I finally decided to try a red dot on a carry gun, here's what I learned

After years of training, practice, and carrying with iron sights, I decided to try a Trijicon RMR red dot sight to see whether I might eventually make the switch. I was hesitant because of the price and the warnings from experienced shooters that red dots on pistols aren't magic and will come with their own set of challenges, much like iron sights do. After much deliberation I sent my M&P9 M2.0 Compact slide to Primary Machine for an RM06 install and refinish, then I slapped a TLR-1 HL on it. Here's what it looks like.My expectations were that with some work I would be faster and more accurate at distance, and up close there would be approximately no difference. I was wrong. I've only had the thing for a few days and put a couple hundred rounds through it, but here are my initial impressions.With iron sights, I could never get a good, clear front sight focus at the speeds I wanted. My draw was good and fast, my presentation was good, and then I'd be waiting on my eyes for the front sight post to come into focus. I eventually gave up on "clear front sight" and settled for "fuzzy sort of outline of sights while looking at the target" when shooting up close, which is how I got to a sub-second draw from concealment.A red dot supports that style of shooting better than iron sights because the dot is visually projected onto the target, so it's perfectly in focus even when looking at the target. Because of that, the dot was almost immediately easier than iron sights for me. Many people say they have a lot of trouble finding the dot when they present the pistol until they've retrained on the new system. I didn't find this to be the case at all. I was shooting the exact same way as I was used to shooting, but with the dot I was much more confident that the gun was pointed exactly where I wanted.I expected to play with the red dot for at least a couple of weeks before deciding whether it was ready for carry. I ended up carrying it immediately. I haven't run it side-by-side with a timer and scoring rings yet, but by pure feel I don't want to go back to irons. The ability to present and instantly get a clear, unambiguous sight picture while focusing on the target just feels so good.I'll run some drills with a timer and report back, plus any reliability/durability concerns as they come up.A note about iron sight placement: I had heard various arguments for putting the rear sight either behind the optic or in front of it. I didn't really think it mattered and put it in front just because I thought that might help me to focus on the dot rather than get sucked into the irons that I'm more accustomed to. What I found is that there's a hidden benefit to placing the irons forward that I hadn't considered. With the rear sight behind, if you happen to draw the gun with the muzzle a little bit high, the dot will be obscured behind the rear sight. With the rear sight in front, you can still see the dot, even if you can't see the target through the window. It doesn't matter what you can see through the window because both of your eyes can be open with a red dot. Therefore your non-dominant eye sees the full target unobscured and your dominant eye picks up the dot, meaning you see everything perfectly. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2LTqtPE