XS Sights has been producing some excellent “irons” for a few years now, a set of which I was lucky enough to review a while back. Recently, I had my Glock 17 slide cut for a mini red-dot sight which meant my old sight set was no longer tall enough to see through the optic. Needing suppressor height sights anyways, I went back to the XS Sights page to check out taller irons.
The specific sight set I received is the DXT Big Dot set. Installation was the same as my last set, taking about 10 minutes from start to finish. A good dovetail sight pusher tool is really recommended, as hammering on a pin punch can ostensibly cause the tritium vial to shatter and go dark.
With tritium lamps (manufactured by Trijicon) front and rear, performance in low-light situations isn’t something I need to be concerned about for the next 10 years or so. Back is the familiar “ice cream cone” dot-on-top-of-line aiming pattern found in the last set of Big Dot sights I reviewed. With the rear sight pushed in front on the Vortex Venom red dot, there’s a little difficulty in picking up the rear sight in a hurry. This is due to the extra tall battery box on the Venom, which is a pretty specific setup to have. I can still get a good sight picture though and the tritium is still nice and bright, even through the glass.
The suppressor height sights solve the other big problem this gun has had, namely that stock sights are too short to get up and over the suppressor, leading the shooter to do a little guessing as where the bullseye is behind the occluded sight picture. Now, I’m back up and running at full speed with no guessing.
The sights themselves are well designed. The rear has a nice v-notched shape, giving a wide field of view. The front has such a big dot, it’s incredibly easy to pick up even when you’re pushing your draw speed to your limits. The sights haven’t had any problems with snagging on holsters or clothing.
When it comes to sights, you get what you pay for. Well, machined ones with tritium vials definitely cost more than plastic squares with white circles painted on them. They are also much more versatile, durable and useful. For a pair of sights with tritium front and rear, XS Sights is selling them at $131. For a tritium front and white stripe rear, the cost is at $115. These are certainly one of the best upgrades a shooter can make over a stock sight equipped gun. Check them out!
