Tritium Rifle Sights?

[ShotgunSam870]

Hi all,
Recently I bought an 870P, with an 18.5" barrel, equipped with Tritium rifle sights. At the time, I did not know that there was difference between regular Rifle Sights and Tritium rifle sights (newbie moment). After learning about it, I read that tritium sights have a radioactive material that glows for about 12 years. I really enjoy the sights, and think they are fun to use, especially with slugs. My question is after those 12 years, are the sights completely unusable, or what? I'd imagine during the day, they would work just about the same, but during the night may not work.

[John A.]

You can still use the sight as you would any other sight. With or without the tritium insert.

And there still may even be a faint glow after 12 years.

I recently had a set of trijicon night sights that had been factory installed on a beretta centurion. I think it costed ~$65 for trijicon to replace them and mail the slide back to me.

Keep in mind, the centurion in particular was made 1993, so that would've been 22 years. One light pipe was completely dead. The other two were very dim. Near the point of unusable at night.

[m-forgery]

I have both Trijicon and Meprolight night sights and they still glow pretty good after 15 years. When they do go dim you will need to replace them.

[Synchronizor]

The self-illumination of tritium sights works off of the radioactive decay of the tritium that they contain. See this thread for a more detailed explanation. As the tritium decays over time, the sights will become dimmer and dimmer. Tritium's half-life is about 12.3 years, and you're generally looking at 10 - 20 years of useful life for tritium sights, depending on some specifics of how the sights are designed & made (refer to your specific manufacturer for a more precise life estimate).

As you guessed, and others have said, once they're too dim to pick up in the dark, they're basically going to be just regular sights. Most manufacturers of tritium sights are able to replace the vials for you once they go out, but until you get around to that, you can continue to use them for daytime shooting.

[John A.]

Most tritium sights have their (year) dated on them.

And most night sight manufacturers warranty their product for a certain number of years.

If they are getting dim, send the part(s) in for warranty work before to their expiration.

[ShotgunSam870]

Wow! Thanks for all the insight guys! I checked out the sights for a manufacture date, but really didn't find anything that said so. Glad to know the sights are not rendered useless when the vials stop glowing. Also, does Remington use another manufacturer for the tritium sights or is it all done in house?

[John A.]

Trijicon brand has a number engraved or printed on the sight. That is the year of production.

Example:



The last two numbers (04) would indicate that it was made in 2004.



2015 manufacture

Meprolights are more difficult to date.

They have a code stamped on the underside of the sight.

A=0, B=1, C=2 and on up. The letter l was omitted.

So, the code AC should indicate 02.

[ShotgunSam870]

Trijicon brand has a number engraved or printed on the sight. That is the year of production.

Example:



The last two numbers (04) would indicate that it was made in 2004.



2015 manufacture

Meprolights are more difficult to date.

They have a code stamped on the underside of the sight.

A=0, B=1, C=2 and on up. The letter l was omitted.

So, the code AC should indicate 02.

I checked and saw some script, but couldn't make out what it was.

[Scorpion8]

Gosh, remember when Timex watches had tritium night-glow dials, and then there was the huge cancer scare at the early days of the Cold War regarding "anything nuke"? Your exposure to any threat on this would be extremely low just due to "time" which is one factor in absorbed dosage. I have some 1950's-era Warsaw-Pact AK-47's with the original tritium sights and they still glow a bit.

[Synchronizor]

Gosh, remember when Timex watches has tritium night-glow dials, and then there was the huge cancer scare at the early days of the Cold War regarding "anything nuke"?

Early radioluminescent products used radium as the energy source, which was potentially hazardous, as decaying radium emits higher-energy alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, as well as some potentially dangerous chemical byproducts. The most famous example of this danger was the case of the "Radium Girls" but even wearing a radium wristwatch for a long period of time could result in a radiation dose comparable to what radiation workers experience, and many times that of a typical person's normal environmental radiation exposure. Not necessarily dangerous (on its own), but not something that you probably want to ignore.

Tritium is a much safer product; it's a lower-energy emitter of just beta particles, which aren't strong enough to penetrate the glass tubes containing the tritium, and can't penetrate human skin if the gas does escape. It also decays into helium-3, which is not radioactive or hazardous, and since both tritium and helium-3 are gasses, even if the vials break, they will just dissipate harmlessly into the air.