RMR on Autoloaders: Anyone using them?

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MP-44

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Before some scream blasphemy, the reason I am asking is my eyes are not what they use to be. I went to the eye Dr just a few months ago expecting prescription glasses. They said my eyes were fine other than "birthday candles" ( polite way of saying you are getting old: Im 49 ) and all I need is reading glasses. I can see a squirrel running thru the trees at 150yds but the sights on a pistol at arms length are blurry. With reading glasses my sights are sharp but everything elese is blurry.

I am seriously thinking about a S&W M&P 45 and having the slide milled to accept a Trijicon with dual illumination.

I have read a few reviews and the reviewers seem to like them but I haven't seen any reviews on long term use and how the sight held up.

Has anyone read about or seen these sights failing with X amount of use on an autoloading pistol?

If anyone has an RMR set-up on there semi I would like to hear your opinion.
 
I'm 66 and I have your exact problem. I solved my problem using +2 readers (dark tinted and no tint) from Wal Mart covered with plastic safety glasses from Lowe's. A bit of a hassle, but this system is comfortable and works well for me; my wife has adopted it.

My situation is I'm headed toward cataract surgery and my doctor has told me I get to choose what focal lengths I want. And it can be different for my two eyes. My plan is to get both set for handgun shooting and glasses for rifle and shotgun.

Other than that, wife and I both have CTC lasers on all the SD rotation guns. Well, her SR9c doesn't yet, but that's coming. With our eyes and low light such as our home at night (we have real world experience) the laser is a total solution: see dot; see hole.
 
I have RMR02s on my duty gun, a FNP45 Tactical, and also on an FNS9. They work very well and have been holding up well. No problems with them holding zero, no issues whatsoever.
 
If you use initials, you should spell it out for the rest of us. What's an "RMR"? To me it means Rocky Mountain Raceway.
 
MP-44
I think the ROCKY MOUNTAIN RACEWAY would work, especially on squirels out to 150 yds. :D no clue here.
 
I have the Burris mounted to the slide dovetail on a Glock 17L. It's over a year old and have have shot several thousand rounds through the pistol. The only thing I don't like is the unnatural high sighting plane, but milling the slide would take care of that.

Oh, and I am in the same boat as you. My arms sometimes are not long enough.
 
Kelly McCann started carrying a Glock 19 with a Doctor red dot years ago. The RMR is much tougher than the Doctor sight.

Gabe Suarez and others from his organization have shot thousands of rounds through RMR equipped guns without any problems.

I have a RMR equipped G26 which has been my carry gun for 2 or 3 years now. It works very well for me.
 
I own and carry an RMR'd G26. Best money I've ever spent on a firearms-related purchase. I plan to have my G17 done next.

As I understand it, the RMR RM02 8 MOA dot is the "best of breed;" I have heard mixed reviews of the dual illuminated models.

Glock, FN, and M&P pistols seem to be the most common candidates for an RMR mod; your M&P45 should be ideal.

If you'd like informed opinions from folks with years of experience with this platform, try www.warriortalk.com

http://www.warriortalk.com/forumdisplay.php?205-TSD-s-Red-Dot-Combat-Pistols

R
 
Another user of Tom Swift's Electric Pistol Sight here...

Been using RMR02's, 8 MOA dot, on three different pistols for a couple years now for the reasons you mention and have been very pleased with their performance with none of the sight drift issues others have reported.

I highly recommend having the slide milled and some sort of back up irons to help in the transition and of course just in case the electric sight goes down for any reason.
 
I don't have any info for you, but I'm not going to cry blasphemy. I'm going to cry jealousy. Wish I could afford to get one and do that ;)
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think after the gun buying craze dies down a bit I am going to go this route.
 
I carry an XDm with a C-More STS mounted on it. The sight is very tough. No problems at all.

XDmCMore.jpg
 
I have an RMR dual illuminated on a 9mm race gun shooting a 124 grain bullet at 1370 fps for 4000 rounds. After initial zero it has never needed adjustment.
 
Love 'em. When you get old enough, you'll understand why :)

Even on my carry gun now:
attachment.php



This is how you use them, both eyes open, focus on the target, and look through the dot:
attachment.php

The red "halo" around the dot is actually the flower I aimed at.

I tend to use the Burris FastFire on my range guns as they are about half the price and have a wider variety of mounts available, but they do need batteries, the RMR dual illumination model shown has no batteries, just fiber optics to harvest ambient light and tritium for when its dark.
 
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I would prefer to have backup irons as well... I forget who, but someone is milling M&P slides so that you have suppressor sights front and rear with a MRDS mounted just in front of the higher rear sight.
 
Madcap, that does come with a cost, though. Pretty sure anyone capable of changing the rear sight can put the dovetail plate on, but you need to send the slide in to be milled and it is going to be a lot more expensive. Then again, if you're already paying for a RMR...

There are a few gunsmiths I've seen linked in other threads who do slide milling, one of them will actually put a line on the RMR to be used as the rear sight of a 2-dot setup and just use suppressor front sights.

Eventually I'll have one on my carry gun. It's just not financially feasible at the present time :(
 
I would prefer to have backup irons as well...
Click to expand...

If I could use the iron sights effectively I wouldn't be needing the RMR, so for me there is no real point to it.

milling M&P slides so that you have suppressor sights front and rear with a MRDS mounted just in front of the higher rear sight.
Click to expand...
This is indeed a fine setup for a full sized pistol, the FNP-45 Tactical comes setup this way from the factory. S&W has introduced a new C.O.R.E. series in their M&P line that is "optics ready" much like the FNP-45 setup from what I saw in the promotional Email I got from them.
 
Wow, S&W really did that? I need to take a look! I've been saying for a while that FN will be the first in a new trend, but so far nobody else has.

Backup irons are there in case the RMR fails for some reason. Although people don't back up their irons if those are the only aiming device...
 
Backup irons are there in case the RMR fails for some reason.
Click to expand...

The dual illumination RMR uses no batteries so unless the glass breaks to the point it doesn't reflect the dot back to you, they seem about as reliable as iron (plastic) front sights. Note that the sight will work even if you can't see through the glass -- its the "Binden Aiming Concept" that relies on your brain merging the image from both eyes into one. Its also why if you focus your vision on the dot instead of the target you'll swear the things "don't hold zero". This can cause problems under stress switching from dot to irons. You'll need to maintain dual aiming disciplines "look through the dot and focus on the target" (more natural under stress) vs. "focus on the front sight" with irons.

But I certainly agree with the need for backup sights on battery powered dot sights for any serious usage. At the range, spare batteries in the bag solves the problem.

When I let other shooters try the dot sight they usually have trouble getting the hang of it at first, since all their training has been "focus on the front sight".
 
I took a look at the M&P C.O.R.E. Looks pretty nice. Even comes with the higher sights, so all you gotta do is mount the RMR.

I was recently trying to decide between staying M&P, or changing to Glock (similar options) or maybe Caracal or PPQ in my search for my closest-to-holy-grail pistol. S&W really pushed themselves to the front of the race with this.

Edit: edited above after doing research.

ETA: I have the APEX kit on my M&P, so I wonder what I would want to put on a M&P Pro. I would at the very least want the AEK Trigger. Off-topic though.
 
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