Night sights.

First, lasers may not be allowed in IDPA (I know they're not allowed in IPSC/USPSA) and I find that they're more of a distraction and a crutch for those who don't want to learn how to use sights. You already [presumably] know how to use pistol sights, just need to see them in the dark.

Third vote for night sights. Lasers are not that great. I had a set of CT grips on a revolver and was thoroughly underwhelmed. My cat thought it was interesting when I would do dry fire drills, but you can get a laser pointer for like $4 if all you want to do is entertain your cat.

tritium sights on the sig, laser grip on the model 10. bam.

I'm late to this, but I agree about the night sights.  In my experience, a laser grip will encourage poor shooting technique.  It's bright, it's red, and it naturally draws your eye to the target - and off of the front sight.  It also tends to reveal your position to your assailant...  Had it been me, I would have gone with all-green Trijicons, with white outlines... but that's just personal preference.



Kaso

Lasers ALLOW poor shooting technique. It's up to you if you fall into that training trap. The laser's strength (ability to be used in less than ideal positions) is one of its greatest weaknesses (users tend to get complacent/sloppy/lazy). However, that's blaming an inanimate object for human failures.

My objection to it for the OP is that, at the moment, his limited resources are better spent elsewhere, not the the laser is bad, per se.

Mike

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The only time I've ever liked a laser on a handgun was shooting one handed while carrying a shield.  Nothing like trying to line up your sights through the small window of a shield. The laser made shield shooting fun! 

I would get night sights long before a laser.

Night sights, hands down.  They will not fail you and will not be obscured.

I am not a fan of lasers for the reasons mentioned above.  They have a place, but you have to keep yourself from making you lazy.

kaso, at some point there i began to generalize about anti-laser sentiment rather than your specific comments. 'draws focus from the front sight' and 'hunting the dot' all blend into a guy complaining that a swedish ax is terrible for splitting wood. he's not wrong, but he far cry from sensible.

trying a borrowed pistol at the range doesn't really do the concept justice; a laser isn't meant to be used on your average well lit range at all. i thought laser grips were a waste of money until we traded into a snub nose that came with them. in low light they are phenomenal, far brighter than my warren tactical sights (my shiniest bit of tritium), and incredibly easy to use (though a pain to calibrate)

i don't know where this 'laziness' argument comes from. years of training to draw and aim down the sights doesn't evaporate overnight and unless you ditched all your other guns and went out of your way to only shoot in low light i don't know how you could possibly get enough time behind a laser to retrain yourself improperly.

The laziness comes mainly from people who are gun owners rather than shooters.

Just so.  My experience with lasers came before I was sufficiently practiced, and as such, they were 'retraining my shooting technique.'  Perhaps I could go back and try them, but with as little as I get out to shoot, I'd prefer to stick with the basics.

That said, if anyone does want to use a laser, I have a quite nice set of lasergrips for a 1911 in the buy/sell section... 



Kaso

And I've had "iron sights" fail (lose zero, fall off once).  I have had to replace the batteries on my Crimson Trace laser sights, but that is about the extent of them failing, and if you check them regularly, it isn't a problem.

Forgot to add that night sights work in the daytime, too. Lasers don't.

well, no. tritium is even less visible than a laser when it's light out. what does work are the physical iron sights which are going to be there regardless (unless ultra snag free pistols with the sights lopped off make a come back...) and if you aren't aiming down the sights you are doing it wrong.

Also a laser is a electrical/mechanical device, at some time it WILL fail.

a gun is a mechanical device with inevitable failure points. but it does have some advantages over the more reliable knife, no?

in all seriousness the crimson trace units are sturdy and despite my clumsiness have survived several years of high rotation carry with only faint wear marks to show for it. the laser is a very simple device.
in terms of battery life the estimated four hours run time comes out to years of carry and dry fire practice. i'm actually still on the original set after almost three years and the grips we bought used have only gone through two sets in the past eight years.

potentially things could go wrong, but i worry about it less than i worry about banging up a scope.

I'm not just referring to the batteries, eventually irregardless of the batteries the device will stop working.

they are pretty simple, it's going to be a long 'eventually'. i imagine i'll have to replace my tritiums well before the laser gives me an issue.