Enhancing the SA-35 with XS Sights

By Yamil Sued

In today’s article, Yamil Sued takes a look at a new sight option for the Springfield Armory SA-35 semi-automatic pistol. While the handgun ships with good sights, some people might want to add tritium-powered night sights and the XS Sights R3D 2.0 seems to be a good match. How easy are they to install, and how do they perform? That’s what the author looks at in this article. The sights were provided to the author by XS sights and the SA-35 pistol was loaned to the author by Springfield Armory.

OK, I admit it, I’m a boomer. Why? Because I love the SA-35 pistol platform. Ever since I got my first one of these types of pistols in the mid 80’s, I found it to be one of the most comfortable and easy to shoot pistols on the market. It’s been almost 40 years and my feelings towards the platform remain unchanged.

When Springfield Armory released the SA-35 in October of 2021, I was fascinated with their take on the classic pistol. The pistol shipped with everything I needed, and in my humble opinion, it lacked nothing. The classic ergonomics remained unchanged, but they added some of the new touches and ergonomic enhancements that shooters wanted and never got in prior iterations.

[Read our SA-35 review for more information on this classic handgun.]

Where To Start?

The SA-35 ships with a very nice set of sights. The rear sight is a serrated blackout sight, and the front consists of a white dot dovetailed sight. For general shooting and self-defense training, this is perfectly ideal, and they are quite effective.

However, I love to customize my guns. We all know that one of the first things many of us look to customize in pistols are the sights, but where do we start? We all like something different, but one feature that can we worth the expense and trouble is adding night sights. But which ones?

I did some research and quickly found an answer to my question. XS Sights has been a huge name in sights for the better part of the past three decades, and they keep innovating. Given their vast experience manufacturing sights, I gave them a look and boy, was it worth it.

What I found was an excellent set of sights designed to fit the Springfield Armory SA-35, the R3D 2.0 tritium night sights. So, I decided to investigate them.

[Be sure to read Justin Opinion’s full review of the R3D 2.0 night sights for additional information.]

About the Night Sights

Features of these high-quality, U.S. made sights CNC-machined steel? Impressively large and capable tritium dots that are rated to last 12 years. The rear sight features a wide notch as well as serrations to diffuse light glare in bright sunlight, and also a ledge for one-handed racking. The rear sight dots also feature black PVC rings to enhance the tritium dots’ performance. Both the front and rear sight feature a black Nitride finish for corrosion-resistance.

The 0.145” wide front tritium dot features an ember “Glow Dot” ring surrounding it, and is available in either green or orange. The photoluminescent Glow Dot is designed to absorb ambient light and glow in low-light conditions.

Installation

While the sight set is designed for easy installation with either a sight-pusher tool or a hammer and a punch, I decided to check with XS Sights to see what options customers might have for someone else installing the sights for them.

While finding a local gunsmith to install the sights for me isn’t a problem, I asked them about those customers that might live in a more remote area and don’t have access to a gunsmith or the comfort level to install the sights themselves. Customer service at XS Sights told me that they offer a very low-cost solution for this in their professional sight installation services at their Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters.

After learning I could have XS staff install my sights, I sent them my brand new SA-35 slide for their installation services. I was pleasantly surprised by the quick turnaround time, and the new sights looked fantastic. But we all know that the proof in the pudding is in the tasting, so here we go. Range time.

Testing at the Range

Well, if you want to test night sights, you need to simulate a low-light situation. So, I’m lucky to have access to a range like C2 tactical in Scottsdale, Arizona, where I was allowed to run my test on a complete shooting bay with full lighting control for this project.

But what level of light should you use night sights in? While you might think they give you the latitude to shoot in total darkness against a threat (since you can see the sights), you must remember that you have to always be aware of your target — both it and what is behind it. So, I would strongly suggest learning to use a flashlight in your support hand to be able to discern your target and make the decision as to whether or not to engage your target.

Because I had full control of the range lights, I was able to create a realistic low-light situation that didn’t require the use of a supplemental light. I tested several distances, from three to 10 yards, to simulate defense scenarios inside my own house or any other low-light scenario.

Once I had the light levels figured out, I went on to the live fire phase. For the test, I chose to use Federal Syntech Range ammo. I started at three yards, doing several pairs and failure drills. I then did the same testing at five yards, seven yards, and finally at 10 yards, then proceeded to vary the lighting conditions depending on the distance.

Closing Thoughts

My impression of the new tritium night sights was very positive. The front sight, with high-contrast green dual-illuminated glow dot (but also available in orange) was very easy to acquire in all lighting situations I tested. The rear sights were bright, but didn’t overpower the front sight, which made low-light sight acquisition so much easier. Even when I tested at the fringes of my own low-light visibility abilities, I was able to easily acquire a proper sight picture.

I love the SA-35 platform. Having this pistol with all the improvements Springfield Armory added to the design, and with the addition of the XS Sights tritium night sights, I think I have found the perfect package for my self-defense needs.

Editor’s Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the “Go To Forum Thread” link below to jump in!

Join the Discussion

Go to forum thread

Featured in this video

XS Sights R3D 2.0 Night Sights

9^mm

SA-35™ Series