Okay, so after a fairly rocky start that took a lot of breaking-in to get my Arex reliable with all sorts of ammo, the pistol and I have become friends. Except for one thing…
If, like me, you’re a boomer who hasn’t really kept up with changing trends in commercial firearms, you may be aware that micro red dot optics are now a thing you can put on the slide of a Browning-action handgun but not really up on the … details. And since these things cost the world the details can stress you out. Remember VHS vs. Betamax? Yeah, it’s like that.
One of the selling points of the second-gen Arex Delta is that it comes from the factory with an optic cut, which I imagine one day every handgun will have unless it’s sold as retro, if they don’t already. But the problem is that the optic manufacturers haven’t come to any agreement as to what the optic footprint will be: The size and bolt pattern and such are all over the place. So my Arex came equipped with five adapter plates to presumably cover all the likely bases.
Okay, I guess. I wasn’t crazy about needing to put a plate between the optic and the slide, but there it is. Come back in ten years and maybe all this will have been sorted out. But what really made me unhappy was the quality of these plates: You’d expect something other than cheap plastic. And the one I used, which has seen something over a thousand rounds now, wasn’t up to the task.
Happily, for every commercial problem a commercial solution will appear. And there’s a company called Calculated Kinetics which sells a machined plate specifically made to replace this particular plastic one, presumably because my Arex problem is not unique.
It was expensive, like $60 delivered. But I was really happy with how johnny-on-the-spot they were with delivery, and having now installed it I can testify that it precisely fits the pistol and the optic and is likely to be a whole lot more durable.
I put on on an sig saur p320 and the slide started not going all the way back. Have not torn it down yet to see what the problem is but that could explain a lot. Luckily I have more that one boom maker for carrry so that project can wait a bit.
C+H Precision also has a whole bunch of different adapter plates, roughly the same price. One thing that seems to be missing from all this is some sort of master cross reference matrix for slide measurements / sight / adapter plate / screw diameter / screw length. Getting the right combination is akin to winning at craps in Vegas, and the gun manufacturers aren’t helping much.
Paul, your slide issue is probably one, or both, mounting screws are a tiny bit too long. I got the Phd in Advanced Frustration putting a Holosun 507 on a Sig XTEN and screw length was a big issue.
Trijicon RMR, Leupold DP Pro, and Shield RMSc are basically shaping up to be the industry standards.
There are no good adaptor plates, just mediocre and awful.
The FN 509 uses the best factory plate system, since the plate only serves as a spacer for an RMR or DP Pro and the screws go through it and into the slide.
The eventual solution is going to be the direct mount setup with modular locator pin/recoil studs, as found on the Springfield Echelon and now the Ruger RXM.
That comment should have read “industry standard footprints”.
Tam nailed it. The Trijicon/Holosun footprints (feetprints?) are lining up to become the standard. I switched to a dot on my Glock, and after much handwringing and advice-seeking, sent my slide off to be milled for the particular dot I wanted. I’m very pleased with the results ( https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=11188 ). I understand why the adaptor plates are out there, and they kinda serve a need, but no one has anything good to say about them. It reminds me of when AR-10 rifles started to pick up steam and everyone used a different magazine. Now theyve all pretty much settled on one style…I imagine very soon it’ll be a case of pistols come with the Trij/Holo footprint as standard and anything else will require the plate.
“…for every commercial problem, a commercial solution will appear.”
Considering that we are a quarter-century into the new millennium, you would think that products like this could be made right the first time without spending money on upgraded replacement parts. I guess the firearms makers understand that gun owners love to tinker, so they use plastic to save a couple of bucks, knowing that the person who buys one of these will upgrade in the future anyway.