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Old 07-20-2009, 03:05 PM
rburg rburg is offline
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If the sights stopped glowing after 3 or 5 years, its not them going out/the tritium decaying. It breaks down at a very predictable rate, 12 or 13 years you have half as much, so in theory, it will be half as bright as it was 12 or 13 years ago. That doesn't mean you can't see or use them. My experience was they were really bright when new (Trijicon). Even at half the brightness, they'd still probably light the room. And its a gradual decline, not all at once.

I don't like guns pointed at me. Its a quirk I have. But when you put a gun with them on the night stand, pointed away from you, its pretty darn bright. Point it away, and in a dark room the wall lights up. About the only way I'm happy is with something cloth tossed over the gun. If its thin, you can still see where the gun is, but it isn't lighting up the room.

So I guess the answer is how bright do you need them to be? Some people seem to want them replaced at 5 years, and it seems just the decay of the Tritum isn't the cause of them not being bright.

Oh, the Trituim is a hydrogen isotope, is it not?
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