Tritium vials

[calcot7]

Does anybody have a source for tritium vials for use in night sights? I have a Springfield V 10 Ultra Compact and the front sight is a night sight. Needless to say it no longer glows in the dark. The sight is staked in place rather than dovetailed. I have already removed the old vial by means of a tiny, Dremel sized drill bit. And "No" I didn't drill it out. The sight has a hole or channel all the way through it so I just pushed it out from the back side. It came out easily. I thought that the vials were epoxied in place but this one was more like a putty of some sort.
I have searched online but so far have not found what seems to be a reliable source. I really don't want to spend a lot of money on a complete sight install since the installation of a new vial would be simple and do no cosmetic damage to the gun. Has anyone else been in this situation?

 

[M67]

I know there's a few guys on Bladeforums that use tritium vials for lanterns and things like that, if you're a member over there I'd ask them.

Another option might be to send it back to Springfield, maybe they can replace it for you

 

[Classic]

Kimber replaced one for me for free. Sent in the slide and got it back fixed in 5 days.

 

[calcot7]

Yeah. I guess I should call Springfield and see about the cost of replacement. It just seems like a do it yourself project since I already got the old vial out so easily. I did find a place that sells tritium vials but most of them are much too large to use in a gun sight. They do have one that is pretty close but would require drilling out the blade of the sight with a 1.5 mm drill bit which is to small to "Chuck Up" in my drill press. I guess I could try Allen M also. Thanks for the replies and I'll check out Bladeforums and maybe some of these flashlight guru forums also. I thought about going with an FO insert. I have the material to do it but I am afraid that since the firearm is ported the muzzle flash would melt the FO rod. Any input on that option?

 

[ModernGunner]

JMO, but I sure wouldn't start drilling anything at this point.

First suggestion, as mentioned, would be M67's idea to contact Springfield. That might be the cheapest route in the long run, actually.

When something is 'odd' like that, meaning there's an issue finding it readily and easily available (isn't everything pretty easy to find on the internet?), it usually means it's going to be costly. Might just be cheaper to have Springfield to replace it than to (finally) find the part and have it shipped. Really.

Had a set of Trijicons installed on a sub-compact a while back. It was the same $$$ to send the slide to the gun-maker, have the sights installed and return shipped as it was to order & ship just the sights, +/- a couple bucks. And if there's any challenges, the gun manufacturer is certainly equipped to address them.

Surprised to hear one of the tritium vials went dark. Tritium typically has a half-life of roughly 12.3 years.

 

[engineerpower]

There's a vender on the AKfiles that sells a variety (Eclipsesharp). I think posting links to other sources is frown upon, so suffice it to say that you'll probably find what you want if you google something along the lines of "WTS: Tritium vials of various sizes and colors"

 

[Leo]

I sent mine to trijicon. They do not need the whole gun, only the slide, which I shipped insured. The price was resonable and the turn around was a few weeks.