I’m picking up a GLOCK later this week, so I had some Warren/Sevigny two dot sights ordered and shipped to me. Anyway, this is my first experience with buying night sights and I noticed that the lamp date for the front sight was “10” whereas the rear was “13”.
I understand that the tritium lamps are guaranteed for 12 years. So my question is, is it normal to receive a sight whose lamp life is already 33% spent? I was wondering if this is normal at all. Otherwise I’ll talk to the dealer who sold it to me though I doubt it’s his fault as he most likely didnt package the product.
I’ve never jumped on the tritium wagon due to wanting to avoid issues that many people report to have. I can’t stomach the price knowing the possible issues. My brother dropped almost $200 on ‘new’ tritiums & front sight was dead (super dim) a week later.
Buy from a good company and they will make it right for you. Trijicon sent me new sights after a gunsmith (so called) cracked a front vial on my HD’s installing them. No bickering, they just sent me a return label and I had a new front in a couple of days.
The only thing I can tell you is to use them and see how long they last. My first set of tritiums were Trijicons installed in 1991 they lasted almost 20 years although they were rather dim and you had to squint to see them.
For my most recent set, I installed them myself and the front sight lasted a day. The lesson to be learned is to get a sight tool rather than drive the sight into the dove tail with a steel punch and hammer. Cost of replacing that front sight by sensing it to the sight mfg was the same as a sight tool.
In between, I’ve had tritium sights on average be usable in low light for ten years.
Aren’t they date stamped on the sight as well? I seem to remember hearing about some that got shipped in older dated packages but had more current dates on sights. I personally would not be happy with a mis-matched set if I paid for new.
Yes, the date on my front sight is '10. The rear is '13. I’ve never bought H3 sights, so I wasn’t sure if it was normal that they came mismatched or if someone dropped the ball on my package.
Most fights happen at night, so target practice at night is extremely productive. You also may find that your night zero is not the same as your day zero because the lamps aren’t always installed exactly where they should be, and you won’t find that out shooting in broad daylight.
Wasn’t gonna jump to conculsions because it hasn’t been resolved yet. They were purchased online & installed by a respected local shop. I’ll know details soon.
Its not 33% spent. Tritium has a half like of around 12.3 years. That means after 12.3 years there is half as much of the isotope. So its closer to 12% “spent”. Personaly, I wouldn’t worry about…I would wager that you will either sell/trade the gun or replace the sights with someone else before the vials go dull.
It’s not a bandwagon, its the only viable option for low/no light shooting. What issues are you talking about? Most guns come with garbage stock sights (glock) that need to be replaced anyway… is it really that hard to stomach an extra $40 for tritium vs plain sights? That is just silly.
The only way they were almost dead was a ruptured vial… either incorrect installation (idiots banging on them with brass punches) or dropping/abusing the weapon.