My first priority after breaking in my P99 was night sights. After reading Jim's review, I took a trip to Earl's with my P99 ready to shell out the big bucks for a set of his sights. Just for reference, my P99 is a 9mm DA/SA with the Smith and Wesson import stamp (feels like a monkey carved it in my slide). Well, after about 15 minutes George, (Earl was at the SHOT show) declared my slide to be a new design that wouldn't fit Earl's night sights
![]()
He then proceeded to whip out one of their special "All german" P99's on which the rear sight didn't fit either. Ok. He said come back in a week and it would be all straightened out. Meanwhile, the front sight had already been installed. Looking like quite a majestic sail of a sight on my slide, I asked if it would be compatible in height to the rear. He said of course and, while doubting, I figured what the heck, paid for the front only and left.
Well, of course the front sight didn't work out. The #4 came on my P99 from the factory and it was perfect. The front from Earl's (trijicon) is higher than even a #6! The gun shot about .5" low when holding dead-on instead of the previous perfect 6 o'clock hold. Midway into my third magazine my P99 came back down to target with nothing but a smooth expanse of serrations in my rear sight notch ending nicely at the horizon of the end of my slide. Forget loctite, George didn't even screw the thing down properly. Fortunately, it was just me at the range so finding the front sight I launched didn't take too long. Did I mention that the front sight tube was way dimmer than the trijicon tubes on my P7? Not a little dimmer, significantly dimmer.
I returned to Earl's the next day to return the front sights but apparently he decided to close shop early, really early, like 4 in the afternoon early.
Meprolights came next. The only night sights I owned up till now have been trijicons so the meprolights were a surprise. Unlike the trjicons which are tubes recesssed into the sights with white paint around the recess, the meprolights go a step further and put a drop of some sort of clear epoxy/resin over the recess. This, they advertise, is great since it protects the white outline from being dissolved/removed or yellowing over time due to oxidation. What they don't tell you is that the epoxy/resin actually bubbles out from the sights creating a round, polished surface to catch all sorts of glare. Backlighting turns those nice white circles into distorted lights, especially annoying if you catch the rears pulling your attention away from the front. That said, the meprolight tubes are bigger than the trijicons, just as bright (intensity, brighter if you include intensity over area) and the white outlines certainly are whiter than used trijicons. The front and rear dots line up nice and even and one might argue that the meprolights have a better (blacker) finish than the trijicons. The sights shot about .5" higher than the plastic set, still not perfect but acceptable. The front sight tube is almost too big resulting in not much black left on the sides for contrast. Of course, I saved the best for last... the meprolight front sight was not square! the top edge was machined at a slight angle giving me a subtly crooked sight picture. Meprolight customer service has yet to return my calls for replacement. The meprolight sight measures about in between the #5 and #6 sights so I might have a smith machine the top of the front sight lower (and flat) and switch to a euro plastic rear.
Back to Earl's. This time I got Earl himself who gave my (his) front sight quite the evil eye as I requested a return. What really cracked me up was that the paint around the front had been imperfect when I bought it (slight over paint) which I was going to rememdy with a pick at home but when I returned it to Earl, he kept looking at that imperfection before agreeing to the refund as if perhaps I had done it... but maybe I'm just paranoid. He started talking about how trijicon was the best in the industry, etc, etc, when I told him I bought meprolights instead that were brighter.
![]()
Anyway, I did ask about the rear sights and apparently he is making no effort to correct their machining to fit the "new" P99's. He stated that S&W is illegally copying his design for sights and thus changed the rear sight notch in order to prevent people from buying his sights and making the S&W design legal (not an exact copy). I stated that I hadn't seen that in an attempt to fish for information where I might get a set of the S&W/Earl's night sights but no luck. He also then went on to tell me that S&W is making all the slides and barrels now and that the german marks on current imports are fake!
![]()
Then of course he pulled one of his from the case to show me. He did have me going for a while there since the "P99" on my own pistol is in fact not roll stamped but carved in a rough manner very very similar to the way "Smith and Wesson" was carved into my slide but I'm not ready to believe that the german mark on the slide and barrel are fake. Then he started talking about the label on the box and how his labels were diferent (german) etc. etc. Whew
I'm done ranting...
All I can say is that I really wish that Novaks had done a P99 sight...
Well, of course the front sight didn't work out. The #4 came on my P99 from the factory and it was perfect. The front from Earl's (trijicon) is higher than even a #6! The gun shot about .5" low when holding dead-on instead of the previous perfect 6 o'clock hold. Midway into my third magazine my P99 came back down to target with nothing but a smooth expanse of serrations in my rear sight notch ending nicely at the horizon of the end of my slide. Forget loctite, George didn't even screw the thing down properly. Fortunately, it was just me at the range so finding the front sight I launched didn't take too long. Did I mention that the front sight tube was way dimmer than the trijicon tubes on my P7? Not a little dimmer, significantly dimmer.
I returned to Earl's the next day to return the front sights but apparently he decided to close shop early, really early, like 4 in the afternoon early.
Meprolights came next. The only night sights I owned up till now have been trijicons so the meprolights were a surprise. Unlike the trjicons which are tubes recesssed into the sights with white paint around the recess, the meprolights go a step further and put a drop of some sort of clear epoxy/resin over the recess. This, they advertise, is great since it protects the white outline from being dissolved/removed or yellowing over time due to oxidation. What they don't tell you is that the epoxy/resin actually bubbles out from the sights creating a round, polished surface to catch all sorts of glare. Backlighting turns those nice white circles into distorted lights, especially annoying if you catch the rears pulling your attention away from the front. That said, the meprolight tubes are bigger than the trijicons, just as bright (intensity, brighter if you include intensity over area) and the white outlines certainly are whiter than used trijicons. The front and rear dots line up nice and even and one might argue that the meprolights have a better (blacker) finish than the trijicons. The sights shot about .5" higher than the plastic set, still not perfect but acceptable. The front sight tube is almost too big resulting in not much black left on the sides for contrast. Of course, I saved the best for last... the meprolight front sight was not square! the top edge was machined at a slight angle giving me a subtly crooked sight picture. Meprolight customer service has yet to return my calls for replacement. The meprolight sight measures about in between the #5 and #6 sights so I might have a smith machine the top of the front sight lower (and flat) and switch to a euro plastic rear.
Back to Earl's. This time I got Earl himself who gave my (his) front sight quite the evil eye as I requested a return. What really cracked me up was that the paint around the front had been imperfect when I bought it (slight over paint) which I was going to rememdy with a pick at home but when I returned it to Earl, he kept looking at that imperfection before agreeing to the refund as if perhaps I had done it... but maybe I'm just paranoid. He started talking about how trijicon was the best in the industry, etc, etc, when I told him I bought meprolights instead that were brighter.
Anyway, I did ask about the rear sights and apparently he is making no effort to correct their machining to fit the "new" P99's. He stated that S&W is illegally copying his design for sights and thus changed the rear sight notch in order to prevent people from buying his sights and making the S&W design legal (not an exact copy). I stated that I hadn't seen that in an attempt to fish for information where I might get a set of the S&W/Earl's night sights but no luck. He also then went on to tell me that S&W is making all the slides and barrels now and that the german marks on current imports are fake!
I'm done ranting...
All I can say is that I really wish that Novaks had done a P99 sight...
