TGO David

The DPO is the 2021 series of the Staccato optics-ready line. They cut the price by $200 on them but they don't include the optics mounting plate and they no longer nitride the barrel. Both are available as options. You can buy the optics plate from Staccato or you can do like I do and go straight to Dawson Precision for it. It's the same price and Dawson tends to have them in stock since they manufacture them for Staccato.

I wish I'd known that you wanted a Staccato P. I am teetering on the edge of selling mine and just focusing on the C2 that I have. You're going to love the way the dot rides on the slide, though!

I wanted to come back to this comment albeit not entirely from the perspective of finding the dot reticle in the dark but just in general regarding the size of the window glass. In terms of days/months/years, I have spent a longer period of time behind a Trijicon RMR RM07 Type 2. This is the one with the 6.5MOA dot. I really do like that larger dot for handguns. That said, I have also had a gen-1 Holosun HE508T for about two years now and recently added both the new gen-2 Holosun HE508T-X2 and a 507K-X2 to my pile of optics. The 507K is their new smaller optic. It's smaller than the 507C and 508T and presumably meant for subcompact guns. I run mine on a Staccato C2 DPO with the "Carry" height (low profile) iron sights because I wanted to try something different and wanted to see if an optic that was little shorter, height-wise, made any perceptible difference in comfort or performance for concealed carry. So far the answers to those to questions are: Maybe and No. The larger glass on the 508T (and the 507C and 509T) is very nice and helps you frame more of the surrounding scene in the glass and will serve you well if you are comfortable carrying the slightly larger optic. Again, the size of them hasn't really impacted me for comfort in carrying either way. The other nice thing about these is that all of the models I have mentioned have the configurable reticle that allows you a 2MOA dot only, a 32MOA ring only, or the 2MOA dot inside of the 32MOA ring. I kind of like that last configuration most just because I tend to favor a larger dot but the large outer ring seems to augment the dot. The 2MOA dot by itself is really nice for precision shooting, but that's not where my interests particularly lie for a handgun. Viva, options!

YEP!!! The big league competitive shooters definitely do it. Shooting with a dot for a while makes you a better and iron sight shooter, especially in "social distances". I am pretty sure that greats like Brian Enos and Rob Leatham figured it out a long time ago before dot optics were much of a thing. They'd focus on the sights when they had to, but when they really needed to push the gas pedal down they were more than capable of making A-zone hits without them in order to go faster. It really wasn't until I started shooting with a red dot and learning to trust my motor skills to swing the gun to wherever my eyes were already looking that I truly understood what it meant to be able to "call your shots". If I am shooting multi-target drills, by the time the sear breaks and my finger is coming forward off of the trigger, my eyes have already moved to my point of aim on the next target and I'm pivoting toward it. I know before I even look at the last target whether I hit where I wanted to or not because I'm aware of where the dot was when I pulled the trigger and whether it stayed there all the way through the break. I love the fact that guys like Enos and Leatham were doing that with iron sights and running circles around their competitors until the competition caught on and started doing it too.

I haven't found that to be the case but I've done literally thousands and thousands of draw and presentations with the dot on the various platforms that I own. Proprioception plays a huge role in being a fast and accurate shooter with any gun, but especially a handgun and double especially (is that a thing?) a handgun with a dot optic. Here's the thing about iron sights that people often fail to recognize when they make statements about them being faster to acquire than a red dot: Iron sights mask problems with presentation. Most people use them to "steer" the gun on target. Period. End of story. Watch other people shoot at the range. Video yourself or at least be very observant, honest and "in the moment". Do it from a draw or at least a low ready. I bet you'll notice that your eyes flick from the target to the front sight and then to the back sight as you rock the gun into a position level with the target. Your eyes may flick back and forth quickly between target, front sight and rear sight several times through the course of presenting it, lining it up, and pulling the trigger. It happens very fast and typically subconsciously, and it eats up "clock cycles" (milliseconds or maybe even a full second or two). A person who has honed their proprioception -- their ability to innately know where the ends of their extremities are during the full range of their motion -- with a gun in hand to be able to efficiently and accurately match hand motion to eye location can typically outrun a person who's brain is occupied with the task of steering the gun on target and then fine-tuning their alignment. Iron sights have three planes of focus: Target, Front Sight, Rear Sight. Dot optics have one plane of focus: Target People who are fast with irons in close distances are generally using a target-focused (single plane) approach because required accuracy at that distance is relevant to the task. They shift back to three planes of focus for better accuracy, especially at further distances. A dot shooter shouldn't do that and a good dot shooter won't. Their eyes should be focused crisply on the target and the dot simply appears on the target as they bring the gun to bear, using proprioception to get it there. It's the exact same aiming technique that we humans have been using since we picked up a sharp stick [spear] and threw it at another human or an animal. Spears don't come with iron sights. We look at the target, not at the spear, and we lob that sucker with accuracy. Sharp Stick, meet Red Dot. Anyway, about the whole red dot optic at night thing... it's literally a GLOWING illuminated projection inside of a small box. I see that a hell of a lot faster in the dark than I do a small Tritium lamp or three.

I almost included the Masada in my diatribe up there but don't have any personal experience with them. I know that the polymer adapter plate for the optic weirded-out some initial reviewers but I frankly don't see the problem so long as the plate is just an adapter and the screws go INTO the metal of the slide. I think that is how the Masada works? Polymer shouldn't scare us in that application. We aren't scared that the gun's frame is polymer, after all. That Leupold is an interesting design. I really need to get behind one of them before I form an opinion, but God almighty the urge is strong to form an opinion from just looking at photos of it. Another gun I almost mentioned, and that I like a ton, is the Zev OZ9. It's just worth noting that you are limited to the RMR footprint as far as optics go. Thankfully most optics worth having use the RMR footprint, so this isn't a bad thing. And there are a lot of other reasons to love the OZ9.

I 100% guarantee you that your slowness is due to inefficient presentation of the gun with the optic and that with some coaching you'll not only be better with the dot than you are with iron sights, but you'll be a better iron sights shooter too.

I've written about red dot optics on handguns many, many times here on TGO. They are the way forward. Period. I probably have more money invested in dot optics and having slides milled for them than most folks have in handguns. I own more than a few and I have spent countless hours getting pretty good with them and good at teaching people to use them effectively. They aren't a fad and they aren't a niche anymore. They've become mainstream because they work and they are a vast improvement over iron sights. And as long as you stay with proven brands like Trijicon and Holosun, they are reliable even for duty use. Seeing that Staccato P with that crazy dovetail mounting plate just hurts my soul. Those mounting plates will get a dot on your gun for cheap but they are like buying a sex doll and thinking it's anything like the real deal. It's just not. The height over bore is wonky and it will feel alien and unnatural holding the gun lower than you normally would just to get a decent alignment with the optic and your eye. I also dislike most of the OEM mounting systems that use plates to affix various red dots to the top of the slide for some of the same reasons. The Glock MOS and M&P CORE systems both put the optic higher than they could be if the slide was just machined for for the specific optic. The MOS and CORE plates also don't provide much material for the optic's screws to go into. This leads to failures and people assuming that red dot optics on handguns is a bad idea. C&H Precision Weapons (CHPWS) makes improved plates for the Glock and M&P that makes it a little better. FN USA has a better plate design for the 509 MRD. CZ USA has a pretty good plate setup for the P10C OR. Shadow Systems has the best design, period, for using a variety of optics in the MR918, MR920 and DR920 lines. The optic sits nice and low in the slide and is held down by the longest screws I've seen yet. I've got a few Staccatos now. The 2019 and 2020 DUO models were pretty good but Dawson Precision makes the plates for them and believes in THICK material. The 2020 and 2021 DPO models are better and Dawson's plates for them seem to be thinner and more in line with what CHPWS makes. My 2021 C2 DPO with a Holosun 507K is damn near perfection. I am anxious to get my hands on the new Walther PDP. They seem to have really designed that gun around the CHPWS mounting plate system and set them pretty low into the slide with good mounting hardware. I think it'll be the gun to beat if you're lookin for a sub $1000 gun with optic this year.

Brownell's slides are a cheaper alternative.

Just an old, politically acceptable, muzzle-loading cap and ball rifle that can't even fire a shot anymore. I mostly use it as a glorified telescope now thanks to that Vortex Razor.

While I completely agree with you that there are people at the top of these movements or funding them from hidden boardrooms, those are the people manipulating the situation and the average citizen. Fighting them requires different tactics. Exposing them has marginal benefit, but choking off their supply of fuel (i.e. voters) has tangible results. To do that, it is often helpful to look at what is motivating the average voter to cast their ballot one way or the other. Typically we don't have to look much farther than a stop at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and start by looking at the bottom two layers. There is a reason why the Democrat party has historically passed policy that keeps poor people poor. They've also historically passed policy that keeps black and brown communities subjugated and dependent upon the government. The Left knows that it can generate a steady stream of voters, generation after generation, by simultaneously creating and fostering hopeless conditions while also acting as a savior by providing food, water, warmth and false promises of safety and security. After they nailed-down the most efficient and effective ways of doing that, the Left [Socialists is also an appropriate description] turned its sights on the middle and upper classes by focusing on the top three layers. Leftists and Socialists have worked tirelessly since the 1960's, at the very least, to infiltrate and dominate our systems of education and the entertainment industries. By doing so, they've made Leftist and Socialist ideals "en vogue" and then allowed the basic human needs of belongingness and prestige take over and suck people in. It's popular to be a Biden supporter even though a ton of them can't tell you what his platforms are or why they voted for him without referring to Trump or the Trump Administration. All they know is what pop-culture and popular society icons have spoon fed them: Inaccurate, outright lies, or not. I lump the media into the entertainment industry, by the way. I think we're all adult enough to know by now that the media stopped being in the "News" business a long, long time ago. At the very top of that pyramid you have the parasites of Leftist / Socialist culture. They're the ones calling the shots and profiting from it all. These are the politicians, the captains of industry, the social icons. These are the ones who fly around on private jets (government funded or otherwise), have fat bank accounts (while preaching about the 1%), and benefit by creating and continuing the cultures of addiction that subjugates the people who care most about the bottom two layers of Maslow's pyramid. Like all parasites, there really is only way good way to handle them. Choke off their resources. Choke off their supply of "food". Apply the poisons of truth and exposure, expose them to the purifying light of the sun, and cause them to die off. So, back to my original point: If you want to reach the voter, consider what motivates them. The vast majority of people who vote Democrat are good folks. They are your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues at work. They are the single moms and single dads who are trying to make ends meet, put food on their tables, a roof over their heads, and are praying to God that a paycheck is in their future somewhere. Reach those people. Help them find or create an alternative to the "free stuff" that the Left wants them addicted to. No person is more free than one who is self-reliant.

We do our absolute best on TGO to put the best face forward, welcome all manner of diversity in our members, preach that the 2A is for everyone, bequeath the love of responsible firearms use and ownership to the next generation and motivate folks to do their individual yet massively impactful "small part" by voting for Pro-2A legislation and legislators. For years the number of us who are willing to do what @TripleGGG described and write and call and email and petition the lawmakers to preserve the Second Amendment has been an abysmally low percentage compared to the overall tally of people who have bought guns during the same period of time. People prefer the convenience of writing a check or keying credit card numbers into a website to send the NRA, GOA, 2AF, JPFO, TFA and FPC off to represent them. While TGO's population may be very different and out of the norm, I know in my gut that most gun owners, at large, want to outsource the work because it takes too much time to make phone calls, send emails, write letters, and visit politicians in person to ask them to represent us according to our wishes, our values and our interests. But these same people will spend countless hours on the Internet scouring the buy/sell/trade pages for a new gun or stand in line, in the rain, for an hour before a big-box retailer opens just for the slight chance they might get to buy some ammo. Gun owners will spend HOURS on the Internet arguing with each other over terminal ballistics, whether a shoot they saw in the news was "good" or not, or whether open carry is a good or bad idea, but they won't spend a half hour sending emails or making phone calls. We, the supposed 2A Community, have obsessed over the wrong damned things year after year. We've voted for representatives from the political party that is not only renowned for pushing gun control but makes it a speaking point for their platform and openly TELLS us what they want to do to the Second Amendment, because "Orange Man bad". We've voted for independent candidates who didn't have a chance in hell of getting elected, splintering the vote for the candidate who could've, and rejoiced in taking the moral high ground while just a little further downhill the ground we bought was eroding out from under us. As a whole, the 2A Community sucks at defending the cause we supposedly care about. We suck at making it mainstream because it's more fun and edgy to strap a rifle across our chests and scare the soccer moms watching a gun rights rally from the sidelines. We suck at making it inclusive because we don't want to welcome the gays or the blacks or the browns or the atheists or the Muslims to our table. We've forgot that welcoming isn't just an adjective but also a damned VERB. And so, we've lost ground. Countless times we've lost battles in this war to preserve an essential Civil Right because we can't agree on the specifics and don't understand that a good-enough plan executed NOW is better than a perfect plan executed NEVER. We are so independent and libertarian in our thinking that we've become near-sighted and unable to see past what's good for us as individuals and see what's good for our community. We haven't made the Second Amendment palatable, let alone relevant, to the undecided centrist voter because we don't consider that they are more likely to vote against a cause that isn't important to them if pop-culture tells them it's evil, bad and scary and they don't have anything else to go on. We've pissed away opportunity after opportunity to educate, inform, evangelize and expand the 2A Community. We've even pissed away chances to defend it, ourselves, by just making phone calls or pulling the correct lever at the polling booth even if it felt a little like being a "single issue voter" at the time. I really hope we've still got a chance to save the Second Amendment. I think we do. But it's time for the bull#### to stop. We've got to be more present, more polite, more professional, more compelling and absolutely light up the phone lines and email inboxes of not just the politicians we've voted for but also the ones we've voted against. If we live in their district, they represent us - like it or not. We need to remind them, without threats or bravado, that they work for us and this is what we, their constituents, expand and demand from them: NO MORE GUN LAWS. DEFEND THIS CIVIL RIGHT. If we can't do this... we've asked for it and it isn't going to just blow over. They're going to come for your guns and if you refuse to comply, you will be forced into poverty from the fines levied, be sent to prison, or worse. The game isn't over, but it's absolutely underway. Get in it.

All actions taken by the government in the week before the inauguration, the quick pivot of the Biden / Harris administration from duplicitous cries for "unity" toward the narrative that the window of opportunity for the GOP to "work with us" was closing, and the continued presence of miles of barbed wire-topped fences and armed troops manning them in Washington DC has told me all I needed to know about where this was headed. Biden and Harris and the Democrats entrenched in places of power want us disarmed. Period. NOW. Conservatives are now all racist, White Supremacist, radical Far-Right, separatist, secessionist, militia thugs with Weapons of War and the blood of children on our hands. We must be disarmed immediately for the safety of society, and they are gearing up to use force to do it. The reality is that they don't give two ####s about the children, otherwise the lives of unborn children would matter to them. The reason they want your guns is because of the reason that our founding fathers thought you SHOULD have them. Any of you who have sat on your hands and not written, called, emailed or visited your representatives at the State and Federal level need to get off your asses and do it. Contact the Democrats and the Republicans. They BOTH represent you if you live in their district. I think people often forget that and only contact the party they vote for, which is just dumb. Engage both of them. The time for this option is what's coming quickly to a close. Once the Federal Government passes legislation and sends troops or police who are just "following the law" to come seize your property from you, it's going to be too late to call that politician. Do it. Now.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/14/statement-by-the-president-three-years-after-the-parkland-shooting/ Statement by the President Three Years After the Parkland Shooting February 14, 2021 • Statements and Releases Three years ago today, a lone gunman took the lives of 14 students and three educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In seconds, the lives of dozens of families, and the life of an American community, were changed forever. For three years now, the Parkland families have spent birthdays and holidays without their loved ones. They’ve missed out on the experience of sending their children off to college or seeing them on their first job after high school. Like far too many families, they’ve had to bury pieces of their soul deep within the Earth. Like far too many families — and, indeed, like our nation — they’ve been left to wonder whether things would ever be okay. These families are not alone. In big cities and small towns. In schools and shopping malls. In churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples. In movie theaters and concert halls. On city street corners that will never get a mention on the evening news. All across our nation, parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends have known the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence. And in this season of so much loss, last year’s historic increase in homicides across America, including the gun violence disproportionately devastating Black and Brown individuals in our cities, has added to the number of empty seats at our kitchen tables. Today, as we mourn with the Parkland community, we mourn for all who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Over these three years, the Parkland families have taught all of us something profound. Time and again, they have showed us how we can turn our grief into purpose – to march, organize, and build a strong, inclusive, and durable movement for change. The Parkland students and so many other young people across the country who have experienced gun violence are carrying forward the history of the American journey. It is a history written by young people in each generation who challenged prevailing dogma to demand a simple truth: we can do better. And we will. This Administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed that call. We will take action to end our epidemic of gun violence and make our schools and communities safer. Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. We owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change. The time to act is now. ###

The revised Adamas series of knives from Benchmade are due to launch in March and the new 275GY-1 is probably the one knife on my radar that I can genuinely say I am excited about. The new Adamas series is going to use the absolutely stellar CruWear steel for their blades which will address the rusting issue some folks had with the D2 tool steel used previously.

I've been there. I've buried two children under the age of three. If you ever want to talk to someone who's gone through it and survived it, let me know. Until then, you and your family will be in my prayers. Doctors are well educated and often pretty smart, but God has the last word.

I picked this one up right before Christmas and it quickly became my EDC. The action was really stiff to begin with, but loosening the pivot screw slightly and then a little use allowed it to loosen up nicely. It now flicks open smartly with just the nudge of the thumb. I put a 50 degree-inclusive (25* per side) edge on it and took it out to a mirror finish with my KME sharpener. That Bohler M390 steel is just fantastic. It's held the edge incredibly well and has even retained most of the mirror polish I put on it, despite regular use cutting apart boxes and slicing open packing materials. It'll still shave the hair off of my arm without any difficulty. The natural canvas Micarta scales are an interesting touch in the sense that they pick up the oils from your hands and slowly gain a "patina" because of it. But, wipe them down with a bit of non-chlorinated brake cleaner and they go right back to their natural appearance and you start all over again. The revised Titanium frame lock on this new Decade model addresses the weak lock the HEST had in its initial production 10-years ago. If you have stayed away from them because of that, I wouldn't worry anymore. I've tested it by firmly grasping it from the sides only, hand and fingers clear of the path of the blade, and pushed hard against the spine of the blade and against the lock, and it didn't budge a bit. I'd have had to use additional mechanical leverage to push any harder, and that would have been well beyond the force I could exert on it otherwise. I suspect it would hold up until the scale ruptured.

Did you do your Form 4 as an individual or as a trust?

SMART! I wish I'd thrown a few in jail, so to speak, last year. That's going to be a heck of a lot of fun.

That is a beauty.

Agreed! But I'd use that purely as a defensive stabby thing and not as a regular carry cutting tool.

I sadly parted ways with my Raptor back in 2016 when they were in between the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen production. Believe it or not, I basically made money on that deal. Someone offered me $5K less than I paid for it brand new, and they got a truck that had about 40,000 miles on it. I wish I'd kept it, though.

I thought about those but figured I would just wait and see if someone does another run with red or black scales. That and I already blew a chunk of fun-money on these two Manix-es. I like the strength of the ball-bearing lock mechanism that they use an the thickness of the blade itself. They're knives meant for being used while still being thin and light enough that it doesn't feel like a chore to carry it in your pocket. The Spyderco Shaman is maybe a tougher knife, overall, but it's a heck of a lot bulkier. I'd probably try to hunt down a CruWear or CPM-M4 Shaman if I was constantly using my knife all day, every day, for opening containers or cutting materials.