Xdm after market siights problem. - Page 1

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Xdm after market siights problem.

Posted: 11/9/2014 4:02:59 PM EDT

So this is probably more of an incompetent gunsmith problem more than anything else. But has anyone had any issues with warren sights fitting their xdm? My gunsmith said they were notorious for taking a lot of work to get on. Well, now I'm holding the trijicon front post in my hand. I never even fired the handgun. So do the after market sights need a lot of fitting , or has anyone had any similar issues? Or did an incompetent "gunsmith" destroy my set of warren sights?

Posted: 11/9/2014 4:39:52 PM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
So this is probably more of an incompetent gunsmith problem more than anything else. But has anyone had any issues with warren sights fitting their xdm? My gunsmith said they were notorious for taking a lot of work to get on. Well, now I'm holding the trijicon front post in my hand. I never even fired the handgun. So do the after market sights need a lot of fitting , or has anyone had any similar issues? Or did an incompetent "gunsmith" destroy my set of warren sights?

View Quote

XDs can take quite a bit of fitting.

Fitting is not rocket science, just time consuming.

And what you are paying a gunsmith to do.

I take it the front sight blade is broken?

He owes you the replacement.

Posted: 11/9/2014 4:48:39 PM EDT

[#2]

I just noticed front post was way off. I could take it on/off from the left easily. Easily as in it will likely just fall out from the left side. I can see where he sanded it down (and even noticed burs he left on my slide!) they are closed today so I'm impatiently waiting going there tomorrow. At first it never appeared to be loose

Posted: 11/9/2014 6:16:33 PM EDT

[#3]

in my experience and from what my smith told me, XD sights are installed in the factory with Thor's hammer. Why they don't size their dovetail better to the sights or vice versa, unsure.

I wonder if stretched the dovetail and maybe they are designed to be pushed out one way and your smith went the other.

Posted: 11/9/2014 6:34:28 PM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
I just noticed front post was way off. I could take it on/off from the left easily. Easily as in it will likely just fall out from the left side. I can see where he sanded it down (and even noticed burs he left on my slide!) they are closed today so I'm impatiently waiting going there tomorrow. At first it never appeared to be loose

View Quote

He took too much off in fitting.

Requires replacement.

Posted: 11/9/2014 7:02:14 PM EDT

[#5]

The curse of living in small town America. Was the only gun shop in the area and I didn't want to buy all the tools. Well, he should stop buying his entire wardrobe from 5.11's online catalogue, because come tomorrow he will be buying me a new trijicon post. This is my carry gun too! Now I have to get all the tools or drive 3 hours to the next closest gunsmith.

Posted: 11/9/2014 7:58:53 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
The curse of living in small town America. Was the only gun shop in the area and I didn't want to buy all the tools. Well, he should stop buying his entire wardrobe from 5.11's online catalogue, because come tomorrow he will be buying me a new trijicon post. This is my carry gun too! Now I have to get all the tools or drive 3 hours to the next closest gunsmith.

View Quote

You do know you can send the slide to a competent pistol smith.

Posted: 11/9/2014 8:05:39 PM EDT

[#7]

Ya, I thought about that at first but it is my only carry pistol and I didn't want to be without it . Lesson learned is to just have all necessary tools then I guess.

Posted: 11/12/2014 7:33:03 AM EDT

[#8]

1. Buy a backup gun.
2. Send your XDm slide to http://xdman.com/ for sight replacement
3. ???
4. Profit

Posted: 11/14/2014 10:09:35 PM EDT

[#9]

Having installed thousands of XD/XDM sights, it is my opinion that Trijicon are the WORST sights to install. They harden them too hard for the average gunsmith to install without breaking a few of them. A file won't touch them without a lot of work and so we see people taking them to a grinding wheel. I use a surface grinder to fit them, and they still are a pain in the butt.

Posted: 11/14/2014 11:29:45 PM EDT

[#10]

Loose front sights are unfortunately pretty common. Ajames is your guy if you want to send it
out. However, you can fix it yourself if
you don’t want to go without your gun, here is what you have to do.

First, you need to make the sight slightly bigger. The way you do this is to put the sight
upside down on a vice and gently tap the bottom dovetail with a small punch and
hammer. What this will do is to slightly
peen and distort the dovetail which will make it have better contact with the
slide.

Second, you will now need to push the sight into the
slide. The best way to do this is with a
good slide pusher. The one I use is the
one made by Pistolgear – see here:

http://www.pistolgear.com/proddetail.php?prod=100-2526-B

Third, once you have pushed the sight in and centered it properly –
I used a pair of dial calipers – the sharp end.

Fourth - You need to glue the slights
in. Use Loctite 620 which is a "retaining
compound”. Do not mistake this for the
regular red loctite because that is a thread lock and you cannot use that here
since there is no thread. What you have
is a gap between the dovetail and the grove on the slide and you need something
that can bond material with as much as 0.015” clearance – that would be Loctite
620.

http://www.loctite.com.au/3320_AUE_HTML.htm?nodeid=8802649407489

Not a cheap solution but a tried and true one that is guaranteed
to work.

Posted: 11/15/2014 1:27:48 AM EDT

[#11]

Good pistolsmiths are hard to come by. I usually DIY or send out the slide to someone like springer precision.
The above repair solution is a good one.

Posted: 11/16/2014 11:02:35 AM EDT

[#12]

I brought it back to that guy to see what he had to say. He was nice about it and set it again by mending the dovetail like you said. He was baffled on how. I'm glad I had a sight post again, but now I'll never be 100% confident that it will happen again. Never thought it would happen the first time. I'll start doing it myself from now on. Thanks for all the good info everyone.

Posted: 11/17/2014 12:03:41 PM EDT

[#13]

What you can do is to buy the Loctite that I suggested and wick it in under the sight and it will stay and give you the confidence you need.

Posted: 12/29/2014 4:36:23 PM EDT

[#14]

I just bought a new XD 45 and the trijicon sights just came in. I'm glad I looked here before trying to put them in myself.

Will a glock sight tool work?

If not, what's the suggested way to go about this without having to send off my slide?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Xdm after market siights problem.

Handguns » Springfield

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