Hey Freedom Gorilla's .. today we are going to cover a popular topic, but also one that is very confusing, and that is "How do you put a red dot on a pistol?".
When we first got into pistol optics, it was overwhelming, we didn't even know where to start. Putting a red dot on a pistol? Isn't that only for competition shooters or super hardcore tactical guys? - we thought.
Since that time, we've learned so much, and the market has also embraced pistol red dots, with many manufacturers making optics ready pistols.
Today we are going to explain clearly, and as simply as we can, how you can put a red dot on your pistol if you have no idea how! We'll tell you how to make your pistol "optics ready" if it currently is not. So keep reading to learn more.
Four Ways to Add a Red Dot to your Pistol
There are essentially four ways to put a red dot on your pistol. In the simplest explanation possible, you need a place on your slide to screw in the red dot sight. Here are the four ways you can do it.
- Buy an Optics Ready Pistol (most expensive) ($400-600+): If you are currently looking for a new pistol, the best way to mount an optic on it is to buy a pistol that already comes optics ready. An optics ready pistol will have a milled slide that will allow you to mount specific red dot sights to it.
- Buy an Optics Ready Slide (second most expensive) ($150-300+): For some pistols, like the Glock 43X, Glock 19, Glock 17, Sig P365, Sig P320, Sig P226, and Smith & Wesson M&P Shield, there are OEM and aftermarket slides you can purchase which come milled to mount an optic on it. Going this route, allows you to simply replace the slide of your pistol, avoiding the need to purchase an entirely new pistol. The downside here is that sometimes these slides can cost almost as much as buying a totally new pistol.
- Get your Slide Milled by a Professional (more affordable) ($80-150+): There are a few very reputable companies out there that will do this, but essentially with this option, you will take your slide, mail it to one of these companies, and they will mill out your slide to fit the red dot of your choosing. This is a more affordable option than purchasing a new slide, however you will have to wait anywhere from 1-4 weeks, and will need to ship the item in the mail.
- Use a Dovetail Mounting Plate (most affordable)($30-60+): The most affordable option is to use a dovetail mounting plate. These are plates that attach to your non-optics ready slide via the dovetail slot. Once mounted, you can attach a red dot to the mounting plate.
Now that we’ve got the four methods described, let's dive into the pros and cons of each to ensure which is best for you.
1. Buying an Optics Ready Pistol - Pros and Cons
Buying an optics ready pistol is certainly one of the easiest ways to mount a red dot on your pistol. However there are some pros and cons you should be aware of. So let’s dig into it.
This option will run about $400-600+ depending on the brand of pistol you purchase.
The first thing to realize is that every optics ready pistol is different. Some have direct mount slides where you mount the red dot directly on the slide, while others have plate systems, which give you multiple plates to mount different models of red dots.
The best advice we can give is, before you purchase an optics ready pistol, decide what red dot you want, then see if that red dot will mount on that pistol, and how. You can refer to our fitment guides here.
We mention this because it’s very possible you will purchase an optics ready pistol, then realize you need special screws, or adapter plates to mount the red dot you want - which increases your cost.
Pros of Buying an Optics Ready Pistol
- It’s an easy purchase, just go to the gun shop, or order online the pistol you want
- Depending on which pistol you purchased, some optics ready pistols have multiple plates you can use to mount a variety of different red dots
- If keeping a factory warranty is important to you, then buying an optics ready pistol will allow you to mount a red dot without voiding any warranties.
Cons of Buying an Optics Ready Pistol
- If you already have a pistol you love, then needing to buy a new one just to make it optics ready can seem like an unnecessary expense.
- Optics ready pistols may have quirks you are not happy about. For example, the S&W M&P 2.0 uses flimsy black plastic adapter plates, something you may not be happy using at all. Another example would be the Glock 43X MOS, you will likely want a Holosun K Series optic for it, and you will realize you need to buy an adapter plate for it, this will increase your cost, but it will also block your iron sights, therefore you would need to purchase taller iron sights if you wanted to co-witness. The biggest offender is the Sig P320. The Sig P320 requires pricey adapter plates to mount some of the most popular RMR footprint Holosun optics, you will also lose the iron sight co-witnessing unless you have the suppressor height sights.
To summarize, buying an optics ready pistol, it’s one of the easiest options, but do your research. You can run into the need for buying adapter plates, special screws, or have co-witnessing that you do not like. Each of these scenarios will add to your cost and time and effort into finding the best set up.
2. Buying an Optics Ready Slide - Pros and Cons
Optics ready slides are pretty similar to buying an optics ready pistol. There are only two options for buying optics ready slides. You either purchase an OEM one or you purchase an aftermarket one.
This option will run around $150-300+ depending on the brand and style of slide you purchase.
Our advice is to make sure you know what optic you want to mount before deciding on a slide.
Many times we have heard from customers wanting an RMR footprint optic only to find out they ordered a Docter footprint slide. In this case their options are very limited and they can’t purchase the optic they want because it won’t fit. There only option is to settle for a Docter footprint optic (which is limited) or buy a new slide! So do your research.
Pros of Buying an Optics Ready Slide
- If you know the optic you want and the footprint, and know the slide you want has the same footprint, then ordering an optics ready slide is a quick and easy process. Just order it, and get it shipped to your door.
- If you purchase an OEM slide like the Glock MOS slide, then it will come with multiple plates so you can mount a variety of red dots.
- If you are buying an OEM slide then you can keep your manufacturer warranty intact.
Cons of Buying an Optics Ready Slide
- Optics ready slides can get pricey, in the range of $300+ dollars.
- The same quirks that come with optics ready pistols, such as adapter plates, screws, and co-witnessing happens with many OEM and aftermarket slides. So do your research.
- Some aftermarket slides may have issues with your pistol. Sometimes tolerances are tighter or quality control can be low if it’s an off-brand. So if you want the best reliability you should ensure you are buying a slide with many good reviews and following from a reputable company.
- Not all pistols have optics ready slides available to purchase. You will need to make sure your pistol and generation of that pistol has a compatible optics ready slide.
- The last thing to be aware of is that when you order the optics ready slide, you will need to put all the components from your current slide into the new slide. This means disassembling your old slide and assembling the new one. If you aren’t handy then this could get tricky and may result in a trip to the gunsmith. You will need to transfer the extractor, firing pin, rear plate, battery, guide rod, spring, and possibly other components.
If you can find a good optics ready slide at a good price, then these could be a good option. Just watch out for cheap, poor quality slides, and do your research on the expensive ones too to make sure they will jive with the red dot you want to mount, especially the screws!
3. Getting your Slide Milled - Pros and Cons
Getting your slide milled is one of the best options. Having the optic mounted directly to the slide is going to be the most reliable, secure mounting method, but the only downside is that you will be stuck with that footprint forever.
This option will run around $90-150+ depending on the company and slide cut options you choose.
If you are experienced with pistol red dots, or if you’ve done tons of research and know what you want, getting your slide milled is a fantastic option.
Here are some of the pros and cons of this method.
Pros of getting your Slide Milled
- Getting your slide professionally milled by experts will give you the most reliable and clean optics ready set up. Nothing beats mounting the optic directly to the slide.
- This method will also give you the best co-witness, meaning you can run low-profile iron sights, and still have them be visible through the optic.
- Many companies who specialize in this will also give you options to put your rear dovetails in front of the optic if you prefer that and some let you customize how much of your iron sights you want to see through your optic.
- The price of milling your slide is significantly cheaper than purchasing a new optics ready pistol and is usually cheaper than buying an aftermarket or OEM slide.
- The last pro is that you will retain that OEM quality. It may be possible your warranty is voided, but you can rest assured that the quality of your OEM slide and its compatibility on your pistol will remain intact.
Cons of getting your Slide Milled
- Unless you know a really really good gunsmith that specializes in this, most of the time you will need to send your slide out to one of a few companies to have the slide milled. This means you’ll have to wait 1-4 weeks to get it done, pay to ship it out, and will have a pistol with no slide for that time frame.
- The other thing to be aware of is that once your slide is milled you won’t be able to change the footprint. So if you had your slide milled for an RMR footprint, and down the road a DeltaPoint Pro footprint optic came out that you really wanted, you wouldn’t be able to mount it or modify your slide to accept it.
- The last thing we want to mention is that you need to make sure you use a reputable company. Your slide needs to be precise and you need to make sure the company threads the slide for common sized screws, which are either M4, M3, or 6-32. Sometimes we have seen people who need oddball screws like 6-40 screws and those are VERY difficult to find, so do your research on the company you use to mill your slide to make sure their work is 100% precise and using the most common best practices.
If you were to get your slide milled, we would recommend getting a K Series footprint if you have a sub or micro compact pistol like a Glock 43X or SW Shield and we recommend an RMR footprint if you have a full size or compact pistol. These are the two most common footprints and would allow you to run any of the best optics on the market. However do your research!
Here are some very reputable companies we would recommend if you wanted to get your slide milled.
- https://www.battlewerx.com/
- https://www.mapleleaffirearms.com/
- https://jagerwerks.com/
- https://chpws.com/product-category/slide-milling/
- https://shop.springerprecision.com/categories/red-dot-milling.html
4. Using a Dovetail Mounting Plate - Pros and Cons
The last and most affordable method is to use a dovetail mounting plate. This option is great for someone looking to try out a red dot on their pistol or someone looking for an affordable and reversible way to mount a pistol red dot.
This option will run around $30-60+ depending on the brand and style of dovetail plate you purchase.
We sell OuterImpact Dovetail mounting plates because they are great quality, their customer support is awesome, and they have a lot of options.
Their MRA (modular red dot adapter) plates are also really cool because they allow you to mount many different red dot footprints using one plate. So they are a really great way to “test the waters” with red dots and can be used as a longer term solution also
Pros of using Dovetail Mounting Plates
- The biggest benefit of using a dovetail mounting plate is the price. For $60+ you get an item that will let you reliably mount a red dot on your pistol
- If you go with the OuterImpact MRA plate, it will give you the ability to mount many different brands and footprints of red dots.
Cons of using Dovetail Mounting Plates
- Installing the dovetail adapter plates varies from pistol to pistol. For some pistols like a Glock, you may need to purchase a sight pusher tool which will add to your expense or you may need to take it to a gunsmith if you are not able to do it yourself. The good news is that there are plenty of install videos online on how to install these. Here is a video we did on the Glock 17.
- The other downside is that since you are replacing your rear dovetail with a mounting plate, you won’t have rear iron sights. This means you will be relying on the red dot as the only aiming solution.
- The red dot will sit higher on the slide, so aesthetically this may not be appealing to some people, it will also cause you to hold the pistol a little lower than you would if you had the red dot mounted on a milled slide.
Overall the red dot mounting plates are a great, reliable, low budget way to get a red dot on your pistol. They are also a great option if you have a pistol that doesn’t have any aftermarket optics ready slides and in which milling it out may be difficult.
If you have a full size or compact pistol, we recommend these OuterImpact MRA Dovetail Mounts. If you have a subcompact or micro compact pistol then you would want these OuterIimpact Micro Dovetail Mounts.
Conclusion
Hopefully by now you have a clear understanding of how to mount a red dot to your pistol. Remember, one of the most important things is to find out which red dot you want first, which footprint it is, and then figuring out how you will mount it to your optics ready slide, milled slide, or dovetail mount. You need to make sure the slide, or mount will accept the footprint of the optic you desire.
We have plenty of resources on our site. We recommend checking out our fitment guides here and our Holosun Pistol Optic Cheat sheet here.
As you can see there are many ways to get a red dot on your pistol with varying degrees of difficulty and price. Our recommendation is to choose the one you feel best suits your specific scenario.
We appreciate you taking the time to read this guide and wish you success!
Thank you for reading!
