ReManG
10-12-2014, 08:57 AM
My new-to-me MK9 came with a set of the XS Big Dots installed. I have liked the concept of these sights for years, but shoot fine and fast with stock sights, so never looked at the Big Dots as a need. When I saw them on my current MK9, it was a bonus as the price was right, so I figured I would finally try them out and if I did not like them, I would replace them. So here are my initial impressions and a quick review.
Overall
Excellent sight acquisition and quick, just like advertised. No issues with some mystic claims being made, and not being able to replicate these said claims due to my unworthiness or not holding my tongue correctly, or whatever. They are sights and if you make a "lollipop" of them and cover the area you want to hit with the "lollipop" you will hit that area out to 10 yards faster than conventional sights...
Caveat: Keeping a "lollipop" sight picture requires some concentration initially. I had a tendency on follow up shots for the first 100 or so rounds to try and drop the front sight into the "groove" like a more conventional sight, resulting in low hits. Bellybutton hits are still hits, but it was something I had to work a little to overcome due to all other shooting being post and notch standard sights on handguns.
Specifics
Front sight is HUGE and works as a draw to your eye, as advertised. Rear sight is almost out of the way in a proper sight picture, but does help with gross alignment in a "flash" sight picture, assisting quick acquisition. Accuracy is there at distances beyond 10 yards, but the large front sight takes more concentration to keep steady during firing. If the front sight was smaller, you would see your movements easier against the target, but as it is large, a smaller movement is not as noticeable. You can still hit minute of bad guy with these, but a called and specific target area beyond ten yards will take me more time to be confident with. I would like to try an outdoor range with steel targets out to 50 meters or so. I feel that a little familiarization on something like that with the immediate feedback steel gives would go a long way towards confidence with these sights at longer range, but I believe the accuracy is there.
There is no Tritium in the rear sight, and this does not seem to be a problem for me, it still works at night (front sight tritium) and if it is so dark I cannot tell the orientation of the pistol, I more than likely cannot tell what the target is and would have to be at contact distance to have an effective hit anyway... Just my opinion. I do not like the three dot night sights for the opposite reason, the three dots under stress can become misaligned. I have just tritium front sights on the couple of pistols that I have night sights on anyway.
The one thing that I noticed once I had the XS sight picture down, was that I was shooting WAY high with my conventional sighted CW380.... The "lollipop" sight picture is easier to take to conventional sights than a conventional sight picture is to take to the XS... So now I will go to the range with both, but take a second and do some dry fire between switching sight systems.
Conclusion
Any sight replacement and upgrades I want to do to any of my handguns will be the XS Big Dots. I like them that much. The concept is effective and plenty accurate out to at least ten yards for me. It is still minute of bad guy out to 25 yards, but much bigger grouping than conventional sights for now. I feel the benefits outweigh the possible negatives and that is the reason for my choice, based on my experience with my MK9 and the XS Big Dots. I hope this helps anyone on the fence about these.
Always interested in hearing others opinions, good or bad with the XS sights.
Overall
Excellent sight acquisition and quick, just like advertised. No issues with some mystic claims being made, and not being able to replicate these said claims due to my unworthiness or not holding my tongue correctly, or whatever. They are sights and if you make a "lollipop" of them and cover the area you want to hit with the "lollipop" you will hit that area out to 10 yards faster than conventional sights...
Caveat: Keeping a "lollipop" sight picture requires some concentration initially. I had a tendency on follow up shots for the first 100 or so rounds to try and drop the front sight into the "groove" like a more conventional sight, resulting in low hits. Bellybutton hits are still hits, but it was something I had to work a little to overcome due to all other shooting being post and notch standard sights on handguns.
Specifics
Front sight is HUGE and works as a draw to your eye, as advertised. Rear sight is almost out of the way in a proper sight picture, but does help with gross alignment in a "flash" sight picture, assisting quick acquisition. Accuracy is there at distances beyond 10 yards, but the large front sight takes more concentration to keep steady during firing. If the front sight was smaller, you would see your movements easier against the target, but as it is large, a smaller movement is not as noticeable. You can still hit minute of bad guy with these, but a called and specific target area beyond ten yards will take me more time to be confident with. I would like to try an outdoor range with steel targets out to 50 meters or so. I feel that a little familiarization on something like that with the immediate feedback steel gives would go a long way towards confidence with these sights at longer range, but I believe the accuracy is there.
There is no Tritium in the rear sight, and this does not seem to be a problem for me, it still works at night (front sight tritium) and if it is so dark I cannot tell the orientation of the pistol, I more than likely cannot tell what the target is and would have to be at contact distance to have an effective hit anyway... Just my opinion. I do not like the three dot night sights for the opposite reason, the three dots under stress can become misaligned. I have just tritium front sights on the couple of pistols that I have night sights on anyway.
The one thing that I noticed once I had the XS sight picture down, was that I was shooting WAY high with my conventional sighted CW380.... The "lollipop" sight picture is easier to take to conventional sights than a conventional sight picture is to take to the XS... So now I will go to the range with both, but take a second and do some dry fire between switching sight systems.
Conclusion
Any sight replacement and upgrades I want to do to any of my handguns will be the XS Big Dots. I like them that much. The concept is effective and plenty accurate out to at least ten yards for me. It is still minute of bad guy out to 25 yards, but much bigger grouping than conventional sights for now. I feel the benefits outweigh the possible negatives and that is the reason for my choice, based on my experience with my MK9 and the XS Big Dots. I hope this helps anyone on the fence about these.
Always interested in hearing others opinions, good or bad with the XS sights.