If I remember correctly a utility patent is 20 years from first filing if you pay the maintenance fees.
Owner of Ryker Nylon Gear - Ryker Nylon Gear Facebook
My idea for accomplishing the tritium/f.o. front: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....um-Sights-Idea
I've since talked to Tooltech a couple of times, and they can definitely install a full size (.076) tritium vial into a .115 wide front sight with either a black or the standard visible aluminum outline.
I always wondered why no one put a tritium vial under the rod, so from a shooters perspective they only see the FO, but at night the tritium illuminates the fiber. Made in non-retarded sizes. .125, .115, .110, .100 maybe?
I'm interested if they make them .125 or smaller, and at least .285" tall so I can use one with my Dawson adjustable rears.
Last edited by Trajan; 08-24-2016 at 02:09 PM.
I thought this would work too, but I talked to someone who had tried to get this to work, but couldn't. I think he had problems with the lamps staying in place (the lamps normally used for sights are inside an aluminum cylinder, I assume this is for a reason), and and the lamp not providing enough light to illuminate the FO.
Last edited by joshs; 08-24-2016 at 04:16 PM.
I think everyone has had that idea at some point or another.
From a physics perspective, fibers are generally used as end-coupled components. Ask anyone in optics about this, and they'll almost certainly say to end-couple them, ala the way TruGlo does it, to maximize the light coupled into the fiber. I've actually had this discussion with an optics expert once.
I think daytime fiber sight illumination really benefits from an overwhelming amount of light coming from many many angles to overcome the inefficiency of coupling to a fiber optic lengthwise and to fully take advantage of the exposed profile. I don't think you can mimic that effect with a stacked tritium vial trying to couple lengthwise; much less light from far fewer angles. I think anyone with a background in optics would guess the same. A more interesting, though wacky and impractical-sounding, idea that I heard was to put the vial somewhere else, not in the sight blade itself, and fiber-couple it to the fiber in the blade. In the same breath, the idea was also suggested to use a 2-to-1 (or more) coupler in such a manner to couple multiple light sources to the fiber in the blade. Very much a theorist's wild brainstorming, but, it would solve the sight-width problem
ETA: I also think the daytime fiber sights are reaping serious benefits from fluorescence.
Also ETA: My honest feeling on the whole thing is that, while there are probably much better (while still implementable) fiber/tritium or general day/night iron sight ideas than what can be bought today, that MRDSs will become commonplace before any of these ideas can ever really meaningfully make it to market and stand the test of serious use. I'm high on the list of people that appreciate this sort of tortured perfection seeking, but at the end of the day it is really an exceedingly niche issue that is nearly obsolete.
Last edited by GRV; 08-24-2016 at 08:54 PM.
I generally agree with that statement. It always seemed funny to me that the FO rod would pull in ambient light in order to light up in a sight, when from experience from my profession (IT), the most efficient way to transmit light through a FO rod is from the ends. Tritium being what it is, definitely is not the light source it would need to be to illuminate a FO rod from the side sadly. If it were, or if you could find a way to mount another light source underneath the FO rod in a front sight, it would be ideal from a size efficiency standpoint as well as maintaining simplicity in sight picture.
But yeah, even if you were to somehow perfect such a method for illuminating fiber, via tritium or otherwise, it wouldn't be ready for serious duty use until, most likely, well after other MRDS solutions are on the market that can withstand ridiculous amounts of abuse as well as function in any condition (even Alaskan rain!).