A red dot is very light you won’t notice the weight nor will your gun. If it is sole for home protection I would consider a laser sight first. Ranges are likely much shorter, 3-7 yrds, shooting mostly instinct rather than aiming. That is where a laser is king. A red dot is great for longer distance and purposeful shooting, say hunting or target. Next time at the range, if you can, put a torso sized target 5 yrds away, draw or grab and put 3 shots as fast as you can without worrying about aiming. My guess is at least two will be disabling center mass, somewhere hits. That is a more likely home defense scenario.

Finally, if you 17 is not setup for a red dot you would need to choose your sight and have the slide milled for the sight, 200$ or so, plus shipping, plus the red dot.

 

A red dot is very light you won’t notice the weight nor will your gun. If it is sole for home protection I would consider a laser sight first. Ranges are likely much shorter, 3-7 yrds, shooting mostly instinct rather than aiming. That is where a laser is king. A red dot is great for longer distance and purposeful shooting, say hunting or target. Next time at the range, if you can, put a torso sized target 5 yrds away, draw or grab and put 3 shots as fast as you can without worrying about aiming. My guess is at least two will be disabling center mass, somewhere hits. That is a more likely home defense scenario.

Finally, if you 17 is not setup for a red dot you would need to choose your sight and have the slide milled for the sight, 200$ or so, plus shipping, plus the red dot.

I'd skip the laser. He has a light on his gun and where ever that light shines, the bullets will go. So it serves two purposes.

 

You wouldn’t have to get your slide milled. There are mounts that use the rear sight dovetail. I believe strike industries makes one.

 

For what its worth. Just had a 19 slide milled for a RMR - $ 110 by a local smith.

 

Vito, thomgetch is right on target with his info. Red dots are great on a range gun and are a lot of fun to play with. I bought a Burris Fastfire 3 and an adaptor that mounts the red dot to the rear dovetail sight on my Glock 21. The set up is easy to install and the cost is less than 300 bucks. I don't think a red dot is as useful for a home protection as a laser. Red dots have a bit of a learning curve to shoot on target and a laser made me crazy trying to hold it on target. I got rid of the laser and so far I put about 200 rounds down range using the red dot and I think I shoot as good with stock sights. Maybe after several hundred more rounds I'll be able to find the red dot fast enough to think I'm doing something positive...? Lots of $$ involved so if you get the chance try out some set ups at a range and make a decision that works for you. Good luck !

 

Since Glock won't sell OEM slides (c'mon, Glock! SIG will!), I opted not to have my slide milled, and bought an MOS Glock. I went with a FastFire III. It addes very little weight (the rail light and laser add for more, and it is hung farther from the center of mass, making it the item that will impact the feel and handling of the gun).

I love it, but my home defense weapons still have light/laser. Red Dot is still a fun range toy.

 

Miniature red dots like the Trijicon RMR don’t weigh much. If you step up to something like an Aimpoint T2 then it’s adding weight.

What are the reasons for wanting to add a dot? Just something to play with and experiment or do you have other issues.

I have a G19 MOS that has an RMR on it that started out as a fun experiment, knowing that my eyes were fading. Now it’s the EDC cause there is no way in hell my eyes can focus on the sights, and see distance unless I wear like trifocals or progressives. Both of those make me nauseous. So it’s gotten to the point where it’s a dot or a laser. Lasers wobble too much for me. The dot works for now.

Since you’ve already got a gun, buying an MOS and optic may not be in the budget. Fun if it is! You can try various dot adapters that use the rear dovetail. Dueck Defense RBU is one that has integral back up irons. There are others out there as well. These will position the dot higher on the slide, but if you decide you don’t like it, your gun won’t have a chunk of metal missing from the slide.

If you do like it, best option will be to mill the slide for your optic.

As for the optic. Trijicon, Vortex, Burris, Shield RMS, even Holosun make units. I used what I had on a lightweight carbine build, Trijicon RMR and have not run into issues. It does take practice as the dot will expose EVERY presentation error you make. The eye box on these small optics is narrow and without a cheekweld to reference you must present the dot to your eye pretty accurately. Nothing that practice won’t overcome.

 

Look at the Primary Machine website.

 

Yes, get a slide milled. Don't mess around with dovetail mounts, etc.

 

Many folks milling slides these days.

I went with a Trij RMR for my 19 MOS. Great combo.

 

I've got 2 Glocks that were milled for red dots. They are great for the range. I even carry one of those guns (Glock 29 SF with a Trijicon RMR) as my EDC. Truthfully, I am rethinking carrying an RMRd pistol but that's for another discussion.

For home defense, I wouldn't bother with a red dot. What I would do is get the Streamlight TLR2-HL. Very powerful light and laser combination. Since you already are using the Streamlight on your G17 (assuming it's a TLR-1?), the TL2 will have the exact same controls that you are used to and weight almost exactly the same as what you have now.

I use it on my G21 as my home defense setup. In a true home defense scenario, it will be much more useful than a red dot. Red dots take a lot of practice to acquire quickly and instinctively. Your draw and sight alignment has to be perfect to avoid having to desperately search around for that dot in a self-defense situation, especially in the middle of the night.

Since you are already running a light, having a nice bright red or green dot that lights up in the center of your light beam is ideal.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I fully understand the home defense argument against the dot sights, and they make a lot of sense. Also folks are correct in my opinion that milling or a dedicated MOS style pistol are probably the best ways to secure the sight to the pistol for a few reasons...for the sake of argument I would say that a more secure mounting point and lower overall profile when mounted are primary reasons.

All of that aside, the sight you pick makes a big difference as well as far as ease of use and/or profile. In other words...if you don’t plan for the pistol to leave the home (and HD argument aside as mentioned above) then a larger optic window will ease target acquisition (DeltaPoint Pro, Vortex, or similar). These also tend to have more “clear” lenses. If your purpose is to carry, then toughness and overall size (versus weight, much less a factor) become important, and I personally believe that a Trijicon RMR fills that role best. The window is more “blue” and smaller, so these take more time to train well on, but the profile when mounted speaks for itself.

Lastly, if to be carried, it is likely you may need another holster to accommodate the optic, so keep that in mind as well.

I admit I thought them to be a bit of a gimmick at first...now I have two mounted to pistols...so ya. Lol

 

I have serious eye issues. Red dots have given me back my confidence in using a pistol. I have 3 RMR'd Glocks with suppressor night sights, including my "grab gun" for home defense. All have lights rather than lasers. I carry a G19 MOS with an RM06 and light for my EDC. There is a small learning curve to presenting a red dot pistol. The learning curve is, IMHO, a "little bit" overstated. In my experience, people are not so much "fishing for the dot," as much as they are "trying to get/keep the dot perfectly still and centered" before breaking the shot, which is near about totally impossible. Once you learn to just "trust the slightly moving dot" and break the shot, life gets lots better. Or, it sure did for me. Peace Out.

 

TheDuckhunter:

This has been my experience as well. The RMR screen is but slightly smaller than other brands, but that has not been an issue for me. The dot looms large and that is what I focus on...the size of the screen around it has not mattered much.

 

I try to keep focus totally on the target, and the dot just "in the way" but the dot does "wobble" a little in the peripheral (sp?) vision. Once I quit trying to get the dot "perfectly in the center and totally still" like in a rifle scope, I got a lot more efficient and confident. Aaron Cowan/Sage Dynamics has some good tips on his YouTube channel on "presenting the pistol with a dot" that helped in my dryfire routine.

 

I had my 19.4 milled for an RM07 Type 2 with Ameriglo suppressor sights.
My buddy has a Gen3 19 and he went with the Brownells RMR slide.
I have a 17 Gen 3 and am considering the Brownells slide.

Whatever you do go with the RMR. Sage Dynamics torture tests made up my mind. I'll never look at another type for pistols.

 

I have Suarez G19 and G34 slides with RMR 06 on both and suppressor sights. Love them
I also have a Swenson G17 from Midway with a Vortex Venom and that has been great.
I am going to be 57 and it seems that with aging vision I need the red dots.
I just picked up an X5 with a romeo 1 as well.

 

I'm working on an article on Micro Red-Dot Sights now. I believe this type of sight will be a standard in the near future. Trying to teach people the fundamentals of mastering proper sight-picture, it is just so much easier to have them put the dot on the target and pull the trigger.

I'm over-simplifying here, but you all get the drift of my meaning.

For home defense, while a red-dot might not be helpful, I'm not sure it'd hurt. But such a sight for home defense is hard to justify.

For most other uses, such an optic is the way to go.

Which one to chose is a tough decision. Depends on the type of environment the firearm/sight will be in, the type of usage expected of the combination, etc.

One caveat; when picking a sight, I urge folks to consider the advantages of those red-dot sights whose batteries are changeable from the top or with a side tray.

I really wish Tijicon would come out with a robust red-dot that had such a battery change option.

 

I recently changed the battery on my RMR. No re-zeroing required. The batteries also seem to last a very long time and I shot very often.

I don't think a dot on a SD pistol is necessarily a detriment. If you have time to 'aim' in a SD situation, then lining up the dot should not be an issue.

I took an all-day 12 station SD course, lots of different shooting scenarios. I do not think I looked at the sights once during the whole course. At close range on a human sized target, point and pull is all you need.

 

I recently changed the battery on my RMR. No re-zeroing required. The batteries also seem to last a very long time and I shot very often. ...........‘

Curious, do you use a simple tool to remove the sight or do you have type which measures torque?

 

Standard hex wrench.

 

I just got my 19 slide back from the gun smith yesterday. Mine ran about 130 for the work. Took about two weeks or so to send in and get back. I have a trijicon dual illuminated, 7 MOA amber. If you have a streamlight on it I would consider the brightness of it with the rmr reticle. You may not be able to see the reticle at all. My tlr was 800 lumens, I wouldn't count on it regardless of the color of the reticle. I would only run the light tactically if you ever wanted to get descent shots off with it. Last note: acquiring the reticle takes some getting used to. You have a narrow zone to get your line of sight through to be able to see the dot.

 

Yup stay away from dual illumination rmr models it can and will get washed out by a weapon light, if you are in a dark room aiming into a light room you also loose your dot, rmo7 is what you want,it has auto brightness and it works great, I wont even consider another red dot other than the rmr for self defense, if its a range gun its a different story

 

Yeah I thought the dual illum made the most sense. I think its still enough to use in most conditions, but yeah if its a clear sky and your aiming out without light for the fiber optic, it could definitely wash. I guess its just one of those things, like all fiber optics Ive seen/used, its great on paper... I really don't think its 'that' bad, but its certainly not perfect.

 

Rmr is life lol

 

Here she is

 

https://www.tactical-life.com/news/trijicon-ussocom-handgun-reflex-sight/
Rmr type 2’s. I haven’t compared any like that in depth yet... but it does seem pretty versatile