Mounting A Rail on the Top slide of an Autoloader?

Halftail

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Shooting Handguns is Fun.Not having great eyesight takes away from it some.I have Optics on my 22 pistols and do just fine with them.My Grand Power 9mm is a nice little accurate shooting gun...Has anyone ever had a Rail put on the top for an optic on this type gun?
 
Depending on if I can get some of my far-sightedness fixed when I get my cataracted lenses replaced later this year I'm thinking that a red dot on a handgun might be in my not-too-distant future. When that time comes I'll probably buy a pistol already set up for something like a Trijicon RMR...like the Glock MOS, M&P Core or FNX Tactical rather than modifying an existing one.
 
I have a few Grand Power handguns and decided to put an optic on a Mk7 K100. I thought about having the slide milled, but the K100 has an "autosafety" (part #13) that would have to be milled around. I ended up having Chris at Amerigun USA make me an adapter that fits in the standard K100 dovetail. Cost me $140 US, and needed to send me slide down for him to measure it up. The Trijicon RMR is not mounted as low as I would like, but should be fine.

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If you are thinking about mounting an optic on top of an X-Calibur, it's technically easier because it does not have the "autosafety". BUT the X-Cal is very finely tuned, so adding more weight to the slide may give you problems. Red Hills Tactical does have an adapter plate that fits in the Elliason sight cut if you want to give it a try. Probably have to run hotter ammo to make it cycle properly.
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A small red dot like shown in the rear dovetail? That's OK. The sight is light enough to not be a big issue with the recoil operation. But put a rail and a big heavy red dot or handgun scope directly onto the slide and the whole mess becomes way too heavy for the recoil and cycling to work correctly. Lots of jams will be the result.

That's why all the IPSC and USPSA race guns use a mount that extends down onto the frame which doesn't move. If the sight you want to use requires a pictatinny rail and it's of much of any size and weight at all over what these small red dots weigh then you're in for problems. Instead you need the same mount as the race guns use.
 
A small red dot like shown in the rear dovetail? That's OK. The sight is light enough to not be a big issue with the recoil operation. But put a rail and a big heavy red dot or handgun scope directly onto the slide and the whole mess becomes way too heavy for the recoil and cycling to work correctly. Lots of jams will be the result.

That's why all the IPSC and USPSA race guns use a mount that extends down onto the frame which doesn't move. If the sight you want to use requires a pictatinny rail and it's of much of any size and weight at all over what these small red dots weigh then you're in for problems. Instead you need the same mount as the race guns use.

The Grand Power center fire hand guns have a rotating barrel lockup and I found on the X-Calibur model, it's sensitive to slide weight. Was loving the one I picked up from Dlask so much, I bought another one when they had their clearing out sale a couple of years ago. This one turned out to have a bull barrel instead of the standard fluted barrel. Talking to the Canadian rep (Canuck223), he did warn me that the X-Calibur is very finely tuned for slide & barrel weight to give it such a soft recoil. The bull barrel is only 14g heavier than the fluted one, so I thought I'd keep it and give it a go hoping to get even less muzzle flip.

Took me a while, but finally got a load worked up that would cycle and eject brass reliably. Apparently the extra mass of the bull barrel slows down the rotation & unlocking of the barrel enough that I would get 1 or 2 stove pipe FTE's per mag. Had to up my powder charge to a 138pf, whereas I had worked up a 132pf load for my fluted barreled X-Calibur. The felt recoil/muzzle flip on the bull barrel @138pf still feels softer than my fluted barrel @ 132pf, so I'm going to try running it in this years IPSC season.

The K100 eats anything (although noticeably more recoil/muzzle flip than the X-Calibur), so putting the RMR on it was fine, and I may use it to play in the USPSA "Carry Optics" division and just general range fun. That RMR is too small for me to pick up reliably though on a draw or when posting up on a target on the move. That's why they run those huge frame mounted C-More red dots on open guns.

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