Jim,
As people are typically trying to find advice on tritium sights and what brand to get, I figure I’d share my bad experience with one supplier so as to keep others from repeating my mistake.
A few years back I had my Springfield Trophy Match sights fitted with tritium inserts by PT Night Sights (a part of MMC Night Sights). At first I was disappointed. I had them install the 3-bar system on the rear sight, which I generally like. The front sight however was noticeably dimmer than the rear though, which is not how it’s supposed to be. While they have a lifetime warranty, you still end up paying to ship the slide back (unless you want to remove the sights, which is not a good idea for someone without the tools and experience to do so with a M1911‘s staked front post.) Also, one of the three rear bars (the right hand one) was also noticeably dimmer than the others. So I sent it back to them to correct this quality control “oversight” and when I got it back, a month later, the sights were then good. The three rear bars were the same brightness, and the front dot was brighter. Good. That is, until the front dot fell out somewhere in the desert. So I sent it back, again, and another month later it came back, again appearing to be good. That front dot went black one day, just overnight. Don’t know what happened other than it must have cracked. Hadn’t been shooting that day either. So I sent it back again. One month later it comes back, this time with a very dim front sight. By this time I’m so irritated I decided to just keep it as I was sick and tired of them having my slide longer than me. But then, while I was cleaning my gun, and while trying to get a piece of crud that was sitting by the tritium insert, it cracked. What was I using to clean it? A wooden toothpick. That’s all. Now I’m furious. I call them up and they pay for the shipping both ways. This time it takes six weeks to get it back. The dot appeared the same brightness as the rears. It also has “bubbles” in it so that it really isn’t a dot. It looked more like a blob. I took it out to the range yesterday and fired 100 rounds. Today the front sight is noticeably dimmer. I expect it will be black in a few days. (I did clean it to make sure it wasn’t
just dirty – it wasn’t.)
I am now looking for a different solution that I can do myself. I am not planning on sending it back to them. I’ve had enough.
If you care to, please pass my bad experience with PT/MMC Night Sights on. I wish I had never bought from this company. – Jeff in Virginia
JWR Replies: Yes, it sounds like a poor choice of brand of night sights. Here at the ranch, we have three Colt stainless M1911s that still have their original sets of Trijicon brand three dot tritium sights that I had installed by Tooltech in 1995. They now have a combined round count of close to 15,000 between them, with no problems whatsoever. They seemed too bright at first, but they have now mellowed nicely. The half-life of tritium (a radioactive hydrogen isotope) is 11.2 years, meaning that they are half as bright that “new” after 11.2 years, and one-fourth as bright than “new” after 22.4 years. Even at one-quarter brightness, they should be useful. I’m planning on having new tritium vials installed at 22 year intervals.
After reading you letter, I must also mention one safety proviso: If you ever accidentally shatter a tritium gas vial indoors, then be sure to immediately air out your house, for at least 12 hours. Open all your windows and set up a box fan in the window of the room where the tritium leak took place. Breathing even tiny amounts of tritium gas is carcinogenic.