LaserGrips

[mbrown]

Hello,

I am a fairly new gun owner. I have Beretta M9. For Christmas my wife picked up the Crimson Trace LaserGrips.

I installed them, but have yet to use them.

As I started to mess with them. I noticed that the red dot was not pointing at the same location as my iron sights.

The manual states that they are configured out of the box at 50 feet.

To me, that seems like an awful long distance. Doesn't it?

At the range I normally shoot from 7-15 feet at the range.

Like I mentioned, I am pretty new to this. 50 feet seems pretty far for a hand gun, not to mention any sort of home defense situations.

Should I leave it at the factory settings, or move it to something around 15 feet?

What is the best way to do this myself?

[Tony C]

I have the CT grips for my S&W 642 and I adjusted the laser to seven yards. The hex wrenches and instructions should have come with your grips. You can also find the instructions online.

Either way though you are fine. The difference in bullet strike between 15 yards and five yards won't be drastic.

Regards,
Tony

[hartcreek]

I have the lazer on my 624 set for 50 feet same as my iron sights. Pretty hard to miss just pointing and shooting closer then fifty feet.

[WC145]

Hello,

I am a fairly new gun owner. I have Beretta M9. For Christmas my wife picked up the Crimson Trace LaserGrips.

I installed them, but have yet to use them.

As I started to mess with them. I noticed that the red dot was not pointing at the same location as my iron sights.

The manual states that they are configured out of the box at 50 feet.

To me, that seems like an awful long distance. Doesn't it?

At the range I normally shoot from 7-15 feet at the range.

Like I mentioned, I am pretty new to this. 50 feet seems pretty far for a hand gun, not to mention any sort of home defense situations.

Should I leave it at the factory settings, or move it to something around 15 feet?

What is the best way to do this myself?

I've used lasers and red dot sights for years. I suggest you leave your laser grips sighted where they are and this is why-

Remember, the laser is not on the same plane as your sights, they will only meet once at the point that the laser crosses the sight plane (approx. 50' per CT). Closer than that and the dot will appear low and right of your sight's point of aim, closing the gap as you get closer to that magic 50' mark. Beyond that it will show high and to the left of your sights with the distance increasing the further out you go.

From the muzzle of your gun until 50' and a good 50' beyond that, there will only be a few inches of variation from right to left in where the laser's dot appears in relation to the your sights. So, holding the dot center mass on your target anywhere in that 100' distance should give you a will give you a POI within about 1.5" of where the dot appears on the target.

Yes, you can adjust them so that the dot and the sights line up at a closer point but the distance between the dot and your sight's POA will increase faster beyond that point. For instance, let's say you set the laser to meet your guns POI at 15'. The variation right to left variation will be equal from the muzzle to 30', let's say it's a total of less than an inch. But go beyond 30' and the distance between the dot and POI grows faster because the laser beam is on a steeper angle to achieve the 15' POA/POI. So, at 50' or 100' you're going to go from a half inch to several inches of difference between the where the dot appears and where the bullet hits.

Take the gun to the range, shoot it at different distances using a target with a grid on it. Note where the dot is in relation to your sight's POA at each distance and where the bullet hits, that will tell you how close your dot is to your POI at each distance, they'll be much closer than you think.

Also, shooting with a laser aiming device is not the same as shooting with your sights. You don't focus on the dot like you focus on your front sight. You focus on your target and superimpose the dot on it, you're using it instead of your sights. Take it to the range and try I so you can learn to trust that the bullet will impact within and inch or two of the dot at any distance you may have to shoot inside your house. If for any reason the dot fails, you always have your iron sights to fall back on.

Finally, start practicing at longer distances. 7-15' is very close, learn to shoot accurately at greater distance, 75' is only 25yds, if you're shooting a 3" group at 15' that equates to a 15" group at 75. You may never "need" to shoot that distance but to have the ability, just in case, could mean the difference between winning or losing a gunfight. If you're a good shot at 25yds you'll be a great shot at 25 feet.

[mbrown]

Thanks for the info. I suppose I meant yards, not feet. Which seems to make a little more sense on the default settings. Lots to learn here, but I'm having fun with it.

Look forward to learning more on this board.

Thanks again.

[AKhog]

WC145, that is the reason I put Railmaster lasers on my XD and XDm. The laser is directly under the bore instead of off to one side or the other at various distances. You just have to adjust accordingly like you do with a scope. The only downside is you have to remember to turn the laser on when you need it. But the other way to look at it it isn't on at all times for the bad guy to see it.

[mbrown]

I spent some time at the range today. The laser was acting weird. I was only really able to go through one mag. After that the laser would not light up, or starts bright but dims really fast. Do the batteries really go that fast? The manual states they should last a year. Did I get a bum set of batteries? CT states I can get free batteries for life, maybe I'll request another set.

Any thoughts?

[Cheapshooter]

I spent some time at the range today. The laser was acting weird. I was only really able to go through one mag. After that the laser would not light up, or starts bright but dims really fast. Do the batteries really go that fast? The manual states they should last a year. Did I get a bum set of batteries? CT states I can get free batteries for life, maybe I'll request another set.

Now you know why you should learn to shoot with sights, not gimmicks. Never trust your life to circuits, and batteries!

[mbrown]

Now you know why you should learn to shoot with sights, not gimmicks. Never trust your life to circuits, and batteries!

Agreed. I don't plan to rely on it, it is a toy that I would like to mess with.

[JeffK]

After that the laser would not light up, or starts bright but dims really fast. Do the batteries really go that fast?

Sounds like temperature, was it really hot or really cold out? Lasers are pretty delicate things, and tend to be sensitive to temperature, so if it's really hot or cold they can act up because the laser cavity dimensions change.

[mbrown]

Pretty normal temp. It was an indoor range. Still playing with it tonight in the house. Flickers a lot and goes dim. I just requested new batteries. Maybe I just had some bad luck with them?

[Eight_is_enough]

Your problem is most likely one of the contacts -- it is too low and is therefore not making good contact with its battery. Either send to CT for adjustment or do what I do -- remove the batteries, reach in with a small screw-driver and GENTLY and SLOWLY bend the contacts up so they will make good contact with the battery when you put them in.

Problem solved, I'm betting.

[Rogervzv]

I am going to categorically disagree with WC145.

I have CT Lasergrips on an M9A1, a 92FS, as well as several 1911s and several Ruger Mark IIIs. In every case the laser dot needed to be adjusted with the supplied allen wrench.

What I do is before going to the range find a wall or target at whatever distance I am aligning the laser to. I then adjust the dot so that it coincides with the sight picture of the iron sights. Typically when I do this I need very little adjustment, and sometimes no adjustment at all, once I get the gun to the range.

In practice, the slight offset of the laser from the muzzle bore on a lasergrip makes very little difference at a distance of more than about 25 feet.

Every CT laser I've ever bought needed significant adjustment. But they hold zero great and once you have it the way that you want you will not mess with it again for years.