Fast, Bright, and Built to Last:
Why XS Sights Deserve a Closer Look
I first met Ashley Emerson, the founder of the company now known as XS Sights, back in the mid-1990s. I found him to be a savvy, experienced outdoorsman and gun guy. His hallmarks were an inquisitive mind and a commitment to quality. That has been true of the company he founded over the years as it morphed into Ashley Outdoors, AO, and ultimately, XS Sights.
The company may be best known for its Ashley Express sights, a return to the old African dangerous game rifle concept of a very shallow “V” of a rear sight with a great big ball of a front sight. It was originally intended for fast work with something like a .600 Nitro Express on a charging rhino. The concept caught on immediately after Ashley introduced it and applied it to handguns.
My late friend, firearms instructor James Yeager, was a huge proponent of these sights on pistols. When critics questioned its accuracy because the concept was originally intended for coarse, quick and dirty work, James promptly did at least one video showing him doing very credible long-range work with them on his trademark pistol, the 9mm GLOCK 19.
Earlier, Ashley had shown me how to use the vertical line imprinted at the bottom of that shallow “V” and set the big front ball on top of it like a lollipop. It worked for a lot of people.
The XS Express sight is one of the options I recommend to readers and students who have vision issues. It’s big enough to catch even a blurry eye quickly. You might, therefore, even call it a sight for sore eyes.
I have a set of these on one of my 9mm High Powers, and they are indeed quick. If I were still carrying a gun while working in my dad’s jewelry store, where the longest engagement distance would have been the length of a showcase, and time would have been of the essence, I would very likely have wound up with a set of these Express sights on my carry pistol.
Note, however, that the “lollipop” sights are not by any means the only kind in the XS catalog. Some years ago, dissatisfied with what I found to be a too-small aperture in the rear sight of my folding stock Ruger Mini-14 .223, I replaced it with a set of this company’s ghost ring rifle sights. What a difference! Those sights made a good, handy little rifle distinctly more efficient.
For those more enamored of the conventional handgun sight picture, XS offers an excellent series of conventional night sights. It has a big old dot up front, your choice of several bright colors to catch your eye and index the target in bright light if that happens to be the case, and a generous square rear notch in which to set that big ball if there’s time for a precise shot.
My latest XS acquisition is a set of R3D 2.0 Night Sights in green for my wife’s Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0 .380. She can’t wait to try them.
The R3D 2.0’s anti-glare, blacked-out rear sight enhances focus and rapid front sight acquisition, while the dual-illuminated tritium photoluminescent front sight offers a high-contrast glow in all lighting conditions. With its EasyPress dovetail system, which reduces installation force by 50%, the XS R3D 2.0 sights can be easily installed by using a sight pusher tool or a hammer and punch.
When it comes to XS Sights, the bottom line is this: Whatever your need, it’s wise to look ‘em over and unwise to overlook ‘em.
