Red Dot Vs Night Sights: What’s Best In Low Light?

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Shooters who are looking to upgrade their factory pistol should consider upgrading their sights. Night sights are an easy and affordable way to quickly improve your accuracy and target acquisition in low light situations. Red dot sights are a little more expensive, but just slightly so and they provide the absolute fastest target acquisition for pistol users short of using laser sights. 

While red dot sights on a pistol can be a little intimidating to new shooters, they are actually much easier to shoot with and are far more accurate than iron sights.

In this article, we will look at the pros and cons of both red dot sights and night sights and what’s best in low light. Both are better than factory sights, but which one is the best? 

Read on and find out!

Red Dot Sights

A red dot sight is a very simple optic that is designed to be used at close to medium range. They are usually 1x power, which means that they are not magnified. Red dot sights aid in rapid target acquisition by providing an illuminated aiming point called a reticle. 

The reticle is usually a single red dot, hence the name, although not always. Red is the preferred color for illuminated reticles because the color red draws the eye to it quicker than other colors, although green and yellow reticles are also sometimes used. 

Most red dot sights use battery power to illuminate their reticle. They are most common on long arms such as rifles and shotguns but are also designed to fit handguns. 

Night Sights

Night sights replace factory iron sights on pistols in order to help the shooter get a better sight picture in the dark. They glow in low light, aiding in target acquisition in low-light situations. There are two main types of night sights; fiber optic and tritium. 

Fiber optic night sights have a small piece of colored glass that gathers ambient light, amplifies it, and makes it highly visible to the shooter. Tritium is a radioactive chemical that produces its own illumination. (Don’t worry, it’s not used in large enough amounts to be dangerous.) 

Shooters often use different colors for the front and rear sights, that way they can quickly line up their sights. For example, green rear sights and a red or orange front sight are most common. When you line up your sights in the dark, you know it should look GREEN-RED-GREEN from side to side. 

Do you really need a red dot or night sight?

The basic purpose behind using either a red dot sight or night sights is to make aiming quicker and easier, especially in low-light situations. If you’re a new shooter or even an experienced shooter, having a red dot or night sights can significantly improve your reaction time and accuracy. 

One great advantage of both red dot sights and night sights is that they also help during daylight shooting, not just in low light. This means that most shooters will benefit from having one no matter when they plan on shooting.

Both red dot sights and night sights are a vast improvement over plain, dark, iron sights. If you carry a gun, especially at night, you should consider replacing your factory iron sights with night sights or a red dot sight.

Many competitive sport shooters opt for red dot sights because the target acquisition is so fast compared to iron sights. Anyone who uses a pistol for home or personal defense should consider adding night sights to their gun.

Can you see a red dot at night?

Red dot sights are great at night because they have illuminated reticles that provide clear visibility. Many also have adjustable brightness settings for day and night use. Because red dot sights use batteries, it’s a good idea to check your brightness before leaving the house to make sure your battery isn’t dead. Carrying backup batteries is also smart.

Both tritium and fiber optic night sights are a vast improvement over factory iron sights. But a red dot sight is a considerable improvement over night sights. 

Fiber optic night sights need at least some ambient light in order to work properly. In a totally dark room, they would be useless. With that being said, you will very rarely be in a total darkness situation and need your gun. The reason? Bad guys need to see too, and not many of them are wearing night vision devices.

Distance of a red dot sight on a pistol vs tritium night sights

Most pistols are only effective out to about 50 yards. After that, you cannot reliably hit a target, no matter how skilled you may be. Red dot optics on pistols will make most shooters more accurate within the entire effective range of their pistol. That means that within 50 yards, almost all shooters will perform better with a red dot sight than with iron sights. 

For night sights, the answer is pretty much the same. Because the sights are more visible and easier to aim than standard dark iron sights, they make shooters more accurate at all distances. They do not, however, extend a shooter’s range past what they can already shoot, such as a scope would do. 

Are red dot sights more accurate than night sights?

Accuracy is determined by the shooter’s skill, but red dot optics are much easier to shoot accurately than night sights. The reason is simple. With red dot sights, you simply need to place the red dot on your target, and that’s where your shot will go. There’s no lining up the front and rear sights. It’s truly “point and click” technology. 

Night sights make your iron sights more visible, but it’s still the shooter’s job to line up the sights properly to get an accurate shot. For this simple fact, red dot optics are much easier to aim and shoot than night sights.

Red dot sights are great for training new shooters because the act of aiming is much simpler. Learning to shoot and becoming comfortable shooting on a red dot sight can make learning to shoot iron sights easier. 

Target Acquisition

As I touched on earlier, both red dot sights and night sights are vast improvements over factory iron sights on a pistol. They both allow you to acquire your target faster than dark metal or white painted sights, especially at night. 

However, between the two, red dot sights provide even faster target acquisition than night sights. The reason is that with red dot sights, you only need to place the red dot on your target, and that’s where your round will go. 

Even if your line of sight is slightly off-center, as long as you can see the glass and reticle of your red dot sight, you can shoot accurately. With night sights and all iron sights, you still need to line up the front and rear sights or you won’t be accurate. 

Another major advantage of red dot sights when talking about target acquisition is that red dot sights are designed to be fired with both eyes open. This means that in a defensive scenario, you can continue scanning for targets and won’t get “tunnel vision”. Both eyes open firing should be a major consideration when deciding what sights to put on your defensive pistol.

Mounting On Firearm

As far as mounting goes, both red dot sights and night sights require minimal gunsmithing skill and can be done by even the newest gun owner. First, let’s talk about red dots.

Red Dots
There are two primary ways to mount a red dot sight on a pistol. The first is by far the easiest and cheapest way. This involves hammering out the rear sight dovetail and inserting an aftermarket red dot mounting plate. 

Red dot mounting plates can be purchased anywhere that sells shooting accessories and usually cost around $40-$50. After that, it’s as simple as mounting your red dot sight to the plate with a couple of screws. 

Another way of mounting a red dot sight is to purchase a specialty-made slide with a red dot cutout or have your current slide milled. Both of these options are considerably more expensive than the drop-in dovetail mounting plate. 

Night Sights
Night sights are the easier option to add to a pistol. To replace iron sights on most pistols, you can use a tool called a sight pusher, or simply tap it out using a punch and rubber mallet. 

If you’re using a punch and mallet, you will want to place your slide in a vice so that it doesn’t move. Once the front and rear factory sights are out, you can insert the night sights and tap them into place in the same manner.

Don’t forget that many sights will have a lockdown screw that holds them in place during recoil. 

Cost Comparison

The cost for both red dots and night sights can vary greatly depending on the quality that you are looking for. 

You can find cheap red dot sights that are made of plastic for $40-$50, but if you want a quality optic that will last as long as your gun, you should be looking in the $150-$200 range. 

The same goes for night sights. You can find cheap knockoffs, but a good set of night sights will run at least $100-$150.

Generally speaking, a quality red dot sight will cost a little bit more than a set of night sights of equal quality. 

Are red dots or night sights worth the added cost over factory sights?

Any serious shooter will tell you that at a minimum, night sights are worth the cost to upgrade your factory iron sights. They are a great improvement in both daylight and low light situations. For around $100 you can have peace of mind knowing that your sights are highly visible in any light. For a few dollars more, you can have a red dot sight. That means wherever you put the dot is where the rounds go. 

Both red dot sights and night sights are worth the cost of upgrading over factory iron sights. They provide rapid target acquisition at a low cost relative to the cost of a decent pistol.

Can you use tritium night sights for assault rifles such as the AR-15?

Yes, there are companies that make tritium night sights for rifles like AR-15s, such as this rail-mounted tritium rear sight made by Troy. They provide the same advantage that pistol night sights provide, a way of rapidly acquiring a sight picture in low light situations.

That being said, the need for night sights on rifles is much, much less than on a pistol. That’s because the vast majority of AR-15 users have some sort of optic on their rifle such as a red dot sight, LPVO (low power variable optic), or a traditional variable power hunting scope. 

With no research to back this up, my guess would be that at least 85% of AR-15 owners in the United States use aftermarket optics. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re on the fence about whether or not to purchase a red dot sight or night sights for your pistol, go to your local shooting range. Most ranges have pistols for rent, and chances are good that they have one with night sights installed. 

Also, strike up a conversation with the shooter in the lane next to you. Chances are also good that they have a pistol with night sights, and maybe even a red dot sight. Once you experience shooting with the help of enhanced sights, you will wonder why you waited so long to make the change.

At a minimum, every gun owner who carries a pistol for self-defense should install night sights on their EDC (everyday carry) pistol. They are cheap, easy to install with a few tools and a vast improvement over factory sights both in daylight and low light situations. 

If you’re an experienced shooter looking for the maximum advantage, you should consider mounting a red dot sight.