XS Sights Standard Dot Tritium. Green tritium. Standard Dot Tritium front sight. XS Sights # RV-0001N-4. XS Sights - RV-0001N-4. Fits in common holsters. Installation requires a drill press to drill the retaining pin hole in the sight body.
Great Sight - Much Needed Improvement- Easy Install
Bought the XS Big Dot Sight For my Ruger SP101 (.357 mag w/2.25” bbl). Shipping was very fast, and a small tube of Red Thread Lock was included. Once out the box, I laid down 2 small pcs of 2x4 on my table top so the pistol was on a semi-soft surface to prevent damage to the firearm.
To get the job done myself, and avoid the $100+ dollars a coupla gunsmiths quoted me, I started with a Stanley 1/16” (1.5mm) drift punch (NOT tapered) to drive out the sight pin. But before I began to drive the sight pin out to get the old ramp sight out, I noticed my 1/16” drift punch was a little too thick to be quite honest, and I wound up having to shave approx .01-.02 of an inch off the diameter of the punch with a grinding stone, via my dremmel tool for the first 1 1/2” of the drift punch, being careful NOT to make it a pointed end.
Once I got the drift punch down to around 1.3mm in diameter, I placed it over the sight pin on the side of the barrel, and with a jewelers hammer, began tapping the sight pin out.
After approx a min or so of tapping my ‘modified’ 1/16” drift punch, the sight pin began to come out the other side. At that point, I had to maneuver the revolver so the drift pin would not be driven into the 2x4 under the gun. Another min or two later, the sight pin was completely out.
DO NOT LOSE THE SIGHT PIN! YOU WILL NEED IT TO INSTALL THE NEW FRONT SIGHT.
The old front sight ramp literally fell out onto the table once I pulled my modified punch out. I cleaned out the empty sight slot with a toothbrush, a Q-tip and some M-Pro7 Gun Cleaner (non-oil based), and dropped the new XS Big Dot Front Sight right into place. No shaving, chamfering, filing, or grinding required. Perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones cause I see a lot of posts about having to chamfer the sight base to get it to fit. Not me.
I digress.
When I put the new front sight in the sight slot, there was about an 1/8” of back-and-forth “play”, so you will need to decide if you want the sight completely forward, or rearward in the front sight slot. I chose forward as I like the aesthetics better, but that’s me.
Now that I determined what position I wanted my new sight, forward or rearward, I took the new sight out of the sight slot, and applied small amounts of the supplied Red Thread Lock to all 4 sides of the bottom half of the new sight, and placed the sight back into the slot, where I wanted it (forward). With my thumb on top of the new sight to hold it in place, I used a cordless drill with a 1/16” drill bit, and carefully placed the drill bit into the empty pin hole, pushing it up against the side of the new sight, and slowly began to drill into the base of the new sight, being careful to keep the bit straight in the hole, to keep from boring out the pin hole. Once I noticed black bore debris coming out, I knew I was “biting” into the bottom/side of the the new sight, and sped the drill up slightly for a few more secs; stopped, switched sides, again pushing the bit into the pin hole, up against the side of the sight, and began to carefully drill again. A few seconds later, the drill bit bore completely through the new sight. I carefully backed out the drill bit and blew the remaining debris out of the pin hole, until I was able to “see the light”, while still holding the Big Dot Sight in place.
You may not want to, but I applied another drop of the supplied Red Thread Lock into the sight pin hole, laid the gun back on to the 2x4, seated the old sight pin back into the sight pin hole, and carefully began tapping the sight pin back into the hole.
Once the pin was back into the hole, I wiped away the excess Red Thread Lock, and VOILÁ... all done!
Tomorrow I’ll redo the trigger and hammer springs and go throw some magnum lead down range to see how much improved the sighting and trigger is!!
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Great looking front sight. Very easy to pick up. Unfortunately it's too high, causing my Sp101, to shoot low.
I removed it, and installed the original Ruger sight. Put a little red paint on the sight, with a toothpick. I wish I had done this first!
I've installed this model night sight on 2 different Ruger SP101 revolvers. The instructions for mounting the XS night sight can be found at the xssights website, under resources. I found it an easy job to do.
These sights are a good investment. They work great in daylight, low light and in the dark.
The original sights were very hard to acquire quickly and consistently particularly with rapid fire. Not so with this new sight! Wasn't as hard to fit as older models sights due to base redesign. Gunsmith also said the base had a small detent to facilitate drilling; much easier to install than older models. Importantly, the new sight does not snag on my holsters! Highly recommended.
Standard Dot Is Much More Visible Than Stock Sight For SP101
Does require a little filing & careful drilling. Does change the point of aim slightly. Don't think it works well for pin point accuracy, but for defensive pistol purposes it is very very good. A definite improvement to my 3" Ruger SP101. I would buy it again if needed.
