You need a brass punch, a vice, and a hammer. That's all.
Nope. Add a very fine file and some heavyduty Loc-tite.
I took my spankin' new XDm40 and ordered some Dawson adjustable tritiums from Springer Precision (BTW: Springer = good company)
After running the gamut on gunsmiths who didn't want to mess with XD's, I got fed up and asked myself, "Could it really be that much of a pain?".
Answer: Nope.
Like you said youngda9: All you need is.....1)a brass punch that fits inside the sight groove. 2) A phone book 3)one of those padded "grip" bar clamps. 4) a small/medium ball peen hammer. 5) A very fine thread file (or "triangle file" as some folks) 6) red loc-tite.
1) MAKE SURE FIREARM IS UNLOADED
2) Leave the firearm assembled so as to not warp the slide when clamping.
3) Place the phone book along the edge of a heavy duty work bench.
4)Clamp the slide firmly to the phone book
LEFT SIDE UP (make sure the pads of the clamp are rubber/padded so as to not mar the finish)
5) Use brass punch to carefully drive out old sights
left to right. (I used several light taps and incrementally increased force untill....THEY MOVED!) REMEMBER: drive them
left to right.
6) Once out: TURN THE FIREARM OVER so that it is laying
RIGHT SIDE UP. Install the new sights
right to left.
To be honest, they are put in quite solidly as everyone has said, although I didn't find them impossible to remove. Merely "difficult". The problem will be in trying to install the new sights as solidly as the old. I wouldn't attempt to do this. I simply installed mine solidly, not TIGHTER THAN THE HUBS OF HELL.
7) To install new sights, attempt to slide them in from
right to left. Chances are they will not fit. They are new! Take the fine thread file and lightly (and I mean
lightly) chamfer the leading (left side) edges of the new sights and try to start them. Keep lightly filing the male dovetail of the sights until you can get them to slide into the groove about a third of the way before they start to "bind" (You don't want them too tight so that you need to POUND THE CRAP out of them to get them in, yet you don't want them too loose so as to fall out.) Therefore, you want to file them in tiny increments until it takes effort to slide them in, but they start "binding" about 1/2 way in. When you reach this point:
7) Take them back out, put a light coat of red threadlocker on them.
8) Use the brass punch to tap them until they are centered. They should be very firm to tap, but not IMPOSSIBLY TIGHT. If you find they are stopping before they are centered GOOD! This means you have not already taken too much off! (This is why you lightly file. You can ALWAYS file more off. You can NEVER file more back on.) If they come to a difficult stop before centered, drive them back out and file just a teensy bit more, add more threadlocker and try again until they come to a stop or are difficult to move further when centered. REMEMBER:
tiny increments. Once you file too much.....your really expensive tritium sights are toast. Once you strike too hard...same thing. Make sure your filing angle isn't too "steep". You should just barely be rubbing the file along the flat of the male dovetail a few times between test "fits" by hand. Once you get it to push
very firmly 1/2 way through by hand, it should get firmer and require the brass punch to "set" in the centered position.
All in all, I don't see why gunsmiths refuse to touch them. I have had no problems with mine since I installed them. It was a very tedious process, but not "difficult".
If anyone else has anything to add, I'd appreciate any tips or tricks I may have missed as this was my first attempt doing XD sights.
