are on my G23 now and are bright as heck.

They even shine in the day light.

Now I fell a lot better/prepaired.

Good luck!

NuBee

[Mike from Texas]

I'm a little late jumping in here but as for the night sights, I also highly recommend the TruGlo TFOs. I've had just about every other night sight on the market and I far and away prefer the Tru Glo. They are as bright at night as any of the others with the bonus of being extremely bright in daylight or other light. I always had a problem seeing the dots on the other sights that I tried in light or daylight situations. Not so with the TruGlos. I'll try to remember to take a comparison pic of my Glock or XD with the Tru Glo vs the Meprolights on my Kimber to show what I'm talking about.

As far as tactical lights, I have never had a problem with my XD or Glock cycling with it attached. I personally recommend having a tac light mounted to the gun with a backup hand held somewhere on your person. You never can tell when you may need both hands free. Also, as far as the argument about giving your position away and having to have the gun pointed in the direction of the gun mounted light, the same applies on a hand held light. The BG will still know where the light is coming from and if you don't already have your gun pointed in the direction of the hand held light, you are in trouble anyway.

Then there's always the laser grip option.

[Eddie A.]

I have MEPROLITE Night Sights on my Glock 23 and they are excellent. I would recommend getting contrasting colors for the fron and rear sights; I have an orange front sight with green rear sights, the contrast will help with your sight picture in the dark.

[govnor]

First of all, my Glock has tru glo night sights. I wouldn't even pick that up if I thought someone was in my house. I'd go for my double barrel shotgun first. Both are next to the bed (along with other guns). I leave a light on in the house and my bedroom door is locked and shut when I'm sleeping. When I lived in a bad area I used to even keep a door brace on the door. It won't keep someone out for a long time, but would give me time to get my gun anyway.

The question I have though, is when you heard these idiots whistling (sounds like gang banger stuff) and skulking around that you didn't call the police immediately? I used to live in the ghetto and I would call them any time I thought something might be going down. I also called every time I heard gunshots, which was a LOT. I noticed that after I kept calling all the time and had police presence around that the gunshots became fewer and fewer. One time after calling for shots fired, I saw them down the street taking people out of their cars at a known drug house.

I'm not saying you shouldn't consider every option, including night sights, but you should also consider dialing 911. I like to keep the police in the neighborhood anyway. I live in a nice area now and if I called the cops on something like that, they'd be here in about three minutes.

[NuBee]

I understand what you mean govnor. I was ready to call them at any moment. I'm sure you saw in my above post that I was sitting in the dark with my weapon and phone.

It never occurred to me that I could call 911 for people whistling. They had not done anything (that I could see or prove) "criminal" yet. All I could see was darkness. If I would have seen them in my back yard I would have called right away.

What you have said does give me a good reason to re-think my actions that night.

I am here to learn and get constructive feed back like yours.

I guess suspicious noises would have been sufficient for the 911 operator to send out a squad car in hind sight. I was (incorrectly) thinking that a known crime had to be witnessed first.

NuBee

[govnor]

I understand what you mean govnor. I was ready to call them at any moment. I'm sure you saw in my above post that I was sitting in the dark with my weapon and phone.

It never occurred to me that I could call 911 for people whistling. They had not done anything (that I could see or prove) "criminal" yet. All I could see was darkness. If I would have seen them in my back yard I would have called right away.

What you have said does give me a good reason to re-think my actions that night.

I am here to learn and get constructive feed back like yours.

I guess suspicious noises would have been sufficient for the 911 operator to send out a squad car in hind sight. I was (incorrectly) thinking that a known crime had to be witnessed first.

NuBee

Well, I'm not trying to get you down or even critique your actions. I would have to be there to know exactly what was going on. I've lived in some pretty rough areas though. The whistling is one thing...most likely a gang banger deal. When I lived in one area of the 'hood I would hear a guy walking down the street yelling "WHOOOO, WHOOOO!!!" I didn't know what that meant until someone told me it was the crack dealer drug call. Kind of like the ice cream truck but in the middle of the night... yeah, time to move.

At this point in my life, I'll call the cops for ANY suspicious activity. That's what they're there for and they want you to call if something's going down. They want to get the bad guys anyway. We want them to get 'em. If it's a bad call on your part then so what. It wasn't your intention to make a bad call, then you aren't at fault and it will keep police presence in your neighborhood.

If you live in the ghetto (or anywhere for that matter), I still suggest buying a nice shotgun for home defense. Something like a Mossberg persuader http://www.mossberg.com/products/defaul ... n=products

I see them at the gun shows all the time for around $225, with pistol grip.

I have a Winchester home defense model that was cheaper, but they don't make it anymore. Dual pistol grips. You can get a shotgun and mount a flashlight, laser, pistol grips, sling...you get the point. If you have a choice then go for that first. A pistol to me, is a last resort weapon anyway. Then again...I've got an AR-15, lol!

Seriously though, if someone's kicking in the door...grab the shotgun.