Handgun Laser Modifications

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. And this would be up and it would allow us with our trigger finger on our right hand, if we were only doing a right handed reload, a one handed reload for example, if our left hand were out of the picture, we were needing to run the gun one handed, we then could sweep down with our trigger finger, apply pressure against this lever, and that would push the magazine release out of the way, magazine would come out of the firearm. And of course, if we're talking about a left handed operator at this point that thumb being pressed down would again, push in on this lever, and that's gonna give us the opportunity to have an ambidextrous safety on this firearm because of course, we could still push in from the right side, just as we would on a normal magazine release. For the left handed shooter it is highly recommended that you modify the firearm, so that you switch the magazine release to be activated from the right side of the firearm, so that you can use that efficient technique that we know works very reliably with the strong side thumb. Of course, if you set up an ambidextrous system, you're gonna be able to use the firearm in both hands, just like the right handed shooter. One popular addition to a defensive firearm and therefore an important consideration when it comes to the modifications that we wanna discuss is the addition of a laser aiming device. Now a laser aiming device should never be thought of as your primary indication of point of impact. Primary indication on a defensive firearm is always going to be maintaining that good, full extension, in and parallel with your line of sight using kinesthetic alignment and consistency to make sure that we have a good idea of where that point of impact is going to be. The next step is going to be to use our sights. Use our standard sights. We've talked about modifying sights and maybe having something that's gonna make it easier for us to see the sights or allow us to be more precise also. And that's really where the laser aiming device comes in. We can envision a time when we're not going to be able to extend that firearm fully into our line of sight. In those cases, we're really not gonna have any idea what the alignment of the firearm is, unless we're just guessing or unless we spend a lot of time practicing with a firearm out of our line of sight. And because of the lack of consistency, we certainly don't recommend that. But if I were in a situation where I couldn't extend the firearm out because of compression of distance relative to the threat, because of an injury, maybe because of something interfering with that extension, be it a table, some other object being compressed down on the ground on top of my arm, maybe someone grabbing me from the side, seeing a laser dot out on the threat where we're already going to be focused in that dynamic critical incident of course, is going to be a great option. It's gonna give us some really good idea of where that point of impact is likely to be. And that's really why we want that laser aiming device on the firearm. Of course other non-standard situations could dictate where the use of a laser would actually be preferable. Such as shooting with a weak hand, shooting in a position where again, even though we can reach extension, we don't have the consistency and we're not used to being in a position to align our sights or even to know that the firearm is aligned using that natural in and parallel with our line of sight intuitive shooting method. Let's talk about how we're going to attach the laser to the firearm. Now of course at this point many popular defensive firearms come with attachment rails. Those rails are designed to add accessories. The primary accessory that we're gonna add on that rail is going to be a white light or a laser. Now in this case, we have a situation with this Insight Technologies product, which actually offers both the white light and the laser device combined into one. At this point you can see that we have a laser and a white light both turned on. I can turn the switch to a position where we're only gonna have the visible laser. And then we don't have to worry about the white light. If we were using the white light option that was handheld, as is the best primary choice when we're actually in a low light situation, using the light to find and identify threats, separately using the firearm to deal with those threats, we might prefer to only have this laser device on in terms of our pressure switch here. So we could use it in an emergency situation as an alternative aiming device. Of course if our main light went down, if we needed to pick up a family member or if something else was going on with this hand or if we needed to take a two handed shot, and we needed the illumination of the white light, we simply hit this switch and then hit the pressure pad, and now we have the white light and the laser option. Now this particular device gives us the best of both worlds. It allows us to use that accessory rail for a laser and a white light source. We could also just put a laser on there. There are lasers available from a variety of manufacturers. And if your particular firearm that you use for personal or home defense, doesn't have an accessory rail, there are actually rail adapters that are available or various clamp systems that will allow you to attach any type of external laser, maybe with a pressure switch, maybe with an actual toggle switch that you're gonna use and activate separately, onto the front of your firearm. Generally, they will mount under the barrel or to the front of the trigger guard. In fact, even for the revolvers now, companies like Laser Light offer clamping solutions that will attach to the shroud that ends up under the barrel in front of the trigger area, so that you can have a laser mounted on those guns. Now the fact is that if you put one of those types of lasers on most firearms, it's gonna be much harder to carry the firearm for personal defense outside of the home. If you're talking about home defense, where a firearm is in a quick access safe or some other reliable and yet convenient storage situation, it doesn't matter if you put that relatively large, relatively bulky external laser out on the front of the firearm. But if you wanna carry your firearm on your person, concealed as conveniently as possible, we're gonna take a look at some other options that are gonna be much more efficient in terms of mounting a laser to the firearm. The first thing I wanna look at is the Crimson Trace laser grip. Now laser grips are very popular. Crimson Trace has been doing this for a number of years. They have a number of different configurations. And just about any popular defensive firearm is going to be accommodated by this option. The first one I wanna look at again, is our J-frame. Now this J-frame situation is hard plastic, there's a pressure switch on the front, and what happens is, because of the position of the laser built into the grip, we really don't have a lot of added bulk or a lot of added dimension to the size of this defensive firearm. As you can see, the width of the firearm is only increased by a very marginal amount because of the size of the cylinder. Anyway at this point we do have little bit of an extension beyond, and that's just to make sure that we're out all the way to the side of that cylinder. Now that fact is, that the laser is aligned relatively close to the bore height. Which again, maybe the situation, if we're mounting a laser underneath the barrel, but it is set off to the side. So in addition to having two lines meet in space based on height difference, we're also gonna have two lines in space meeting based on a lateral difference, side to side. This is gonna affect the deviation from the indicated point of aim, where the laser dot is, and of course, the indicated point of impact, where the bullet's going to end up. And it's something we need to be sensitive to when we talk about these Crimson Trace laser grips. Now this particular set of grips goes on with a screw attachment to the frame of the revolver. Other types of firearms such as the Glock, the XD, the Smith and Wesson M&P, the HK USP, those types of firearms don't have that type of option, so what we're gonna end up with is something that actually goes around the grip. This particular set of plastic grips here from Crimson Trace, that includes obviously your battery compartment, your pressure switch, and of course the laser. This one's designed for an XD 45, and clearly it's designed to go around the existing grip, that's gonna go all the way around. Some of the options for the Glock actually use this pin in the back of the gun, which gets drifted out. You place this U shaped device, that includes the pressure switch and the laser, around the Glock, drift that back in with the pin, and you get the convenience of the laser grip option with a firearm that doesn't normally have replaceable grips. The next option I'm gonna talk about in terms of a convenient and efficient way to place a laser onto a defensive firearm is going to be a replacement recoil spring guide rod. This particular one is for a Glock model 29 or model 30. The LaserMax company makes replacement guide rods that have internal lasers for a variety of different firearms. And what this does is it mitigates A, taking up any change to the external dimensions of the firearm, and we also have now done away with the fact that most lasers that end up on the grip are going to be off to the side of the barrel as well as being a little bit below the barrel. Obviously, if we go ahead and break down this Glock firearm, which clearly doesn't have any ammunition, does not have a magazine in it, the guide rod is just beneath the barrel inside of the firearm. Usually gonna be about halfway between the slide and the frame. Of course it sits mostly inside of that frame area. So if we take this guide rod and replace it with a guide rod that contains a laser, we have no functional changes to the external dimensions of the gun that come from the laser itself. Now where there is gonna be a slight change is in the dimension of whatever part of the firearm is used for the switching apparatus. On the Glock, it's actually gonna be the take down bar that goes into the center of the front of the frame area here. That's what keeps the firearm assembled and allows you to move it out of the way to disassemble the firearm for your maintenance and cleaning. And what's gonna happen is this oversized apparatus gets inserted into there, this particular one has yellow hash marks, so that you can see when it's pushed to one side or the other to let you know that it's gonna be on, if you aren't actually looking at the laser, maybe if the firearm's in your holster or if you have the firearm in a ready position. And use either your strong trigger hand finger to push it back to the off position or use your off hand thumb to push it back into the off position. Now of course, that's specific to the Glock. LaserMax makes replacement guide rods for a variety of firearms, and there's always gonna be a little bit of difference in the switching apparatus in a way that works. For the most part they are gonna be available for ambidextrous use and they're going to be very intuitive, very efficient to use in the circumstances of a dynamic critical incident. One of the newest options that we have, when it comes to installing a laser on a firearm, is the laser rear sight. Now this particular rear sight is a Laser Light product. It mounts as a replacement for the standard rear sight. It still gives us the same sight alignment, sight picture options that we would get normally when we look down from the rear of the firearm, and we see that we still have that white outline, as is standard on the Glock, that allows us to look for the front sight inside of that white tray. But we also have these two cylinders up on the top of the firearm. One of which holds the batteries and the switching device. The other of which holds the laser device. And you can see these little turrets that allow for adjustment of that laser. This particular laser then ends up just above the bore line, which is a little different from the way we usually mount a laser on a firearm, and it is still slightly off to the side, so we do have to deal a little bit with that lateral deviation, but not as much as a laser that's gonna be mounted on the grip areas completely to the side of the frame. In this particular case we have a button on the back of the sight, which we push in to allows us to then illuminate that red dot, so that we can where our intended point of impact is. And of course if we hit this one twice, we actually get a flashing red dot. Now the difference between a solid red dot and a flashing red dot really is personal preference when it comes to a personal defense firearm. Now if you were operating in a team, maybe if you and your wife both are gonna be sitting at home or you and your husband are both gonna be sitting at home, with the intention of both having firearms with laser aiming devices, you might want options where one of you can have a flashing laser, one of you can have a solid laser, so that there isn't any confusion during that dynamic critical incident. Of course I think that's an extreme consideration for the outside edge of plausibility. You're gonna decide whether you like the flashing dot or the solid dot when it comes to your laser. Adding a laser to a firearm for personal defense is a great option, especially if you can do it conveniently and efficiently with one of these options. It doesn't require an accessory rail, it doesn't preclude the use of an efficient concealment holster for that personal defense weapon. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.