Night sights are still the most recommended upgrade on defensive pistols. It allows you to see your sights under all lighting conditions. This comes at the expense of some daytime visibility, though, and when I say daytime visibility, I mean speed. So when Trijicon came up with the simple solution of a brightly coloured ring around the front tritium vial, they quickly became very sought after despite the hefty price tag.

Hailing from Israel, Meprolight sights has always been an excellent compromise between price and function. They are good enough to be offered as OEM equipment by pistol manufacturers, yet at a price advantage against US manufacturers. So when their new Hyper-Bright series was released, aiming straight at the HD concept, it held the potential to bring better performance to a wider range of shooters.

The first shipment of the new challengers just landed on our shores, and I wasted no time to compare them to the reigning champions.

Division

The Trijicon sights are without doubt the heavy-weight between the two. That with the Meprolights being about three-quarters of the Trijicon price. That alone will make it an instant hit among shooters who want a day-and-night sight at an affordable price. This could be especially true for those shooters that compare the price of the sights to the price of the pistol. (If you have not done that already … just don’t do it. There is a good reason for these being pricey.)

Tale of the tape

If you followed the development of Trijicon’s HDs, you know already that this fight will be won and lost by the width of the front sight. When the HDs were released, they were well received, as it offers an option to shooters who use the same pistol for self-defense and sport. But soon after, shooters who leant towards the sporting side asked for something narrower. And Trijicon gave them the HD XR. In the bigger scheme of things, HDs are not that wide. At 3.6mm they are actually narrower than stock Glock sights, and great for self-defense. They are, however, wider than the typical 3mm – 3.2mm that allows you to take aim at a 150mm plate at the back of the range. So the big question was: who are Meprolight taking on here: HDs or HD XRs?

Measuring 3.6mm wide, the Mepro Hyper-Bright sighs are aimed squarely at Trijicon’s HD sights.

Features

Apart from tritium, the Trijicon HD has a photoluminescent coloured front circle that emits light for a while after exposure. Didn’t know that? Don’t worry – neither does the majority of HD owners. Maybe an indication that it does not offer much real-world benefit. Sights live in the dark and never get charged anyway. (Remember I told you there is a reason people fork out the money for tritium sights over photoluminescent sights?) I would therefore not hold the plain rings on the Hyper-Brights against them.

Trainers today push a strong front-sight focus, favouring a high visibility front sight and a plain black rear sight. Plain black rear sights have a tendency to disappear at night, though, so most night sights still follow the traditional three-dot pattern. The Hyper-Bright rear sight has tritium vials for nighttime, but the surrounds are blacked out for a plain daytime sight picture. Very nice. Like the HDs, the Hyper-Bright rear sight has a U-shaped notch (ugh!), but, unlike the HDs, it doesn’t have serrations. A small price to pay for the money saved.

Also, unlike the HD’s rear sight, which extends rearwards for a longer sight picture, the Hyper-Bright follows the design of the original sights. So on the CZ P-10, it extends rearwards because the originals does, but on something like a Glock it has a plainer, upright design. That has the benefit that they don’t need two different sights for standard and MOS versions, of course.

Oh, and the corners are well rounded. If you studied reviews of the HDs, you’ll know why it is worth a mention.

Colours

The tritium vials all glow green. The front ring is available in three colours: orange, yellow and green.

I know from experience that orange is the most popular colour. It stands out during the daytime. Yellow, on the other hand, will reflect more light during dusk and dawn. On green, the Jizni team have split opinions. Waldo feels he picks it up quicker, while I don’t. I do like the fact that it is the same colour as the tritium glow. It makes for a slightly less busy front sight.

Pistols

Meprolight covers a decent range of pistols with these sights: Glock, M&P, Sig, CZ 75B, CZ P-10 and even the Shadow 2. Glaring in its absence is the CZ P-07 / P-09 series. I know what you’re thinking: The P-10 sights will fit. But, no. They may fit but the height difference is a deal-breaker. They will just help you to miss more reliably.

Conclusion

Something would have had to go very wrong for me not to like these sights at this price point. And it didn’t. So I do. A lot.

They will excel as all-round carry sights, and still punch above their weight at range sessions. Only if you are leaning heavily towards the sporting side, will I recommend looking at something with a narrower front sight.