Rear sight removal on an XD 45

Yooper said:

My XDM 45 shoots a little low and left I tried to tap it over a hair and quit as I was afraid of damaging the weapon. I to could use some advice.

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The sights are probably okay. It's common to shoot in the 7-8 o'clock area of the target till you get more familiar with the trigger. I had some issues with both my G21, and XDM 4.5 .45. It didn't feel like I was pushing the trigger out sideways at the break, so I mounted a laser up, and dry fired it a few times. The little green dot don't lie, and confirmed that my trigger control needed some work, just as the trigger broke, the light would dip left/low. I just practiced dry firing, concentrating on a straight back pull, and my groups moved up & right after a few weeks. But until I got a better feel for the trigger, I did fudge a bit when shooting with friends, and shifted my point of aim high/right, just to put up a better target in mixed company. Using Kentucky windage to keep my pride intact worked okay till I got my trigger finger trained up.

Anytime I have a serious doubt about wether it's me or the pistol, I just find someone else to put a few rounds through it. Just don't tell them what it's doing before hand, so you can get a good read on how it performs for someone else.

My removal tool arrived yesterday, I will say that was fast shipping.

Last night I played with the attachments to familiarize myself with the rig. I was not impressed with the fit of them when it came to my XDm. It did fit better on my XD though.

I was not impressed with the bolt used on the ram. A coarse thread was used, where I feel a fine threaded bolt should have ben used for better control of movement of the pusher/ram.

I was also not impressed with the amount of fiddling around with the slide "shimming" that is required. One must "shim" it to get proper slide/sight placement so that the sight lines up with the sight pusher on the tool. Since this is custom made tool to fit XD's I feel the shimming shit should not be needed, it should be a perfect fit. I also feel the finger of the sight pusher that contacts the sight is far to small.

So next I soaked the front sight over night and just went up and tried to remove it, No Go. It still wont budge. In fact I fear that I will damage either the slide or the tool because the slide tries to rotate in the tool when I start moving the pusher. I feal that if I tighten the clamp holding the slide any harder I will deform the slide.

All in all I would rate this tool a 5, or less, out of 10. Fit, finish and performance are all lacking in my opinion.

In the end I fear I will end up breaking out Mr Dremmel and cutting the sight out then replacing it the old fashion way.

This tool might end up working on other firearms though. That is after I make a few arbors to accommodate different slide shapes and or round barrels.


If I end up actually being able to get this tool to work I will be sure and make a post saying so.


JB

I joined the forum today to pass along some tips. I changed the rear sight on my XDs .45. I first looked on this site and others to get some wise wisdom. My pistol is new last year and may be different from earlier or different XD models. Mine has 2 tiny set screws (.035 allen) that lock down the sight. After removal there was an obvious residue of threadlock. After a few solid whacks with a good punch and hammer on a pin block I realized it was not happening. Back to the internet for ideas I found the video attached below with a novel approach. This guy used an air chisel with a small punch bit. It seemed like an excessively brutal tool for gunsmithing but it proved out just fine. With appropriate protection and the slide in a vise it took less than a second to push the sight out of the dovetail with no damage to the slide or sight.

It felt like slicing vegetables with an axe but I'll never use anything else for stubborn sights.

Good video [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjhDqeiGdE4[/ame]