HK45 sights

[dtibbals]

Well the HK45 once again impressed me. I was wondering how long the sights would actually glow. I exposed them for about a min under a bright light and set it on my night stand. I woke up about 4 hours later and they were still glowing bright enough in the dark to have their glow reflect off of the wood finish of the night stand. I then woke up about 8 or so hours after I exposed them to light and they where still glowing. Some day light was coming through the window blinds but not much. There was enough light in the room that you would not need a flash light or night sights. They where still glowing very well. They where bright enough to tell that they where green and made the dots stand out.

I guess a cop could expose his sights for a min or so and have them glow through a whole shift no problem. I was pretty impressed by this. Nice to know that you get that little extra touch free with the purchase of the gun. I have night sights on all my guns but don't see any reason to change these out to them when they are available.

Dave

[F22_RaptoR]

Very cool, nice to know they're very useable without the expencive tritium tubes!

[HenryAZ]

They also brighten up very nicely in daylight in our intense AZ sunshine. I've had several fellow shooters asking what kind of sights I have there in my holster because they're glowing so.

[BanditSRT8]

I like them for daytime shooting, they do show up well, but I'm a bit miffed they did not use Tritium gas tubes.

In any similar situation...... the pistol is encased all day, goes into your holster on your way out the door, and you're out all day into the night. Well now they have not absorbed any light, and will not be glowing at all under low light or zero light conditions.

Makes no sense to me really. Why would HK go this route to simple luminescent paint that requires an external lightsource to charge up the lume?

It's not enough for me to hate my P30 or HK45, and not enough for me to switch them out for nightsights... just an annoyance and seems to be an odd choice to me.

[Cadillac Johnson]

I like them for daytime shooting, they do show up well, but I'm a bit miffed they did not use Tritium gas tubes.

In any similar situation...... the pistol is encased all day, goes into your holster on your way out the door, and you're out all day into the night. Well now they have not absorbed any light, and will not be glowing at all under low light or zero light conditions.

Makes no sense to me really. Why would HK go this route to simple luminescent paint that requires an external lightsource to charge up the lume?

It's not enough for me to hate my P30 or HK45, and not enough for me to switch them out for nightsights... just an annoyance and seems to be an odd choice to me.

It has something to do with Germany and tritium. I dont think they can use it there. HK couldn't have added tritium night sights if they wanted to. They would have had to be put on once the guns were out of the country. I'm pretty sure that's the reason.

As far as the OT, I'd say most of the time they would be fine, however if the guns is stored in a safe and then brought out when you really need it, they're obviously not going to work.

For most people this wont be an issue, but I dont think they replace a true tritium night sight.

[dtibbals]

Well as I said in my original post after a good 8 or 9 hours they where still bright enough to be used and brighter then any of my night sights would have been in the same amount of light. So for most people even who carry a gun that amount of time is more then good enough.

Also the other poster is correct, in some countries tritium is illegal to use including police and military weapons. This is a very good solution to that problem.

[Blackwind]

Personally I believe the sights are great.

It took some getting used to but they work well.

[azpilot06]

The concerns for tritium are twofold, although both really come back to the expense involved.

From a manufacturing standpoint, tritium is ridiculously expensive to make. Gram for gram, tritium is actually the most expensive substance in the world.

From a regulatory / occupational standpoint, working with tritium also causes headaches, as the regulatory structure regarding the handling of nuclear materials makes manufacturing firearms look like a cakewalk. As more and more countries begin to take active concern in environmental issues, I'd suspect that there are fewer and fewer places that welcome such manufacturing activities, or if they do, they tax the bejeezus out of it in the name of environmentalism.

That being said, the purpose and elegance of night-sights is to be able to be a self-sustaining light source. A gun-owner (whether civilian or LE), should be able to pull a gun out of a holster, safe, or nightstand, not having seen the light of day for weeks or months, and have their sights glow. The photoluminescent sights are in interesting way to do glowing sights "on the cheap", but I'd still take real H3 sights for any serious defensive or offensive applications.

[policemedic]

As for me, I like 'em. I wasn't sure I was going to, but I got used to them awfully quick. They're great daytime sights, HK zeroed them perfectly, and they do glow quite nicely given some light exposure.

For my purposes though, the glow is kind of a side benefit. The gun always has a light attached, and the corona of light that it puts out allows me to index the sights even without any glow.

[GARY1911A1]

When carried in the open the front sight will be covered in most holsters and won't get as much sunlight as the rear. I could envision somebody needing to shoot in darken conditions to find they can only see two dots instead of three.