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XS Big Dot Sights

2195 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Adam5, 
rjinga
X-mas came early for me. I got my XS 24/7 Big Dot Tritium Express Set sights last Friday. I had them installed on my Sig P229 at my local gun shop yesterday.

Pro: For my purposes, and with my ageing eyes, I think I’m really going to like these sights. I like shooting slow tight groups on a paper target as much as the next guy and my factory three dot tritium sights were pretty good for that. However, this firearm’s primary purpose is for use in self-defense and it just took me too long to find the front sight during SD shooting drill.

After only one day of dry-firing around the house, I’m really surprised at how much easier and quicker it is to pick up that big dot, dot the “I†with it, and fire in every kind of lighting. And as far as accuracy goes (with the laser cartridge at least), I am hitting a 2-1/2†reflective target square with pretty good regularity from 7 yds away, and really good regularity at 3 yds.

Con: When doing the installation, the XS front sight slid through the dovetail freely; no friction at all. The gun smith said he’d never seen something like that before. So basically, the red threadlocker is all that’s holding it in place. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens when hot rounds are flying out of the barrel and the slide is racking back with each shot.
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nutnless220
Awesome Gift!

Have a gunsmith hard solder it. It probably will come off with just lock-tite. I also have aging eyes and have several pistols and AK's with big dots. They excel at speed and fast sight picture at close range. The last couple of pistols I bought I mounted a set of Trijicon HD Night Sights. Similar concept, slightly smaller high vis front sight and serrated rear with a u notch. The tritium vials ghost out in the daytime. I think the U shaped notch makes the most difference for me. If you'd like to try them PM me and I'll meet you at the Athens Gun Club range one day.
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Fallschirmjäger
Had that problem before, the 'smith just used a punch and used it to put a dimple in the sight, essentially making it thicker and staking it in place. *Don't punch/stake the slide though, except as a last resort.*
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gunsmoker
I've long been a proponent of BIGGER handgun sights for defensive purposes.

Bigger sights with colored dots, outlines, or ramps were one of the final improvements in most police revolvers of the 1970s and 1980s, before everbybody went to autoloaders.

The semi-autos that replaced the wheelguns had good sights, modern style, not tiny little sights whose dimenstions were designed for slow fire 50-yard bullseye shooting.

I'd like to see compact defensive handguns (especially small frame revolvers) get EVEN BIGGER sights. Freakin' huge. Freakishly large. Well, the back sight should be large, with a wide notch. The front sights are OK on their present width-- they just need to be colored.

Meanwhile, the photo below shows something close to what I'm looking for.
However, it appears the camera in this photo was much closer to the weapon than your eye would be when you're actually aiming the gun for real. So the width of the rear sight seems exaggerated in this pic, and you wouldn't really have that much space on each side of the front sight.

If I could get my sights to look like this when holding the gun some 30" from my face, arms fully extended, that would be wonderful.

And I'd like my .38 revolver to have sights like that, instead of the pathetic little groove milled into the topstrap, with no contrasting colors.

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moe mensale
gunsmoker said:
Meanwhile, the photo below shows something close to what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...
I replaced the sights on my Springfield XDM with a Dawson Precision red fiber optic front and blacked out rear with a wide notch. Much faster and easier to pick up the front sight now.
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rjinga
Update

rjinga said:
When doing the installation, the XS front sight slid through the dovetail freely; no friction at all. The gun smith said he’d never seen something like that before. So basically, the red threadlocker is all that’s holding it in place. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens when hot rounds are flying out of the barrel and the slide is racking back with each shot.
Click to expand...
I put 100 rounds through my firearm today and the sight is still there. So far, so good.
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Nemo
gunsmoker said:
the pathetic little groove milled into the topstrap, with no contrasting colors.
Click to expand...
White or Red or Bright Orange model paint does wonders.

Plain White-Out does a good job too. Try this first and do thin dots or dashes or one line. Try thick or thinner lines. I suspect you might be surprised in the ease of usage of the different possibilities and improved accuracy with each.

I prefer the front site bright orange and one long thin white line on the groove lining up to the front site.

Nemo
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Adam5
Nemo said:
White or Red or Bright Orange model paint does wonders.
Click to expand...
This is what I've used several times. After a couple of thin layers I put a layer of clear over it.
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