TFB Review: XS Minimalist OR Sights & Optics Plates

Pistol-mounted red dots have moved from a novelty to a standard item with amazing speed. Most manufacturers sell optics-ready guns from the factory now and a whole industry exists to retrofit standard slides for red dot mounting. XS Sights has been in the game of manufacturing iron sights and scope rails for many, many years. Well, XS is getting into the pistol dot game with the Minimalist Optic Mount Bundle which contains both a mounting plate AND irons that are the perfect height.

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Disclosures: XS provided me with both an RMR and Acro bundle so I can show both in this review. I do not have a prior relationship with XS other than talking to them once or twice at SHOT Show in years past, and once upon a time I had one of their scout rails on a Marlin .30-30 lever gun.

Background

Glock was one of the first manufacturers to offer factory optics-ready pistols with the Modular Optics System (MOS). The MOS system was early to the game, but many shooters like other systems better. MOS uses a series of plates to adapt various red dots to the slide, but it is showing its age. Glock even released a new system with a dedicated Aimpoint at SHOT Show 2025, so they recognize that there is an interest in the market for other options.

XS takes a bundle approach to setting up an MOS pistol, including both iron sights and an adapter plate in the same box. One advantage of this approach is end users not having to fret around finding screws and a plate. It also provides irons that should be just high enough to look through the bottom of the supported red dot, but short enough to stay mostly out of the window.

For this review, XS sent me two Minimalist OR Bundles, one with a blacked-out front sight and an Acro plate, and another set with an RMR plate and front sight with a tritium lamp. Whether or not a front sight should have tritium illumination on a gun with a red dot is a matter of personal preference. Some shooters hate the idea of not having any night sights if their red dot fails, and feel more confident with at least one illuminated aiming point. Others do not like any visual distraction that could draw their eye away from the red dot, and feel that in low light they will still have enough sight picture using the outlines of the sight contrasted against the bright spill of a weapon light.

In either case, the thing no one should want is a brightly contrasting insert in the front sight. Most XS Minimalist sights use an orange outer ring on the front dot, as well as a luminous glowing ring around the tritium lamp. That is great on a pistol without a red dot, but all of those features distract from a red dot and make it harder to use. XS wisely opted to leave those contrast features off of the Minimalist OR Bundle while keeping the same overall profile of the sights.

Installation

I always like an installation project that includes the things you need right in the box. XS does not skimp, and they include both red and blue thread-locking compounds. The kit does not include a sight press nor a front sight tool, but both are things you should already have if you own multiple Glocks. They also include a T10 Torx bit for the red dot mounting screws, which is common on sight mounting applications but is not usually part of Torx bit sets.

One corner of the rear sight is angled so it is easier to start into the dovetail from right to left. The instructions on the XS website are very descriptive and mention test fitting the rear sight. If it fails to slide in sufficiently with finger pressure then it needs to be filed down slightly. That was not necessary with this particular install on a Glock 34 Gen 5. A $60 Amazon sight press was more than capable for the job of mounting and centering the rear sight.

The instructions also include sealing the rear sight with a red thread locker once it is centered. Wisely, it recommends shooting the gun to make sure the sights are on before “gluing” them in place with thread locker, which is what I did. With the dot turned off I shot several groups at 15 and 25 yards and was satisfied that the groups were centered. The instructions advise putting the thread locking compound around the edges of the sight and waiting 15 minutes before wiping off the excess. Whether this is truly necessary is an open question but it is a cheap layer of additional insurance.

Installing each of the front sight options was very easy. The post fits well in the slide opening and the screw was easy to torque down without stripping anything out (yes, I have done that on another set of sights and it still haunts me). Both versions lined up nicely and were straight when tightened down.

On The Range

The first setup I ran was a Holosun 507 with the tritium insert front sight. Though the tritium appears bright in the dark, it is not distracting once there is ambient light. XS made a very wise decision in omitting the colored insert that comes with Minimalist sight sets not meant for red dot use. On this kind of application, that extra color would have been a distraction instead of an asset.

Zeroing was a very easy process. I started with the dot off and shot with the irons only as described above. I then turned on the dot and it was sitting just over the front sight without any adjustments. I have used back-up irons to boresight a red dot previously on both ARs and pistols (if the irons are on, put the dot on or just over the front sight while the sights are aligned correctly) and it works well enough to get the gun on paper.

Shooting with Holosun and XS Minimalist Sights was best described as intuitive. There was no learning curve or weirdness to adjust to. It just worked. In both bullseye shooting and more practical applications like transitions and reloads the dot was easy to see and unobstructed by the irons. In some light conditions the green glow of the tritium lamp in the front sight was a minor distraction, and sometimes there was a minor reflection off of the lamp when the light hit it just right.

I switched over to the Acro plate and the plain front sight and put a few hundred more rounds through it with a Lead & Steel Pandora red dot. It uses the same mounting footprint as the Acro and similar outer dimensions, and fit well on the plate. Shooting this setup was also very intuitive like the earlier one. Both the front and rear sights have serrations on the surfaces facing the shooter. This cuts down on glare and presents a cleaner sight picture in varied lighting conditions. The lack of the tritium lamp in this front sight was an improvement in my opinion, as there was less distraction from the dot. But that is a personal preference, and there are other shooters who would disagree (or, potentially, whose department policies might require them to have a night sight).

Conclusion

XS did a great job with the Minimalist OR Bundle. With both the RMR and Acro footprints the sights and optics lined up for a nice sight picture, whether using the red dot or just the irons themselves. The bundle is comprehensive and includes everything except a sight press and front sight tool. Both the sights and plates are nicely machined and mounted square on the gun, and all optics fit snugly and held zero. Don’t mess around with finding plates and irons when you are setting up a Glock MOS pistol. Just buy the Minimalist OR Bundle and spend your time shooting instead of picking out parts that you hope will work together.