[guate_shooter]

Greetings

I have never tried replacing the sights myself on any of my guns, I have to re finish the slide on a used XD I just purchased, and need to remove the damm sights so i can do a semy profesional job.

I bought some cerakote coating that should be at my house sometime next week so i will have time to prep the slide, I have heard of people cracking the slide while trying to pull the sights out.

Has anybody tried heating the metal up, to loosen up the sights?

Thanks for the help.

 

[rgeliske]

Greetings

I have never tried replacing the sights myself on any of my guns, I have to re finish the slide on a used XD I just purchased, and need to remove the damm sights so i can do a semy profesional job.

I bought some cerakote coating that should be at my house sometime next week so i will have time to prep the slide, I have heard of people cracking the slide while trying to pull the sights out.

Has anybody tried heating the metal up, to loosen up the sights?

Thanks for the help.

I have never heard of anyone cracking a slide but many have trashed the factory sights, you really won't hurt the slide. Heating and freezing have both been tried in the past and neither works that well because you have to heat the slide and cool the sight at the same time. It is not really a big deal if you are not trying to salvage the factory sights. You can cut them part way through with a dremel and then use a punch to drive them out of the dovetail. I have changed probably 4 sets by just using a punch and a good hard smack with the punch held at the base of the sight. If you place the punch too high on the sight some of the force is lost. Place the slide on a piece of 3/4" hardwood with a 1/2" hole drilled in it. Center the sight over the hole and drive the sight out from right to left with the slide facing forward. Make sure you do this on a good solid surface, like a cement floor, so nothing absorbs the impact against the sight. Install the new sights in the opposite direction. It will take a couple of pretty hard hit to get the sights to move with the front being harder to move than the rear one. Remember not to get any of the new coating in the dovetail as this will make the fit even tighter.

Good Luck

 

[Bill in San Jose]

Be careful putting in the new ones. I had SA custom shop install XS big dots on my XD45C, and I tried at home to 'tap' the rear sight to one side a little bit. After finally getting up-to a 2# hammer and brass drift to hit it, it moved about 1/32" and the rear tritium-filled vial must have leaked because it barely glows now.

It's obviously not the dimensions of the sight that are too big, it's the slot in the slide thats 'too small'. Personally, I'd pay somebody to install my new sights. I got the XS installed by SA custom shop, including the shipping, for less than I could purchase the parts alone at Cabelas and install them myself.