Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Under pressure.

Once I'd gotten enough time with Crimson Trace lasers on my gats, I got kinda spoiled by their "grab-and-go" simplicity. Anything required to make the gun ready for action should be activated by grasping the gun in a firing grip, which is why guns with manual safeties put them under the strong-side thumb and not, say, out on the dust cover someplace.

For that reason, I was pretty happy when this item showed up from Amazon the other day:

The sweatguard on the RCS Phantom required a bit of Dremel surgery to accommodate the DeltaPoint. The Taylor Freelance baseplate hasn't fallen off the gun yet. I'm moderately impressed.
Sorry for the unglamorous photography, but it's early yet.

It's all been dry-fire thus far, but it'll be seeing plenty of range use. It's a vast improvement over fishing for the paddle out by the front of the trigger guard.

Activation is simple and interference with my normal grip is minimal, especially since my CCW gun has a Lightguard switch there. I think the relief cut at the rear of the M&P trigger guard is a little more tolerant of these things than that on the 3rd Gen Glock frame, especially since the M&P doesn't have finger grooves to complicate things.

Installation required needle-nose pliers, a room temperature IQ, and every ounce of strength in my feeble thumbs, but that's the price of a modicum of water resistance.

As soon as I can get a daily high temperature with a first digit of at least "3", I'll get this thing to MCF&G and put some rounds downrange.

18 comments:

Lewis said...

For some reason the Amazon category that was in was "Food Thickener." I am confused----but I am confused often.

Tam said...

I imagine it would thicken food pretty good, if you chopped it finely enough.

pdb said...

Let's just get this out of the way:

OMG UR GONNA GET SLAUGHTERED BY NINJAS WHEN YOU VIOLATE LIGHT DISCIPLINE!!!

Because apparently civilian pistol toters are out ambushing people or some crap.

I think my favorite "lights attract bugs and bullets" luddite was the PlusP ex-cop guy from rec.guns, who also advocated unsighted fire (natch) and disregarding rule 3 when he was chasing suspects, because you don't have time for safety, I guess.

Anonymous said...

As my friend Dave (the genius) oft stated to me,
"Pass me the pliers, needlenose!"

gfa

Joseph said...

This product initially bewildered me since I've never once had to search for the paddle on my TLR-1S, then I remembered I'm a 6'6" tall dood with gorilla hands and you probably have hands more like that of a Tinker Gnome. Hence, your needs ≠ my needs. In fact, the paddle is kind of like a gas peddle for the 9mm M&P, helping further control the light recoil and accelerating followup shots.

Also, as my pinky is just fitting comfortably on the grip of the M&P, forcing my grip down another 3/16 or so doesn't appeal to me at all.

Anonymous said...

Tam What's your thoughts on the stream light remote switch? Waiting for a TLR2 with the Green "freak'in laser" to get delivered , but I'm not sure if I'm going to order the remote switch yet.

Tam said...

Joseph,

"This product initially bewildered me since I've never once had to search for the paddle on my TLR-1S, then I remembered I'm a 6'6" tall dood with gorilla hands and you probably have hands more like that of a Tinker Gnome."

Hahahahaha! That's very sweet of you. :)

Actually I'm 5'12" in my stocking feet and have no difficulty reaching the tailcap switch with my trigger finger or support hand thumb, but both of those digits may be busy doing other things if I have to draw the gun in a hurry, especially one-handed.

The problem with the tailcap-mounted rocker is that if you're shooting SHO and drawing under time stress, people almost invariably just go straight to the trigger rather than than taking the time to activate the light first.

It has nothing to do with any "Tinker Gnome" hand; these types of switches were initially developed by Surefire for people with great big dudely paws.

fast richard said...

Re: putting the manual safety under the strong side thumb. That has always been my biggest complaint about the first centerfire pistol I owned, A Beretta 1934. The manual safety is so awkwardly located as to be almost unusable on an otherwise nice little pistol.

Steve Skubinna said...

This is my safety!

He said, hooking his trigger finger like a... oh, you know the rest, huh?

Old NFO said...

Will be interested in the range report.

Firehand said...

That's why I don't like pistols with the safety on the slide; awkward to manipulate at best, and some damn near impossible.

Thomas Smith said...

I want one for my M&P Compact 40 and TLR-3 dammit!

KM said...

I'm glad I saw this. I've been wanting something along these lines for my glock and this looks more robust than the touchpad switches.
Mine will be here in a week.
Thanks Tam!

Scott J said...

"I'm 5'12" in my stocking feet"

I'll feel like a dwarf if we ever meet then. I'm 5'8" barely.

Scott_S said...

Tam that's a nice blaster you've got there.

Have you messed with the M&P Core pro pistols?

Goober said...

Uhhh...

5'-12"?

Isn't that the same thing as...

...oh. Never mind.

Jim said...

I'm merely pleased that you like your new light bulb. I'm ecstatic that you call you guns gats. Takes me back to the halcyon days when I was first reading Matt Helm. Once he got captured and searched, and the searcher told his boss, "He's rodded and bladed." I love that kind of talk.

Moll? May I call you Moll? :)

Ed said...

"Moll? May I call you Moll?"

I do not think that Richard would mind too much.