RMR sighting

[BDD8]

RMR's seem to be the latest fad. Put the red dot on the target and that's where the bullet goes. Allegedly. I've never fired a gun with a RMR. Seems to me the bullet would go maybe a cm below where you put the red dot no? Iron sights have always worked for me.

[Uncle Malice]

Depends on where you have the sight zeroed....

[BDD8]

I see. I assumed the RMR's came "sighted'. No adjustment. Will find out when/if I install one in front of my rear Glock factory sight.

[Shawn Thompson]

I assumed the RMR's came "sighted'. No adjustment.

The red dot sight still has to be mounted on a slide and to some degree or another, whether using an adapter plate or machining the slide, it would seem somewhat unrealistic to assume that the fit would be perfectly aligned on every installation. However, adjustments are very simple and easy to make with the Trijicon RMR.

That being said an increasing interest by students in our classes has inspired me to test this set-up to gain some first hand experience on the subject. I have only had mine running for a couple of weeks, but I will share this with you:

I chose to go with David Bowie at Bowie Tactical Concepts and have the slide machined on a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm. I wanted to utilize a BUIS system and found that the adapater plate added too much height for what I wanted to do. Machining the slide for the RMR lowered the red dot sight to a point where the BUIS would work, but only with suppressor sights. Factory sights were too low to be visible. This is something you might check on with the "stock" glock sights. And FWIW, BUIS in front of the red dot sight - highly recommended.

I had actually purchased an Insight MRDS first, only to find out that the M&P could not be machined deep enough for the effective use of a BUIS. The RMR solved that problem for me. I have colleagues who run the Insight MRDS on other pistols and love them. Equally, I have heard some positive things about the Leupold DeltaPoint, although I myself have not had the oportunity to finger-poke at one of those as of yet.

Adjusting to the red dot takes a little work - nothing some time at home doing dry fire work won't help with. Yes the dot will set a little higher from the bore axis than does a factory iron sight. You'll adjust. Trijicon boasts the RMR is paralax free out to 50 meters and recomends sighting in at that distance. You may find that distance to be a bit sportly for a handgun, but sighting in at a maximum effective range does seem to bode well for use of a red dot. I'm sure I will make adjustments as my experience with the set-up increases.

[BDD8]

Thanks for sharing Shawn. I'm also considering the S&W CORE 9mm actually. Comes with 5 mounting plates. And I was considering the Leupold Deltapoint too.

The guys at ATEi can retrofit the plates into a Glock (might send them my slide) As well they can drop a plate into a M&P. They also sell tricked out M&P's. With or with or without RMR's. Something I might look into if I don't buy a M&P CORE 9mm or send them my Glock slide.

As I said. I've never shot a gun with a RMR mounted. Supposed to be the "next big thing"...used in IDPA....Jerry Miculuk will be using a RMR equipped M&P in his 3-gun competition....so there must be something to it. Or not. Might end up putting my RMR away and going back to just using iron sights.

[Uncle Malice]

There's a pretty amazing video with Jerry shooting the M&P with an RMR or FastFire.. not sure which it was. Check on YouTube.

[allaroundhunter]

As I said. I've never shot a gun with a RMR mounted. Supposed to be the "next big thing"...used in IDPA....Jerry Miculuk will be using a RMR equipped M&P in his 3-gun competition....so there must be something to it. Or not. Might end up putting my RMR away and going back to just using iron sights.

I didn't know that any divisions of IDPA allowed the use of RDS. And Jerry is not the only person using a RDS on a handgun in 3-gun. Anyone who shoots open division is at a serious disadvantage if they don't so you will rarely see anyone shooting open at a major match that doesn't have one.

The only thing is, if you can't hit what you aim at inside of 20 yards consistently and quickly with iron sights, the RMR will probably not help you. If you are in that situation, then instead of buying the RMR spend that money on ammo and maybe a class. Proper trigger control and shooting mechanics will always do more to help than a RDS... But once you have those down, the RDS can speed up some times.

[g.willikers]

No scopes in IDPA, yet, but rumor is they are thinking on it, due to the supposedly increasing popularity of them on carry guns.

[mes228]

I have several pistols, and have equipped two with Micro Red Dots ie Trijicon RMR & J-Point. The RMR is on a FN Tactical, the J-Point on the S&W MP Pro C.O.R.E. They solve every problem with aging eyes. They are so accurate that iron sights are not even in the picture. Easily installed and adjusted - I really like them and see no down side at all other than cost.

[Dan-O]

I got all excited and thought someone had actually found a Kel Tec RMR in real life.

[WC145]

Trijicon boasts the RMR is paralax free out to 50 meters and recomends sighting in at that distance. You may find that distance to be a bit sportly for a handgun, but sighting in at a maximum effective range does seem to bode well for use of a red dot.

I've got RMR02s on a FNP45 Tactical (my duty gun) and a FNS9, I'm very happy with the performance on both. As far as sighting distances, if you do a little research on ballistics and trajectories you'll find that you can zero your gun fairly close (10-12yds) and it'll be zeroed a longer distance as well, the exact distance depends on trajectory. For example, lets say a particular 9mm round zeroed in at 10yds is also going to be zeroed at 75yds, with maybe a 2-3" peak trajectory somewhere in the middle. That means you can hold dead on, with no kentucky windage, any target from the muzzle to 75yds, even head shots. And, let's say the projectile drops 4" between 75 and 100yds, now you're talking about holding centermass even at that distance and making good hits.
Here's a link to the ballistics calculator I use - http://www.handloads.com/calc/.
Also, if you check out warriortalk they have a whole forum section on red dots and there is a ton of great info there.