XS Sights Standard Dot Tritium Night Sight for Revolvers

Shooting Times has been covering products from XS Sights regularly over the last few years. A lot of major gunmakers offer models straight from their factories with XS sights already installed. Most of what we’ve covered have been semiautomatic pistols and lever-action rifles, but this time, I installed the XS Standard Dot Tritium Night Sight on my personal Ruger SP101 revolver. This little double-action revolver is chambered for .327 Federal. It was manufactured in 2008 and has a 3.0-inch barrel. It’s one of my favorite personal-defense guns, and it’s a great trail gun, too.

The XS Standard Dot Tritium Night Sight front sight is highly visible and features a fluorescent ring surrounding a tritium Ember Glow Dot. It’s offered with green and white rings. I chose green. (XS offers Big Dot revolver sights with larger orange, yellow, and white rings.)

Installing the XS front sight is relatively easy because the SP101’s front sight is pinned into the barrel. All that’s required is to drive out the pin, remove the original Ruger front sight, clean the slot in the top of the barrel, fit the new XS front sight into the slot, drill a hole through the sight’s stem, and drive the retaining pin back in place. The tools needed include a drive pin punch, a hammer, and a drill. XS recommends using a drill press to drill the hole in the sight from both sides. More about that shortly.

The whole process went smoothly. I didn’t even have to file down the new front sight’s stem because the sight dropped right into the slot. In fact, it was a tad loose, but not to worry because XS’s instructions say a friction fit is not necessary.

Per the instructions, I dry-fitted the XS front sight into the SP101’s slot and then degreased the sight and the slot. I applied a small dab of red threadlocker (included with the sight) to the sight’s stem and the slot and then inserted the sight into the slot. I let the threadlocker set up for about 10 minutes, cleaned up the small clumps with a Q-Tip, and then drilled the retaining pin hole halfway from each side, using my drill press. Then I put another small dab of red threadlocker in the pin hole, replaced the pin, and did a final clean-up with the Q-Tip.

I let everything set up for at least three hours. Later, at the range I found the revolver to shoot to point of aim at 15 yards, which is how I like my carry guns sighted.

XS Sights states that the sight I installed is for use on SP101s with fixed rear sights. I broke with convention, however, because my SP101 has an adjustable rear sight blade. And while the XS front sight’s dot is a tad thicker than the original front sight, it mates up nicely with the rear sight’s square notch. Now I have my favorite type of defensive front sight on one of my favorite old carry revolvers.

XS Sights offers front sights for other double-action and single-action revolvers as well, including Ruger GP100, LCR, Redhawk, Security-Six, Super Redhawk, and .454 Alaskan; S&W J-Frame, K-L-N-Frame, and M&P; and North American Arms Guardian.

MSRP: $94 (Standard Dot)

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