Those who know me know that I have only 2 guns (M&P9 and AR SBR) and that my focus is on defense. Therefore I prefer to set them up for success whenever possible. First and foremost this means becoming proficient with them, so I invest heavily in the software side of the house. But I'm also a gear geek and enjoy looking for products to enhance my capabilities.
Over the past few years the concept of red dots on pistols has evolved and made the jump from gamer guns to defensive pistols. I believe a large part of this is due to the Trijicon RMR style sights that are small enough to mount on pistols without being unwieldy.
My first exposure with such a concept came using a Glock17L with a Vortex Razor. You can read about that here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/accessories_and_gear/220217-review_vortex_razor_red_dot.html
But such a setup was still more of a "game gun" and I was curious what an RMR'd Glock or M&P with a milled slide and back-up iron sights was like.
One big pusher of this concept is Gabe Suarez and the folks at Suarez International. Their custom firearm branch, TSD, has been putting RMRs on Glocks, M&Ps, and Sigs for a while now. They also offer training courses specifically for users of such setups. My second exposure to the concept was at a Suarez International Low-Light Gunfighting course back in October of this year. You can read about the RMR'd Glock here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...low_light_gunfighting_10_19_20_2012_pics.html
The other two companies that I am aware of that produce such setups are ATEi out of Michigan ( http://ateiguns.com/ ) and Bowie Tactical Concepts out of Ohio ( Bowie Tactical Concepts Home Page ).
Looking over the various options at each website I started to again get the itch to drop an RMR on my M&P (which requires the optic, slide milling, slide refinishing, and new iron sights). But it isn't cheap and I still didn't feel like I had enough time behind one to really determine if I wanted to drop the coin.
Enter INGO and its fantastic members.
The other day I made a passing remark about this itch and Rookie generously offered to let me test drive his RMR'd M&P9 that was customized by Bowie Tactical Concepts. Sweet!
So today I met with him and picked it up. (on a side note, Rookie was on his way to having surgery so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers-- he should be back on INGO soon)
Now I've only had it for a few hours at this point, but here are some initial observations in no particular order:
For now here is what I snapped this afternoon.
Over the past few years the concept of red dots on pistols has evolved and made the jump from gamer guns to defensive pistols. I believe a large part of this is due to the Trijicon RMR style sights that are small enough to mount on pistols without being unwieldy.
My first exposure with such a concept came using a Glock17L with a Vortex Razor. You can read about that here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/accessories_and_gear/220217-review_vortex_razor_red_dot.html
But such a setup was still more of a "game gun" and I was curious what an RMR'd Glock or M&P with a milled slide and back-up iron sights was like.
One big pusher of this concept is Gabe Suarez and the folks at Suarez International. Their custom firearm branch, TSD, has been putting RMRs on Glocks, M&Ps, and Sigs for a while now. They also offer training courses specifically for users of such setups. My second exposure to the concept was at a Suarez International Low-Light Gunfighting course back in October of this year. You can read about the RMR'd Glock here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...low_light_gunfighting_10_19_20_2012_pics.html
The other two companies that I am aware of that produce such setups are ATEi out of Michigan ( http://ateiguns.com/ ) and Bowie Tactical Concepts out of Ohio ( Bowie Tactical Concepts Home Page ).
Looking over the various options at each website I started to again get the itch to drop an RMR on my M&P (which requires the optic, slide milling, slide refinishing, and new iron sights). But it isn't cheap and I still didn't feel like I had enough time behind one to really determine if I wanted to drop the coin.
Enter INGO and its fantastic members.
The other day I made a passing remark about this itch and Rookie generously offered to let me test drive his RMR'd M&P9 that was customized by Bowie Tactical Concepts. Sweet!
So today I met with him and picked it up. (on a side note, Rookie was on his way to having surgery so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers-- he should be back on INGO soon)
Now I've only had it for a few hours at this point, but here are some initial observations in no particular order:
- I'm reminded that the RMR is MUCH smaller in person than it is in pictures. This optic is tiny.
- This model RMR has an 8MOA dot (I think), is battery powered, and is always on. I'll have to do more reading on this specific model but it looks caveman simple.
- David Bowie did a FANTASTIC job on the milling and refining. The optic looks like its part of the slide itself. I'm really impressed.
- The nickel boron (?) coating on this M&P is sexy. It's subdued "not-quite-silver, not-quite-gold" finish looks great.
- As you'll see in the pics the RMR is mounted to the rear, while the rear iron sight sits just in front of it. Bowie is the only one that does this IIRC. So far I don't like this configuration as well as when the iron sight is at the very back, but I'll need to run it to really form an opinion either way.
- The gun fits my Raven Phantom holster just fine. If I was going to run this full-time I would take 2 minutes and a file and remove just a bit of material that hits the RMR.
- Doing a few dry runs I'm reminded that there's a learning curve to these things.
For now here is what I snapped this afternoon.
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