IMI mount for railed pistols

[Walkalong]

I recently bought the IMI pistol scope mount for railed pistols on the advise of member Dudedog who has had luck with his. I had tried a similar "Mako" branded mount that would not stay put and kept coming loose. The IMI mount fit and worked great on my XDm. If the XDm rail had another slot the mount could go all the way back against the trigger guard. The curve matches well.

I went to the range with the XDm and the IMI mount this morning. I shot it at the 25 yard berm and it was low but seemed OK left to right. Then I shot at the target I set up at 10 yards, sloppily at first, and low. Then I adjusted the red dot the wrong dadgum way and went off the paper low. Shot it at the berm to double check. *Sigh* Yep, I adjusted it the wrong way.

I re-adjusted the Ultra Dot sight, got back on paper, settled down and concentrated on gun/trigger control, and then worked it up, one shot, adjust, one shot, adjust, until it was a hair high, then adjusted it back down a hair, shot twice, and they were touching and almost dead center on the target. Then I shot at a plastic bottle cap on the berm and I don't know if I actually hit it, but was close enough to send it flying. Nice. I like this mount. As in, Bingo! We have a winner!

While the IMI mount is plastic/composite/polymer/whatever, it is well made, stiff, looks good, fits the rail great, and has two cross bolts instead of one like the Mako that would not stay put on my particular XDm.

Oh, and the slide will come off without taking the mount off.

 

[wally]

The main issue I see with these frame attached mounts is that it makes slide to frame fit a big factor in accuracy, where with iron sights its largely the barrel to slide lockup consistency that limits accuracy since the sights are fixed to the slide.

That said, years ago when iron sights first started to become an issue from the inevitable presbyopia, I tried one of the 1911 grip panel mounts on my Norinco 1911 and was shooting 6" groups off sandbags at 50 yards with it using a cheap 1" tube type red dot. Since this otherwise stock Norinco was never a "tack driver" I was very happy with the results and got a slide mounted J-Point a year or so later and never looked back.

I also have a frame mounted rail on my EAA Witness Limited and it is a tack driver and it holds zero like a rock, although I had to remove the rear sight blade to get the slide off -- much better option than removing the eight hex head screws that mount the rail to the frame

The price is nice, I'll be giving one a try as it looks pretty easy to move among different pistols. Can you still use the iron sights witih it attached? I'd assume so since you said the slide comes off without removing it. I had my right eye tweaked with Lasik so I can use iron sights again now! Lot of old friends coming out of the safe No telling but I got about five more years of using irons when I had the original Lasik done it 2008, I'll enjoy the ability as long as I can, but I'm now a believer in the slide mounted red dots for self-defense as focusing on the threat instead of the sights is a major plus under stress, and a problem for me trying to shoot steel plates with irons as I keep using the fiber optic front as if it were a red dot and that don't work!

 

[ATLDave]

I also have a frame mounted rail on my EAA Witness Limited and it is a tack driver and it holds zero like a rock, although I had to remove the rear sight blade to get the slide off -- much better option than removing the eight hex head screws that mount the rail to the frame

I have a thumb rest on my Limited attached at the screw holes in the frame. When shooting that gun in USPSA, I sometimes apply a considerable amount of force to the rest - so much so that I bent, and eventually broke, a DAA thumb rest. I attach the rest with just two screws (the rest is only on one side of the frame) and a little blue loctite, and the screws have never budged a nanometer. I suspect you only need to use 4 screws, rather than 8, to attach the optic to the frame. With only 4, that might be easier than fooling with the rear sight blade... and, with larger screws, perhaps less risk of cross-threading something smaller and more fragile. Just a thought.

 

[Walkalong]

It's a range toy for me. I would be much more comfortable using the XDm OSP for self defense. If the dot dies though, you can't use the sights like the S&W M&P and Sig 320 versions.