Upgrade That Handgun

At first glance, replacement sights look like such basic technology. But when you start to peel back to the layers of sight design, you start to understand how important all the subtle details really are.

You have to start with an understanding of the underlying objective of any given set of sights. Some sights are built for recreational shooting, often like those included in the factory configuration. Others are optimized for bullseye shooting, when you have all the time in the world, figuratively speaking, to line up a shot. Others, like the R3D 2.0 sights, are designed for fast combat accuracy under various ambient conditions.

XS R3D 2.0 Sight Tech

Clearly, this particular sight upgrade is equipped for low-light shooting, with Tritium vials in the front sight and two additional lamps flanking the notch in the rear sight. That’s relatively easy, and there are lots of aftermarket options that glow in the dark. What’s more difficult is designing sights that leap into your vision under any lighting conditions.

These have standard Tritium vials in the rear sight, noticeably smaller than the front, to easily distinguish between front and rear dots in dark conditions. The large Tritium front sight, however, is surrounded by a luminescent ring (green in the test sample case) that glows brightly in lighter conditions. You will have no trouble picking it up, especially since its oversized design stretches from one edge of the wide front post to the other.

The rear sight back is serrated to reduce glare on the shooter’s eye, but there’s a more subtle speed-enhancing touch in the way it’s cut. The rear cutout appears to be a square notch, and the top corners are sharp 90-degree angles, as you’d expect. But if you look carefully at the bottom of the “notch” you’ll see the interior corners are slightly rounded. This offers the best of both worlds between precision and speed.

The rounded corners don’t catch your eye, so when the brain is trying to pick up a sight picture, your focus is drawn to the top of the sight (where it should be) to establish proper elevation with the top of the front sight. No distractions from seeing too many corners on which to focus. However, the flat base of the notch, combined with the sharp top corners, also allows precision when you need it. Try it, and you’ll see what I mean — your eye doesn’t get hung up on the rear sight — it’s directed forward with an easy elevation cue from the rear.

Upgrade Time

You might have noticed the resurgence of the Browning Hi-Power design. A couple of years ago, Springfield Armory brought out its version. The SA-35 is a well-made version of the classic design. Better yet, it was priced to sell, and it has. I picked up one myself. To keep an aggressive price point like many other pistols, this one ships with a standard white-dot front sight and, in this case, a flat black “U” rear sight. Fine for the range, but if you want to carry it, you may prefer sights optimized for defensive use.

Guess what? The XS R3D 2.0s are now offered to fit the SA-35, along with lots of other guns from Canik, CZ, Desert Eagle, FN, GLOCK, HK, SIG SAUER and other Springfield models, Smith & Wesson, Taurus, Tisas, Walther and standard 1911s. It’s time to upgrade the SA-35 and put it into carry rotation!

Old Sight Removal Tips

Roy is going to discuss the sight installation and removal tools later in this series, so I won’t get into the details on those, but I will share a couple of tips that came in handy for my particular upgrade.

If you haven’t found this out the hard way, Springfield Armory mounts its sights using one of Earth’s tectonic plates to apply 400 trillion billion tons of force. This is a good thing. Should the moon ever plummet into my man cave and directly impact one of my Springfield pistols, I won’t have to worry about the sights getting knocked loose.

Here’s the trick to getting the original ones out. Like a proper marriage, you’ve got to commit. Fully. No teeny gunsmith hammers with plastic punches. Get a big hammer with serious weight, a proper and very durable brass punch and use a solid vise lined with a softer metal in the jaws so you don’t trash your slide. You can use a steel punch with tape on the end if you’re confident and have a steady hand, but be careful.
Now, when everything is lined up just perfectly, with the punch against the base, not the blade of the sight, give it a solid whack with that big hammer. No little repetitive taps or you’ll hear taps blowing at the local military base before anything moves. This is one of those leaps of faith, but if you do it right, you’ll actually do less damage to your handgun.

When you do get brass marks on your slide or sights, there’s a nifty trick to make it disappear. Use a gun blue touch-up pen as shown in the photos. It melts brass residue like Paul McCartney melted teen hearts.

New Sight Installation

The R3D 2.0 series has some nifty design features specifically intended to make installation easier. I’ve installed lots of XS sights over the years, and they’ve always been relatively easy DIY jobs. However, guns and tolerances vary, so the company has to plan for slide cuts both a bit too big and a tad too small. In most cases, I’ve had to break out a flat diamond hone or Emery cloth to make small fitting adjustments. This is by design, as the last thing you want is loose sights, so the company makes them on the larger side to allow for fitting.

Good news. The days of fitting should be gone, or at least a rare event. The sight bases are now engineered with beveled leading edges and “crush zone” cuts. The leading bevels help get the sight started, and the relief cut in the sight base allows it to be slightly “crushed” (if necessary) to fit your particular pistol dovetails). Translation. Just start pushing the sight in and these two features ensure you won’t have to break out the files if the fit is a little too tight.

With my recent installation of the R3D 2.0s on the Springfield SA-35, both front and rear sights went into place using sight punch and sight tool alone — no filing or sanding required. And the fit was plenty tight. These sights aren’t going anywhere, with or without the included Loc-Tite.

I used a vise, hammer and brass punch to set the front sight and the XS Gunsmith Sight Pusher tool to place the rear, but I could have just as easily used a punch to set that too.

Next step, I’ll bring the pusher to the range to set the precise placement for proper windage. There’s an Allen screw in this particular model to set the rear sight, but I’ll add a drop of the included Loc-Tite for extra insurance.

XSSights.com