Tritium?

[Thirdeyex]

Does any use tritium sights on their weapons?
Pros ? Cons?

[SatCong]

I wouldn't not buy a weapon because it has tritium sites, but neither do I have any desire to retrofit same to any existing weapons. As I understand it, the tritium eventually expires, leaving you with ....uh...sights.
I wear an old Rolex Submariner. When I first straped it on (1974), I would never wear it into the darkroom (photog) it was THAT bright, Now it's just an...uh... watch face!
SatCong

[Thirdeyex]

Yeah, tritium has a 1/2 life of about 14 years.

I was just wondering what this board thought of em'
Do they have a lowlight advantage?
Does it cause the user to "object fixate" during lowlight ops.

Maybe no one uses them.

[DaRkWoLf]

I dont use them. Its a personall preference not to. In a gunfight, I wouldnt want to waste my time perfectly aligning glowing sights. I also dont want the glow, however small and limited, to be used against me if a hostile happeed to be behind or above me.

[andy]

they are EXTREMELY useful on the "normal times" ccw pistol. Maybe a bit less so on the shtf rifle, but I wouldn't be without them. They belong even on the canned M21 Beretta.

[andy]

Contrary to the bs put out by many, they are useful in lighting conditions where you CAN ID the target without a light. Even WITH a flashlight, the tritium sights let you hit FASTER. They are actually faster than sights in the daylight, if at a range beyond which point shooting works. They really draw your attention to the front sight, if you have a decent set of them. The best is the Idea that Dick Heinie stole from me. 1 dot above the other, like the two beads on a shotgun barrel.

[Wylycoyte]

The best is the Idea that Dick Heinie stole from me. 1 dot above the other, like the two beads on a shotgun barrel.

You invented the internet, too, didn't you?

[Magnum88C]

Tritium sights are a great way to get a sight picture in the dark, BUT
1.) When new, they're bright, so you've got nice, bright sights in your vision lining up on. . . .now where'd that target go?
2.) They're great -- for the other guy -- gives 'em a nice aiming point, your face.

To me they're like weapon-mounted lights and lasers -- they draw the other guy's attention to a point that's being held right in front of your face and/or upper chest.

[ABCF]

You invented the internet, too, didn't you?

Holy ****, I didn't realize that andy was actually AlGore!! :nyah:

Of course, the parallels are obvious, now that I'm looking at them. :duck:

[Hard Rock]

Magnum is right... Tritium lights you up. In normal times like now, it really isn't a concern but if the **** hits the fan, Tritium really lights you up when viewed through night vision.

Just something to think about.

Mike

[DaRkWoLf]

Hard Rock,

I didnt even think about how tritium affects night vision systems. Thank you for your insights. Do you happen to have any further details on this effect?

[Hard Rock]

Well, I've tagged many an infiltrator in class for having tritium watch faces that weren't covered, or holstered pistols with the sights lighting their sides up, or the absolute best one is the night sights on rifles that light the whole upper body up like it was being hit with a surefire flashlight.

Simple solution to this is to a. put grease on the sights to cover them on the stalk. b. cover them with a good thick cloth. c. not have them.

The real PIA about them is this... say you are walking a treeline on an overcast night. There is a field about 300 yards wide next to you. There is a guy out on the other side of that field with night vision. Not only are you lighting yourself up to him with tritium, but the light is reflecting off of the brush all around making your whole area a beacon to him.

Now, with this being said, night sights do have their place but you have to know their downfalls too. The worst place to have them is inside a structure where the enemy has NVG... he'll see you long before you even know he's there simply due to the light reflecting on the walls. There is however a very nasty way of dealing with this problem...that being intermittent strobe beacons set on a timer to fire every 3-5 seconds when switched on... these will really do a number on a guy wearing NVG's unless he has a flare cut off on the goggles... If that is the case, have a back up that will fire every 1/100 of a second... it'll overload the flare cut off.

Mike

[DaRkWoLf]

Very Very Fascinating.

I have a tritium equiped watch that I use when im out in the woods. After thinking about your ituation with the 300 yard open plain, I devised this "what if" use of the thing:

IF you reach that location during daylight, and feel that you are well covered and apply correct precautions; you can plant the watch in a seperate position from your own, somewhat far away from yourself of course. Durring the night, if the target picks it up on the NVGs, would it be obvious that it is a watch? If you "dressed" it appropriatey (behind a log, in some bushes, stick in front of it, etc) could it serve as a decoy to draw out the enemy? If it did look suspicious enough, all youd have to be concerned about is thermal imaging.

If so that would be really interesting. You could wait untill they have full dedication on suppressing that area and light em up one by one with a long range system; wouldnt know what hit em quick enough to make a difference. You would still have to leave the area for a new hide untill you feel its safe to traverse with caution (as reinforcements would probly have been called on the NVG contact when they spottend the watches trace), but you would have taken a large group of hostiles out.

those strobes also sound very interesting for planting in such a fasshion.

I dont use tritium on anything except my watch, but this also brings up another point, how would an Trijicon ACOG or Tri-Power look under such NVGs? Would the tritium on that send red flags all over the place? I was thinking about putting one on my AR-15 im buillding. If it does, what would have to be done to adaquately cover the tritium and use the battery without the tritium still being seen?

Once again thanks, Im learning lots.

[Aslan]

This issue isn't just tritium, if you have an illuminated reticle, you have a light source that can potentially be seen with decent NVD's.

:devil:

[DaRkWoLf]

Eeks.

Would a honeycube pattern scope mask help?

[andy]

I have plenty of witness that I created this sight idea, and showed it to Heinie at the 1980 Regional Shoot at Milan Ill. Too bad I just KEEP showing you pos's that all you ARE is pos's, aint it?

[DaRkWoLf]

Keep saying that. That letters only getting closer to Illinois. Your a proven liar and fraud. And chances are this will be the icing on the cake.

[Aslan]

I have plenty of witness that I created this sight idea, and showed it to Heinie at the 1980 Regional Shoot at Milan Ill. Too bad I just KEEP showing you pos's that all you ARE is pos's, aint it?

And I have plenty of witness that say when you heard of his idea, you said it was a good idea and you wish you had thought of it.

Just claiming something is not the same as actually providing proof of those claims.

You have failed to show anything, other than your ability to make a claim.

Nothing more, nothing less.

:devil: