https://www.agmglobalvision.com/wlad-1b

Smudge, do you know anything about the AGM WLAD? It seems to be reasonably-priced and available.

It's a rebranded Laserspeed FL5, and there's some disagreement over with this particular offering from AGM is full power or not. Offhand, I recall some issues with the turrets, and the Picatinny mount holding up, but I could be remembering wrong and conflating it with their M3. They make decent stuff.

Honestly, a year ago, I would've said it's a fine choice for the money. Currently, they have the M6TR, which has a better form factor and a much cleaner, more powerful illuminator for around a grand from Cold Harbour Supply. They also have a VCSEL version that's even brighter for $100 more. Hit up DaBigBR and you can get an Iris 3 for less than what CHS is charging for an LE221G.

SHOT Show week is a bad time to order stuff like this. New things coming out, old things getting discontinued, and all the people who handle this stuff are in Vegas playing with new toys instead of processing orders and shipments.

What are you guys using for dot optics on pistols?

A few weeks ago, I shot an NV match with a loaner that had an RMR on it. It was fine. Last night I shot and NV match with a loaner that had an EFLX on it. It was also fine.

Swung by Glockmeister today and talked with the guy there and looked at the current MOS options and he suggested a G49 MOS. Since I have a G45, it would give me all the swap-aroo options and I could use it as a G17/47 with a dot. His suggestion after talking over my use case was a Holosun SCS if I wanted to carry it since those cowitness with factory height irons, or else just a 407 and then be into taller irons. His input on optics, while helpful, doesn't strike me as coming at it from experience with shooting under NODs, however.

This is my next move. Need to figure this one out pretty soon. I would prefer to stick with a factory Glock on this rather than all the aftermarket shit.

First I don't do Holosun due to COO.
But I have tens and tens of thousands of rounds down a glock MOS with an RMR without any issues since the Type 2 appeared. So no hesitation on recommending that. I have like a dozen of them no issues mounted on lots of different pistols shot all the time. Really only RMR downside is the battery location. That's really been for competition use not sure your use.
My second choice and my first when I care about ultimate reliability is to run an ACRO. Its probably the toughest of these designs that can run on a pistol.
Both will serve you well but if I was just buying one I'd get an acro. In terms of the gun when you run a red dot I see no reason for any additional barrel length since you don't need sight radius and you don't need velocity, so not sure why the 47 seems attractive?

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
That's really been for competition use not sure your use.

My primary consideration will be NV use, and everything else after that since I haven't felt a need for a red dot on a handgun until shooting two gun drills and matches under NODs. I carry a plain Jane G45 with Ameriglos and do well with it, so while I'm not ruling out carry, I'm not going to chase that dragon.

I am thinking that whatever I end up putting together will be my starter USPA gun, and I fully intend to keep it factory Glock with a Glock performance trigger. So, it'll be a daylight competition gun as well, but that is an afterthought.

In looking into the EFLX, I did find this about light transmission, glass clarity, and performance under NODs, which was interesting.


All-in-all, my experience with the EFLX was really positive, and I could see myself being pretty happy with it. The stuff about the DPP footprint and that whole can of worms is stuff I need to learn about. All the various footprints and cuts and whatnot is a topic I've skipped over entirely thus far.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
My second choice and my first when I care about ultimate reliability is to run an ACRO. Its probably the toughest of these designs that can run on a pistol.
Both will serve you well but if I was just buying one I'd get an acro.

That definitely brings up a consideration with closed vs open emitter. The stuff we do is out in the desert. Here in the Sonoran, we have some pretty fine dust that kicks up and gets into everything. Keeping my EXPS3 clean vs keeping my AEMS clean is a different experience. I'll have to think about that.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
In terms of the gun when you run a red dot I see no reason for any additional barrel length since you don't need sight radius and you don't need velocity, so not sure why the 47 seems attractive?

To be fair, I didn't say it was attractive, I just said I got loaned one, and the guy at Glockmeister recommended a 49 to complement my G45. I really like the G45, and after thinking about it and handling the G49, I no longer like the 19 length frame. It's too cramped for my hand. I'm not going to get rid of the 19's I have, but I'm also not going to add any more. 17 length frames only going forward. As for barrel length, I don't need any more velocity, but I also don't mind the longer slide. I've seen plenty of debate about this, and I know JlJones is pretty outspoken in his advocacy for just using a G17 instead of a 19X/45, and that once you add a pistol light, the whole balance thing gets thrown out of whack anyways. In truth, I'm not overly tied to any one barrel length, and kind of wouldn't mind owning and trying a G17L and G34, just to do it. I could end up with a full size frame and anything on top, honestly. I feel no need to be incredibly practical and purposeful about this one aspect. No strong feelings either way.

I got out there in the dark for a few hours on Tuesday night. A new friend is heavily invested in the gear, but lacks access to a good place to use it. So us two plus my most regular fellow nighttime shooter went out, to get him some valuable time with his stuff.

Some notes from observation of the new guy and his equipment:

He has the Holosun Iris. The rapidly scalable illuminator is slick, and the illumination is crystal clear. However, as far as I can tell, the illuminator doesn't really go so wide as to be super advantageous in close quarters. It gets wider, but not in a "flood" or diffused sort of way, and it's so stinking bright that I think it'd be overwhelming indoors.

He has a Vortex Huey. It's not good for passive aiming. All sorts of optics have NVG settings nowadays. Only the Eotech (and MRDS, though I don't have personal experience) is truly usable. Even with his "Supergain" high-speed NVG tube, he was unable to see the targets through his Huey. My trusty ol' green, likely ten-year-old tube could see just fine through the Eotech.

And a note about something of mine:

I never bring my pistol out. I knew he had a pistol to shoot, so I figured that was a good reason to shoot mine. I enjoyed it. It's not going to find a new home in my "system", but it might get more recreational use moving forward. The MK25 ran flawlessly with 147gr flat point subs, with the AAC Ti-Rant 9mm silencer and PEQ-14. The flood diffuser on the PEQ-14 is awesome. The illumination it provides is very pleasant, and not overly bright in close quarters.