Went to the range with my buddy, foo.c. Apart from the cold wind cutting through us (and blowing uprange, right into our eyes), a nice day at the range.

One thing I love about gun-folk is how friendly most are. On the rifle range there were only 2 shooters: myself (foo.c was spotting, then we’d switch off) and another gentleman. Foo.c pointed out the other guy was shooting an SKS then a Mosin-Nagant. We stopped our shooting to watch the other gentleman fire his Mosin-Nagant, and the wicked fireball that came out the barrel with each shot. It was a thing of beauty, and we could only imagine how cool that would look at night. 🙂

The gentleman noticed we were talking about his rifle, so we all got to talking. He took an interest in my M1A Scout Squad, asking questions, and I think I may have convinced him to buy his own. He then let us shoot his Mosin, and I gotta tell you… that was fun. Never shot one before, kicked more than I expected, but boy it left me giggling. I’ve gotta get me one of those for myself.

On the downside, I just don’t like XS Sights. I put a set of XS Big Dot 24/7 Express sights on my Springfield XD-9 Service model. I did this because I wear glasses, and if something went bump in the night and I didn’t have my specs on, I’d still like some way to see the front sight. So I thought I’d try out the XS Sights to see if they would help. Well, my eyesight is so poor that without my glasses on I still can’t see the big front dot. Still tho I thought I’d give ’em a whirl. And over the months I’ve had them and used them I’ve discovered I just don’t like them. Yes they are very fast to acquire, and they certainly work for their purpose: as a defensive “fighting gun” sights they ought to hit the bad guy where it counts. But I just don’t like how they line up. If I want even a small degree of accuracy, it’s tough to get. Today I was just shooting 6″ paper plates at about 10 yards, the big dot front sight covered the plate completely, but even then I couldn’t hit the plate (I was constantly hitting high). The way to use these sights is to put the big dot over what you want to hit and press the trigger. So that’s what I was doing, and I wasn’t hitting what I wanted to hit (tho I was grouping ok). Now sure, if this was a bad guy and I put the big dot over center mass, it’d be effective enough. But sometimes I want a little more accuracy, and I just don’t get that out of these sights. Sure, you can compensate, but the way the sights work, it’s just tough for me to get that.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the sights are really cool and very good for their intended purpose. I know there are people out there that swear by them and I wouldn’t tell them they were wrong. But for me, these just don’t work. Recently I tried out a set of Dawson Precision fixed sights: a 0.100″ red fiber optic front with a fixed all-black rear sight. That worked out great for me: fast to acquire (the fiber optic front vs. the all-black rear), and where I would aim the bullet would go no matter the distance: I had no problem hitting a small 6″ popper “on the shoulder” of a no-shoot at about 25 yards. I just can’t “point and click” and do that with the XS Sights. The XS might work for you and I certainly think they’re good for what they are, but they just are not right for me.

So, time for me to ship my XD-9 off to Springer Precision for new sights and some other work.