night sights?

[speshl]

Hello, anyone have any ideas on a good set of night sights for a mk9? Would love to find some that have different colors from front to rear sight.

[ParabellumJ]

Trijicon HD

[addictedhealer]

http://www.kahr.com/Sights/Sights.asp

[garyb]

If I were to do it over, I would go with Dawson Precision sights and forgo the night sights....because I put a CTL on. The CTL makes the night sights kind of useless at night anyway. The Dawsons are much more practical in the day. Fiber Optic front and flat black rear. You'll improve your day and night application with this combo. JMO

[CB3]

Need night sights?

I have had night sites on many of my different self-defense pistols. Almost all my training and gear selection is oriented toward self defense purposes. Kahrs are self defense pistols. Simple, ergonomic, reliable, safe, concealable. Pull and shoot the close range threat to the ground. Sights? Nice to have. Rarely used. Night sights? Extra expense for even more rarely used situations, IMO. Spend the money on training, ammo, real world practice.

A few years ago I took a point shooting progressions course and then took the same course as a refresher the next year. Point shooting recognizes that at close ranges and under circumstances where you have to fire quickly lining up sites is not necessary to get hits. The shooting starts from a low tight retention position, just out of the holster, and continues along the draw stroke until the gun is in front of the eyes, when the sights might be used.

As well, taking a Force-on-Force air soft defense course (FoF) will teach you real quickly that sights are not used or necessary for close range self defense. Natural pointing wins, and not necessarily at full extension out in front of your eyes, where you have to (but CANNOT) take your focus off the aggressor to line up sights. Your arm and hand will naturally point at the threat.

Sights are for precision shooting, usually at longer than bad breath distances. Self defense is most often at bad breath distances, and often in the dark, most usually without the use of sights--not even the vaunted front sight. Video after video of gun encounters show the body and mind will naturally point shoot in close encounters of the bad kind. Training to do well what the body is going to do instinctively makes sense to me.

So, the usefulness of night sights for me would be when I had time to line them up, in the dark, at a relatively long range, probably without a whole lot of pressure from lead whizzing by head. That scenario is so low on my probability scale that I don't see the need anymore.

Some pistols point better for an individual than others because of grip angle, size, barrel length, etc. When you find a self defense pistol that points naturally for you, practicing point shooting at close ranges with that pistol will produce consistent CoM hits. Getting 4-5 rounds into CoM really fast will win a fight for you faster than one shot taken after lining up sights. If you have the time to line up night sights for a shot that needs to be more precise than competent, practiced point shooting, it may be you don't need to be shooting in the first place.

[garyb]

I see your point CB3 and I do not disagree. Like you said, you still need sights for precision shooting....and/or laser. Even though my PM40 has night sights (and I don't plan on replacing them because they work), that's why I propose Dawson's for daylight hours...front fiber optic and back flat black. It is a proven combo for competition shooting as the eye picks up the fiber optic front sight very quickly and sets it automatically in the flat black rear sight. Low light, you can still see it. At night, the CTL works fast and is great for instinctive point and aim practice. Again, not in any way disagreeing with anything you said. Just adding my opinion based on a lot of competition shooting practice with fiber optic front sight and the night time advantages of the CTL.

[jocko]

I have

If I were to do it over, I would go with Dawson Precision sights and forgo the night sights....because I put a CTL on. The CTL makes the night sights kind of useless at night anyway. The Dawsons are much more practical in the day. Fiber Optic front and flat black rear. You'll improve your day and night application with this combo. JMO

dawson fiberoptic adjustable sights on my G19 and they are just awesome. red front and dual green back. super accurate sight and the light up like a diamond in a goats ass. I would agree that maybe we put tomuch emphasis on NITE sights as a must, for as long as there is any daylight my fiber sightsdo great. I do love my xs big dot night front sight, I could care less about if the back sight is lighted up. I think the xs is a toss up forme even as to fiber optic or xs big dot..

I do think Dawson makes some of the finest sights out there, there rear adjustable for the G19 is not gaudy, or obtrusive, and the fokkers work great. Just sayin

[quikduk]

...they light up like a diamond in a goats ass...

I am sure it couldn't be put any better!

Still trying to picture the goat's face though...

[jeepster09]

I have to say I tried Dawson's and yes they are bright....HOWEVER...if you are using for carry gun they are to fragile in my opinion. They can come loose or break to easily and possibly snag on something when carrying concealed. I just don't think you can beat the XS Big Dots.

[garyb]

Any gun or sight could break. I have Dawson's on two of my handguns. Never had a problem. Lots of guys use them. They are very well made. I'd put one on my primary carry, but it already has very nice night sights on it. Not that I would go that route again, but no need to change them. The Dawson fiber optic is shrouded in a metal frame to protect it. Go to Dawson Precision's site to check them out. Some guys carry a BUG...I carry a BUS....haha.

[jeepster09]

The gunsmiths at Ahlman's told me they have quite the stockpile of fiber optics because they replace a lot of them that get knocked out or damaged. I beleave it just by looking at most of them. I can't argue they are great for seeing.

[garyb]

I can believe what Ahlman's is telling you for some fiber optic sights on the market. Many of them are NOT made to protect the fiber, which just hangs out there. I've got fiber optic sights on a number of guns. All of them are well made and I've never replaced a one of them. Dawson's front sights are a much different creature, because are made to protect the fiber which is shrouded in metal and rests firmly cradled against the metal base, tucked down out of the way. Besides, changing a fiber is no big deal. In fact, Dawson provides a couple of colors for you to choose from with your new sight. Simply swap it out. If by chance one does break on a Dawson, you still have the front sight frame in place and can shoot it with the same accuracy until you replace it. The benefit of a WELL MADE fiber optic front sight far outweighs the "potential" of the fiber breaking when they are so reliable and easily replaced. With all due respect to you, it is a non issue IMO...Sorry Jeepster. I guess it is a mute point anyway. The thread is about finding night sights. LOL.

[jeepster09]

Fiber optics are NOT NIGHT sights. The TFO's can work as a night sight using Tritium and Fiber Optics. Back to my original point XS Bigdots are the best NIGHT sight out there for a Kahr [which is not made to be a target gun].

[Alfonse]

I use the XS big dot sights on my carry and things bumping around in the night pistols. I do have some three dot (trijicon or true dot) on some pistols that I use at the range and that could be used as nightstand pistols too. I can shoot better at 25 yards with the three-dot, but don't really care about 25 yards for some guns and am quicker with the XS sights. I have some fiber optic sights on range guns and like those too.

[CB3]

Dawson FO Fail

Dave says the metal sight base, not just the FO rod, broke,twice.

"This is the second Dawson fiber optic sight I broke. Here is the story on the first one. http://www.berettaforum.net/vb/showthread.php?t=91385

This time I've got video. I haven't videoed myself shooting in a while so today I thought I would, and I just happened to break my sight on camera.

I'm working some press-out drills on a plate rack at 15-yards at my range, and even though I work many other drills, I just happened to be working press-out drills the last time my sight broke.

Now you tell me if I'm being too rough with this sight. I'll clear the first rack and then I'll notice it's broken on the first shot of the second rack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B78vkgC2HDA

God Bless,
David"