Night sights on rifles in Alaska?

[Proud American]

Does anyone use night sights for bear protection rifles, iron sights only???

If so, what manner of sights have you found effective there in your summer night light? Is there any means of making a normal brass or white front sight bead as such without modifying the whole front sight?

During July/August, how dark does it get at it lowest point? Can you still see a sight bead at this time if something happened around camp???

Coming up in July, trying to avoid learning the hard way, when all of you may have the experience in such matters.

[Amigo Will]

When its dark the bears are sleeping for the winter.You can find gold leaf at lots of hobby or office stores and just rub some on your front sight,redo as needed.JMHO but night sights are good for people protection where you shoot center mass but thats not the way to stop a bear

[.338 mag.]

well...

I have "night sights" on some pistols. The only thing they are good for in my opinion is giving me some kind of an idea where the front sight is. They do not help me see the target any better. My Surefire flash light does though. I also like them on a "combat shotgun".

[ADfields]

Does anyone use night sights for bear protection rifles, iron sights only???

If so, what manner of sights have you found effective there in your summer night light? Is there any means of making a normal brass or white front sight bead as such without modifying the whole front sight?

During July/August, how dark does it get at it lowest point? Can you still see a sight bead at this time if something happened around camp???

Coming up in July, trying to avoid learning the hard way, when all of you may have the experience in such matters.

If you’re going north of the Arctic Circle it stays light but down around Ketchikan it’s not that unlike PA, so what part of the state you will be in is somewhat important. Here in Palmer or Anchorage we get 6 hours of night and about 4 hours of that is dark but the sky is light enough you don’t see many stars so it’s like a full moon night in PA maybe.

Are you wanting to know about hunting with a lighted optic or what you need to be able to defend yourself from a bear at night?

[Proud American]

Yes, I was wondering what Alaskans did to protect themselves at night. When I was in Africa this was also a problem, as lions own the night. I have one night to remember when a lion was outside my tent. The baboons were going crazy, and I could feel him staring. After the sun finally came up ... and boy have I appreciated sun rises since! ... my Pro and I took a photo of his track not far from my tent. He was staring me down through the tent, but my snoring before I was awaken by the baboons may have made him think it was a bear in there!

I would use the standard flashlight in the left hand while holding the stock if necessary, but a nice front bead that was like the pistol night sights would be nice.

If it is not fully black dark, you can see the animals, but not a standard brass front sight bead in relation to the rear sight. But, up close my point shooting is good!~ I also shoot and practice shooting from the hip. Just like my almost 30 years of police shooting, instinctive shooting is something I have practiced for most of my adult life. Like shooting a longbow, throwing a football, or hitting a bad guy in an alley at night, it is a skill worth your time ... even if you practice with a .22 ... instinctive pointing is not dependent on caliber. But, a night sight would be handy for a shot a little further than the dependable short range for such shooting, that is what I was considering when asking my question....

[VernAK]

If concerned about shooting an intruder bear in the dark, I would opt for a Trijicon scope with the tritium triangle on the post reticle.

[Kay9Cop]

I use Brockman's pop up peep and Tritium front sight on my .458 Win Mag Mauser. When hunting bears on a stream, I've often stayed out until sunset and like the option of popping the scope off for the walk back to camp.

[Proud American]

I like the brockman front peep that is illuminated, but not the rear peep, only because my Browning BLR is a takedown model. The two sights on the barrel is probably more consistant with taking it apart and back together than it would be with the sights separated each time. I think that front peep may be too wide for my sight radius, but I may ask Brockman about it. Of course it is not the same height probably, as the Browning has very high sights on the takedown, look at the catalog!

[jay51]

XS makes some tritium front-sights that are pretty neat. In camp I rely on my sidearm, rifles can get pretty unwieldy(especially in a tent!), and I like a double-action revolver. Just keep a quality flashlight/headlamp next to your weapon of choice, then you can ID your target that much better, and see the sights. At that time of year there will be a few hours of darkness, but not much, more twilight than darkness. Even a light-gathering hi-viz sight would probably work, some people see green better than red. Good Luck,
-J

[Proud American]

A tent isn't much protection! If a bear jumps on you, as they do not know how a door zipper works ... the tent will collapse on you, making you a Bear Burrito!!! This is not a good scenario... Even a handgun may not be useful under such conditions... But, it may be the only one that is useful if you can find room to work it. A rifle around a camp with more than one tent would always be handy, so someone can sort out the pesky 1000 pound Brownies if needed... A light would be good, as would multiple firearms so everyone doesn't depend on one guy, who may be the Burrito that night!