September 26, 2024
By Alfredo Rico
Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.
My DIY bug was instilled by my dad. Growing up, I spent my summers as his laborer for home projects. DIY was the norm that I have carried throughout my life. This is why when it comes to firearms, I am not afraid to upgrade or assemble them from parts, especially with the wealth of specialized tools and instructional videos available a click away. One of the easiest DIY projects that I have performed is swapping out the sights on a pistol. Recently, the XS Sights Inline Sight Pusher Kit for Glock hit my desk , which I promptly put to work by upgrading the sights on my Glock 17. The kit I received is the DIY Series, but there is a GUNSMITH Series, too. The difference between the two is in their construction; the DIY Series has a lifespan of 50 to 100 installations, while the GUNSMITH Series is capable of over 200 installations. The prices are $150 and $200 respectively. The DIY Series kit includes the pusher, an Allen key, a front sight tool, oil, threadlocker, a shim, and four spacers. The sight pusher is designed specifically for Glock slides, which makes this very effective at installing and removing the rear sight. The body is CNC machined out of billet aluminum and hard anodized. There’s a QR code etched on the side that links to an installation video. Sitting in the body is a brass pusher and long screw. Brass is softer than steel, so it won’t damage the sight. The brass pusher has distinct marks on the tip and sides, making it a breeze to center the pusher on the rear sight and track incremental adjustments.
One of the features that makes the pusher so effective is the nub on the bottom of the pusher. Since this is made for Glock slides, it can be designed to ride low in the dovetail and contact the very bottom of the sight. Some sight pushers contact the sight above the slide. This is why XS Sights claims this sight pusher uses 50-percent less force than other similar tools. It is not that it is applying more force than others; it is more efficient because of the location that it’s pushing the sight. Rear sight removal and installation is simple. Place the slide in the body, align the pusher to the center of the dovetail using the marks on the head, and slide the shim in the body until it locks the slide in place. Using the Allen wrench, turn the screw until the sight is uninstalled or centered. Some rear sights can form a cold weld with the receiver, making them a bear to remove and consequently causing the frame to flex. XS Sights has included four brightly colored strips of paper to gauge whether you are applying too much force and should stop. If you encounter too much resistance, place the pusher on a flat table and stack the papers one at a time under the frame to check for bowing. A little bowing is ok, but a lot is not. Start with green, then yellow, orange, and red. If you can fit the red piece on top of the others, stop and contact XS Sights. Bowing is common even on more robustly built sight pushers, so don’t let this make you question the quality of the XS Sights Pusher. The kit also includes an aluminum front sight removal tool for removing the Allen screw that holds the front sight in pace.
Installation I switched out the sights on my Rival Arms Glock 17 slide with the Rival Arms X1 Micro Reflex Sight. I upgraded the sights to XS Sights’ suppressor-height DXT2 Night Sights. The Rival Arms reflex sight is a little wider than the slide and did not solidly lock in when I inserted the shim, so I removed the reflex sight. Some make a big deal because the red dot’s zero may shift after reinstallation. They forget that they have to zero the iron sights at the range anyway, so rechecking the red dot requires miniscule effort. If your optic’s sides are flush with the slide, you don’t have to remove the red dot to install or remove a rear sight, but you’ll be using the side of the brass pusher and not the center where it will be the most effective, especially on hard-to-remove sights. Installing the DXT2 rear sight was easy. I slid the rear sight into the dovetail by hand, and it went in a third of the way. If it didn’t insert this deeply, I would lightly file the bottom of the sight until it set in that far. Aligning the center of the brass pusher was precise thanks to its markings. Using the Allen wrench, I cranked on the screw, which buried the sight further into the dovetail.
Advertisement
When I felt the resistance ramp up considerably, I stopped to check how much the frame flexed with the strips. Only the green colored strip fit under the frame, which meant the frame was barely affected. After this, the resistance diminished, and the sight quickly centered. The front sight didn’t come out so easily because I used threadlocker on the screw, but the install was easy even with the smallish front sight tool. About the lifespan of the tool: after removing the old sight and installing several rear sights five times, it seems like the estimate is based on worst case scenarios. I can see the brass head deform considerably if repeatedly pushing stubborn sights, but if you install the sights correctly, this tool should last way beyond 100 uses. If you think you’ll be removing sights more frequently, consider the Gunsmith Series. I have other sight pushers and know how to install sights using a punch and a vise. The Inline Sight Pusher Kit is the simplest and the smallest of them, making it ideal to carry in my range bag for the final sighting in. If you have several Glocks and are looking to change out the sights, this sight pusher is all you need. It’s fast, portable, and precise.
