Sight Installation Question....

[BritOnTour]

TAM, how far are you from Shoot Smart in FW? They have an on site Gunsmith now.

[The Annoyed Man]

If you have a GT Distributors near you, I recommend them. I've had them do sights on four or five handguns for me. They've done it while I shop (watch out, it's a trap!) and I've been happy with their work every time.

There is one, about 32 miles from here. Meanwhile, Euless Guns & Ammo is about 5 miles from here.

Drive 32 miles get the sights installed while you wait - - - Drive 5 miles get the sights installed in two weeks? I don't understand the problem. 32 miles X 2=64 miles round trip divided by 25 mpg = 2.56 gallons x $3.50 a gallon = $8.96 fuel cost. Shoot drive to GT and get the dang things installed!

Thanks for making up my mind for me.

BTW, I'm lucky to get 17-18 mpg Highway.

TAM, how far are you from Shoot Smart in FW? They have an on site Gunsmith now.

I was unaware of them. I'll give them a call in the morning too. That would be a lot closer.

Anyway, my new sights came in today, so I'll try and get this handled tomorrow.

[9mmfan]

Not in the XD family, but after installing the front night sight on my Glock, I wussed out for drifting the rear, and took the slide to a gun show, found a dude who had a sight pusher, and had him do it. He did it for no labor cost, so's I threw him a 20 for his tip jar. Don't know if that would work for an XD, but there is a guy on either THR or TFL who makes multi-gun sight pushers for 'round about half the price of the cheapest I have seen on Midway or Brownell's. He sells them through those sites, as well as on EBay. Give me a bit, and I will attempt to find him and post a link. Obviously, if'n this is the only set of sights you will install, this may not be worth your time, otherwise, you see where this is going. Either way, I will try and remember to find the link.

[The Annoyed Man]

Not in the XD family, but after installing the front night sight on my Glock, I wussed out for drifting the rear, and took the slide to a gun show, found a dude who had a sight pusher, and had him do it. He did it for no labor cost, so's I threw him a 20 for his tip jar. Don't know if that would work for an XD, but there is a guy on either THR or TFL who makes multi-gun sight pushers for 'round about half the price of the cheapest I have seen on Midway or Brownell's. He sells them through those sites, as well as on EBay. Give me a bit, and I will attempt to find him and post a link. Obviously, if'n this is the only set of sights you will install, this may not be worth your time, otherwise, you see where this is going. Either way, I will try and remember to find the link.

That would be cool. I wouldn't mind buying a sight pusher if the price was right and it would work on more than one gun type. I try to put night sights on all my semi-autos, and even those that came from the factory with them will eventually burn out and need to be replaced. I figure that it doesn't take that many times for the tool to pay for itself. I've just never invested in one because owning a different sight pusher for every type of gun I own just didn't make it practical.

[egonpax]

I would also like said link to the multi-gun sight pusher!
Thanks

[The Annoyed Man]

TAM, how far are you from Shoot Smart in FW? They have an on site Gunsmith now.

I just got back from Shoot Smart. That's the second good resource you've given me, the other being Hopp Custom Leather, thank you very much.

Shoot Smart was a neat little place. I say "Little" because the shop isn't huge. It has a small but well selected array of useful items to the shooter: cleaning gear, holsters (Galco distibutor), range bags and soft rifle cases, targets, etc. And they also have a separate air-conditioned classroom for CHL and Basic Handgun courses. I didn't go inside the range but just looked into the waiting room from the shop. It seems like a nice facility, but they could probably use more lanes and still keep them busy....there seemed to be a waiting period for access. Chris, the on-site gunsmith was a nice young man who took my pistol straight into the shop, and then delivered it back to me in about 20 minutes. He did a perfect job and the charge was $35.00—which strikes me as eminently reasonable for a "do it while you wait" job.

While there, I also purchased a Sabre Red "Spitfire" pepper spray ("Making grown men cry since 1975!" it says on the package) for my wife ($12.99), a Real Avid Gun Tool for my wife's go-bag ($17.99), and a Real Avid magnetic flexible hign-intensity bore light for myself ($9.99). So, in most regards, the trip was well worth it.

My only complaint: Don't EVER take 1709 from Southlake all the way to I-35W again!!!

Now I know why conflict resolution is such a big part of the CHL course. Praise God I don't have a Bushmaster M242 25mm Chain Gun on the roof of my SUV. I would have left a trail of smoking destruction along the entire route. First, there was the guy holding up 2 miles of cars behind him because today is moving day, and he didn't want to tow his trailer over 22mph in a 30mph zone.....then there was the guy who kept slowing down then speeding up (to 25mph) because he couldn't figure out where he wanted to turn right. Then there was the guy who just didn't need to be going faster than 20mph (in a 30mph zone). I could go on, but why bother? I'm going to go blow my brains out now with my new sights.

A word about these sights by the way: CLEARLY superior to the night sights on any of my other guns. The orange ring around the tritium lamp on the front sight (see the picture in the OP) is made of a luminescent plastic material that glows bright orange after being energized by bright light. When you transition into the dark after having come in from the light, the front sight looks like a glowing bright orange ring around the bright green dot of the tritium lamp. Even after having been in the dark for a while so that the luminescence dies down, the front sight is still a bright green clearly visible dot as on a fresh set of normal tritium sights. And under normal indoor lighting, the orange is still very prominent. The plastic rings around the lamps of the rear sight are black to match the back of the serrated sight body. So under most shooting conditions except that of having been in total darkness for a long while, your eyes are automatically drawn to the giant orange circle with the bright green center, and it is very easy to line it up between the slightly fainter appearing dots of the rear sight. Again, in total darkness after the orange ring has lost its luminescence, they just look like any other set of night sights. They are nothing short of remarkable.

Also you can get them with a bright yellow ring around the front sight lamp instead of orange, but I wanted there to be a lot of color contrast between the green of the lamp and the surrounding colored circle to make it easier for my aging eyes to focus on the front sight. Anyway, as the sights on my other pistols burn out (most are still pretty bright), I'll be replacing them all with these particular sights, and I highly recommend them.

[The Annoyed Man]

Pictures of the sights mounted on the gun:

Under normal indoor light at the kitchen table:


In mostly dark, just after having transitioned from the light:


In full dark, with front sight beginning to dim a little bit:


In broad daylight with bright outdoor sunlight, the orange glows like it was on fire.

Pretty amazing. I love these things.

[n5wd]

... I didn't go inside the range but just looked into the waiting room from the shop. It seems like a nice facility, but they could probably use more lanes and still keep them busy....there seemed to be a waiting period for access.

You might have missed it, or no one mentioned it, but Shoot Smart is expanding several lanes behind the current range - should be opening some time in the fall, from what I hear. It'll about double the number of lanes available now.

They're definitely nice folks there - and the addition of a full-time gunsmith onsite just adds to the attractiveness of the place.

[9mmfan]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=612357" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is the link. It looks pretty good. I am not affiliated with this fellow, but would like to reward his ingenuity and work. There is ordering info, as well as if I am not mistaken, a link to his sales on ebay. Maddest of propers to you TAM for pointing out the temporary quality of night sights, as I had not put that forethought into this. This caused me to lean even further into the idea of ordering one of these, and then we can all compare notes. As always, this forum is a constant learning experience, and thank you all for continuing to make this a place I enjoy being.

[C-dub]

In broad daylight with bright outdoor sunlight, the orange glows like it was on fire.

Pretty amazing. I love these things.

I know what you mean TAM. I've had these on my G21 for over 6 months and the baby G30 for a little over a month. I wish the tritium dots were as large as my old meprolights I had on my .40's, but these are much easier to pick up during the daytime.

[The Annoyed Man]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=612357
This is the link. It looks pretty good. I am not affiliated with this fellow, but would like to reward his ingenuity and work. There is ordering info, as well as if I am not mistaken, a link to his sales on ebay. Maddest of propers to you TAM for pointing out the temporary quality of night sights, as I had not put that forethought into this. This caused me to lean even further into the idea of ordering one of these, and then we can all compare notes. As always, this forum is a constant learning experience, and thank you all for continuing to make this a place I enjoy being.

I sent that guy a PM to order one of his sight pushers. Thanks for the tip.

In broad daylight with bright outdoor sunlight, the orange glows like it was on fire.

Pretty amazing. I love these things.

I know what you mean TAM. I've had these on my G21 for over 6 months and the baby G30 for a little over a month. I wish the tritium dots were as large as my old meprolights I had on my .40's, but these are much easier to pick up during the daytime.

I know what you mean about the size of the dots. They're not tiny, but they're not huge either. OTH, if you can't see anything except the sights, maybe you shouldn't be shooting either. But like I said, they're not tiny. They're just not as big as the mepro sights. My Kimber had those, and the dots were huge. But the lamps on these Trijicons are no smaller than any of the other Trijicon sights on any of my other guns.

[Live Free]

this thread is excellent, thank you. I've been procrastinating putting night sights on my XD40sc and now I know how to get moving forward. I'm really glass I did not try this myself.

[The Annoyed Man]

Here is a look at the front sight in broad daylight. Couldn't get my cellphone camera to focus properly, but you get the idea:

[9mmfan]

TAM, please follow up with info as to the quality and user friendly aspect of that tool. If you are dissatisfied, or feel that it was misrepresented, please let me know. That way. I will know not to recommend it in the future. Don't mean to use you as a guinea pig, so if it fails, please PM me.