Glock 21 night sights

[Tim Jacobs]

I am considering buying from a co-worker a Glock 21 which is about 8 or 9 years old with night sights. The pistol is not in front of me so I'm not sure if they are Glock or Trijicon sights. I am concerned that the sights may be at the end of their lifespan and have two questions.

1. Does anyone know if these sights have any type of lifetime warranty in the event the sights get dim?

2. If I were to replace them with another sight, does anyone have any suggestions? I am uniformed police officer and plan on carrying the pistol on duty with a Surefire X200 light mounted.

Thanks for your help.

[MBrooks]

Concern numero uno:

If it's that old, it probably is not a Gen 3 w/ tac rail, so you may have difficulty mounting the Surefire X200 to it.

I'm not sure what the factory warranty is on the sites, but they probably won't cover the diminished illumination. The half-life on the radioactive element that makes nite sites glow is tritium, which has a half-life of approx 11 years +/- a month or two, depending on what nuclear reactor it was harvested from.

Depending on the price of the gun, buying a new set if Trijicon's shouldn't hurt you too bad. You should also look into getting the department to purchase them for you. I bought mine for my G21 for around 80 bucks.

[Tim Jacobs]

It definately has rails, so maybe its not as old as I thought. Is it dificult to put sights on? Does it have to be done by a gunsmith, or is someone who is a Glock certified armorer capable of doing it?

[MBrooks]

No, I don't think its that difficult to put them on, but I'm only qualified to break my guns, so I only field strip them and clean them. Any work above and beyond that, I personally leave to the armorer in the department. When I had my sites installed on my G21, I told the guys at the shop where I bought them that it was my duty gun and they did the install for free, only took 3 minutes. I think they had to use a site tool? I'm not really all that knowledgable in that kinda stuff

[Brass Nazi]

I recently put a set of nightsights on my G20. Personally, I would not buy a set of Trijicons unless that was the only choice that you have. I believe that the Meprolights and the Tru-Glo tritiums are the two best nightsights avaible. I purchased the Tru-Glos because of there superior daytime visibility. If you are not familuar with them they are a three dot sight that utilizes green fiber "pipes" that gather ambient light. What sets these sights apart from others is that they are both a fiber optic sight as well as a tritium sight. You get the best of both worlds. There is only one drawback that I can readily point out, and that is the reduced sight radius because of the length of the "pipes". Although, the difference is probably less than an inch. If you want to stick to a traditional style nightsight I would suggest the Meprolights. But, this is just my opinion.

Any qualified armorer or gunsmith should be able to easily install/adjust a set of sights. However, I would not suggest that you try to do it on your kitchen table. Also beware there are a lot of self proclaimed gunsmiths out there that I would not let touch one of my weapons.

[gary newport]

Originally posted by Tim Jacobs
I am considering buying from a co-worker a Glock 21 which is about 8 or 9 years old with night sights. The pistol is not in front of me so I'm not sure if they are Glock or Trijicon sights. I am concerned that the sights may be at the end of their lifespan and have two questions.

1. Does anyone know if these sights have any type of lifetime warranty in the event the sights get dim?

2. If I were to replace them with another sight, does anyone have any suggestions? I am uniformed police officer and plan on carrying the pistol on duty with a Surefire X200 light mounted.

Thanks for your help.

1. Most reputable night sight manufacturers warrant their sights to be useable for 10 to 12 years. After about 12 years, the sights will be about one-half as bright as when new.

2. There are several good brands of conventional night sight (Meprolight, Trijicon, Ameriglo), as well as less-conventional ones (TruGlo TFO among them). My personal favorite is Meprolight.