TRU-GLO TFO AR front sight

[Fuel Fire Desire]

I’ve recently been focusing on traditional military irons over glass. Low light shooting has been a challenge with the aperture sight for me, and when looking for a solution I stumbled upon this.










Unlike the Williams fiber sight, this is all contained within the front sight wings, and the end of the light pipe is completely enclosed in steel within the post. A tritium tube is held at the other end of the light pipe within another steel housing that sits inside the detent spring cavity.


The amount of light seen in daylight is about perfect. Not overwhelming, but it certainly makes the pin pop. The tritium illumination isn’t as powerful as a naked tube like in my pistol sights, but it still gives off an excellent amount of light for darkness adjusted eyes.








When installed the blade and fiber sit completely within the protective wings of the front sight.










Sight picture is slightly less precise as the top of the post is rounded instead of square like on a standard post, making the tip a bit more vague. Though, this may be a moot point….. the post is ever so slightly taller when bottomed out than the previous post’s zero position. This would make point of impact somewhere within the top half of the green dot, instead of the tip of the post. While this is less than optimal, it may work out, as the dot is easier to pick up than the round edge of the tip. I may end up shooting this like a red dot sight instead of modifying the post to seat lower (or resetting the rear drum). Since this rifle has a FN government barrel it’s not a precision rifle. So splitting hairs with 0.01” of post height isn’t going to win me a National Match.










The other negative I have with the sight is the spring that’s used to keep the post held down under tension is too long. The nut on the bottom has bottomed out the coils, essentially making the spring a stack of washers. This won’t allow the sight to move upward any more than it is, and the sight blade is bottomed out in the housing…….so the sight has a fixed unadjustable elevation. This can be fixed by trimming some coils off of the spring, but if adjustment is needed, it won’t need to be raised….it needs to be lowered. But according to a caliper, the post height is where it needs to be as it sits.





This isn’t a budget barrel and front sight housing, this is a factory FN assembly. I’d blame tolerance issues on the housing if this were a PSA or a combat armory, but this is as Mil-Spec as it gets. Great Idea, well made, great sight picture, but disappointing fitment. It’s a fitment issue that can be fixed easily, but a fitment issue none the less. I’m also curious if the nut on the bottom survives recoil. It has thread locker on it, and is under a good amount of spring tension, so it should stay put, but it’s definitely the weak point in the design.


Neat idea, nice package, great construction, and great operationally. Just a bit lacking in tolerances.