add ons and thoughts on my blather.
So many things here, all personal preferences and everyone knows best and better than me.
So, you went the standalone pistol route. Now you want a light and a laser and you are gonna put an optic on it. Did the pistol you just bought have an optic cut? Did you think to order the proper mount plate for your chosen optic and your pistol? If you didn’t get it with a cut, does it even have the mounting holes for the sight you want to run? Just asking…. Are you getting a pistol mounted light or light and laser combo? Does the pistol even have a rail? Were you smart enough to spend the money to get a built-in laser grip like the S&W MP9 had for an option? Are you getting an aftermarket grip wrap? Can you or your significant other reach said device while gripping the pistol? Are you going to run the light or laser always on, or just when you identify a target? OK, so if the light or laser is always on, how are you going to not telegraph you are coming down the hall etc? Do you have the skills to run dark and then thumb on some switch with your off hand in time to light and id the target prior to Bad Jimmy dumping rounds into you? Bad Jimmy knows why he is there, he has no friendlies to worry about. He is in a 360 shoot house, you are not.
Where is your famliy? Is your kid getting frosted flakes at 2 am? Is there a sleep over and they are in the rec room in the garage and you woke up hearing the door beep. Are you going to have a 4 cell mag light in your hand under the pistol like the cop you saw on a tv show? Can your significant other even hold at pistol at the ready, arms extended and walk thru your house? Lets not even discuss pieing corners and doors without the weapon or body part breaking a thresh hold.
Only stating all the things that take folks years of dedicated training to become proficient in, not the 2 times a year you got to train. SO BE REALISTIC!
You are not and will never be those high end guys on the web. Those guys and gals have years of practice ahead of you. They have lived with and stroked and adored their weapons more than they have spent time with their significant other (ask them they will agree). You are not going to take a class or two and then suddenly dump 2 in the A zone and 1 in the brain case while leaning around a corner of the breakfast bar or pieing around the fridge into the pantry.
OK, now we have a pump shotgun, are we adding light and laser on there? Do we have an optic? Are you or your significant other actually going to mount the shotgun and have your cheek to stock weld, or as we all do, in the dark, have our head up to get better sightlines. If the optic is a small dot sight, are you able to walk, id, sight and shoot with both eyes open? Can you see the optic if you are not in a perfect cheek weld? Can you pie corners and rooms with the gun mounted or are you going to up and down it to your shoulder pocket while you move? Are you hanging lights and lasers weights off the muzzle end of the weapon? That will change balance points and swing of the weapon. Back to the on off time, switches, buttons etc etc. what are you doing and what are you training with those involved?
Now we are talking! We went full you tube and bought an AR-PCC, or a full on 5.56 AR-15, cuz only noobs get .223 or 223 wylde, or wait what? You mean there are options? Well i got the Navy Seal standard as per the guy at the gun counter. Ok so did you get a 10/12/14/16/18/20 inch barrel? What is the twist rate? So you upgraded to the new standard 3 inch riser rail to mount the optic high so you can keep your head up and not have an inbound over top your plate. You have a 3 finger broom stick and an IR/vis dbal, neutered civilian of course… and you didn’t serve so you don’t know any way. And you still have to get nods so you can see your IR laser, and your helmet with the side cuts for the peltors you don’t have, is also coming. And next we are adding a light so we have 2 pressure pads now. And we ordered our suppressor so in 9 months we will add that on. And i want it to do everything, so i am going to have a red dot, nope, a LVPO 1-4, well maybe 1-8, shit does the LVPO have a light up reticle? Well i need to have a red dot on a 45 mount, and they say i def need back up flip up magpuls. Now that the gunshop is now 7k heavier and you said well, hell, ali baba and temu have the same shit for 100 dollars and it comes from the same countries so it must be as good right? And we haven’t talked about a better then 9 lb trigger that came stock in your Seal gun. We haven’t talked about magazines. We haven’t talked about ammo. We haven’t talked about training ammo versus “home defense” ammo. We haven’t talked about every brand of ammo having a different POA/POI (point of aim/point of impact) shift from the 55 grain cheapest shit you can buy. We haven’t talked about gas to drive to the range, and range fees, and …. oh yeah, the range doesn’t let me do anything on it and I can only shoot paper and I have to have a single round in the weapon as magazines and noobs don’t mix. Well Cabela’s has steel targets and I will just go find somewhere in the woods and set up my own course… (how many rounds till the cops show up cuz Karen has a McMansion 1 gulley over from where you thought no one lived).
I know, I know. Huge wide net. So much goes into all of this stuff and you can spend more years and money trying to get to this point of home defense, then you will probably be invaded. You will probably spend more money than what they would steal. Hell, your weapon is probably the largest price tag item that is grab and go in your place.
THIS IS AMERICA, and I fully believe and fall into the same category as all of you. I want to relive my misbegotten youth, when I thought I was someone and did something. I see items that I always wanted, and of course this would be better than that, I should upgrade…. I am now 55. I have one kid left at home. I have only ‘kitted up” twice with intent since 1996. I have more than 1 option. And I like a full box of chocolates. I have 6 to 8 tools of each variety that can accomplish the same role, and yes, I have accessories for near to intermediate, and some far. Problem is that I cannot and will not win against multiple ACTUAL threats. I may get one or two, but i am prob gonna take rounds back. Depends on the gansta grip and lean they use.
All this to state that you have to identify and name your attacker and defensive scenario and try to make an educated guess as to what you need. What is the starting point, what is the familiarization and training time and money you want to invest, and who is going with you from your inner circle.
If I am only worried about home invasion, that means to me, i can get by with a pistol and a light. I dont have pockets when i sleep, so you are gonna see the Captain Ahab nightmare coming down the hallway at you in all my glory. Momma is different. she has a pistol and a grip activated laser that she can 1 hand. She also, while covered up, doesn’t have pockets or a battle belt. Because we have a kid and friends here, we have no long guns or pcc laying around on top of things. Pistols live in bio safes.
Since I cannot fertilize my yard, I have short to intermediates with red dots to lpvo’s with light up reticles that function like red dots or in low light. We have animals that need protecting and we have coyotes, wild dogs, bobcat, a mountain lion and bears in the yard, so I have some options for heat and starlight. I have my own milspec tire wall filled with gravel, side wings, back fill and top cover for splash and all of that. I have some options that most don’t have, but I sure don’t have a full shoot house or movement to contact and assault across lanes.
All of this blather to state that your scenario is YOURS. Don’t do what this person or that person did who is a you tube expert. There are a lot of incredible folks out there with LOTS of 360 experience that can teach you a lot of things. Identify YOUR perceived defense, YOUR perceived threat possibilities and YOUR potential ways to solve them. I guarantee that whatever you choose, it will take you way more effort than you think. It will cost way more money than you wanted. YOU will get complacent and start to pare down training and vigilance, as nothing happens day in and day out. We could not stay hyper vigilant 24 hours in bad places, there is no way you are going to, or want to, stay hyper vigilant here at home.
If you can not use the basic weapon, you cant use all the bullshit you hung from it. The basics are the basics. You can enhance things for ease of implementation, but if you have lights and lasers on a pistol and momma cant rack the slide to clear a jam, who cares. You get her an optic on a PCC and she forgets to flip down the lens covers. You forgot to check the batteries on the optic and its dead when you need it. She is afraid of the recoil and wont put her cheek on the stock, nose on the charging handle, and therefore cant find the dot, who cares. Your master is on the 1st floor and the kids are upstairs or vice versa…. no one here is reading this that didnt sneak out or in of their house for drinks/smoke/chasing tail.
Are you going to go with training ammo and defense ammo? do you know what the change in point of impact is? did you change the optic back to the proper setting? Did you add a suppressor? what is the POI shift for the suppressor? Did you mark it to clock its orientation when installed? i have personally experienced that rotational clocking does change things with 2 of my suppressors. 2 dont care rotation, but they all move the POI. Do you train with it on if that is your thing? Adding that weight, in my experience can cause you to drift past on your transitions target to target laterally.
Best i have on some points to ponder, that may or may not help you get to the John Wick you think you will become.