barnbwt
member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 7,340
A truly "Smart Gun" 
If Remington got one thing right with the R51, it was the pre-release marketing. Before the guns were even shipped, they had DeSantis and Galco with holsters, Crimson Trace with a slick trigger-guard mounted laser unit, and AAC was gonna have a threaded barrel and suppressor soon. Trijicon, I think, also had night sights ready to go out of the gate, and Pachmayer (IIRC) was to have fancy rosewood grips.
Now, they botched pretty much everything past that, but that doesn't change what were really cool and forward-thinking ideas. Namely, the laser/suppressed handgun that was still theoretically concealable. I have always thought the idea of adding a small laser unit to a carry gun a slick way of avoiding compromise between simple sights, and utility when there is a bump in the (presumably dark) night. What I have always disliked, was how Crimson Trace executed the activation portion of their bolt-on mini lasers; every time I've played with them, I found activating the laser somewhat inconvenient, and easy to miss.
Getting back to the R51, it has a giant safety switch on the back of it that --presumably-- is only depressed when things get real, right? Why not use it to automatically activate the laser sight?
1) How to use the safety lever to trip a switch; the lever runs from the bottom of the grip where it pivots, up and under the tail of the slide. There is a hammer and a blade ejector back in the tail of the frame, but other than that it's pretty empty in there. I'm thinking a little ball bearing or push-pin could be driven up by the safety in its default position, and free to fall away from a microswitch in the slide when depressed. All you'd need do is drill a vertical hole through the tail of the frame for the little pin to ride in.
2) How to position the laser switch and route its wires; a tiny, thin switch can fit along the right side of the hammer swing inside the slide without interfering with anything. From there, a thin copper-filament tape wire lead would run out the ~.25"x.06" frame to slide gap at the rear of the slide, and up over the tail (could be recessed if you cared) to the rear sight.
3) How to mount and position the laser/battery; The rear sight is pressed into a poorly-fitted but large dovetail of non-standard dimensions. The upper corners of the slide are tapered in with hollow-cut cylindrical reliefs. My thought was to machine the rear sight and laser support as a single unit, with the cylindrical laser portion off to the right side (for better RH holster fit), and reuse the existing rear sight attachment dovetail. You could still drift your sight, and tweak a set screw or two (or however CT does it) to dial in the laser where you want it. Front sight's driftable, too, FWIW.
So, at the end of the day, you'd have a little tube about the size of half a AAA battery tucked into the slide relief cut on the right side, increasing width about 1/8", which automatically lights up whenever the safety is depressed (or the slide racked back off that push pin in the frame). A single drilled hole in the frame, and a couple small parts would need to be fabbed. Doesn't sound too bad, apart from the price of the donor CT laser unit.
Figure out a way to make a sufficiently small suppressor that's worth a damn, and we'll be in business! Unless, of course, the laser components can't take the forces of being slide-mounted. Anyone got a clue on that?
TCB
If Remington got one thing right with the R51, it was the pre-release marketing. Before the guns were even shipped, they had DeSantis and Galco with holsters, Crimson Trace with a slick trigger-guard mounted laser unit, and AAC was gonna have a threaded barrel and suppressor soon. Trijicon, I think, also had night sights ready to go out of the gate, and Pachmayer (IIRC) was to have fancy rosewood grips.
Now, they botched pretty much everything past that, but that doesn't change what were really cool and forward-thinking ideas. Namely, the laser/suppressed handgun that was still theoretically concealable. I have always thought the idea of adding a small laser unit to a carry gun a slick way of avoiding compromise between simple sights, and utility when there is a bump in the (presumably dark) night. What I have always disliked, was how Crimson Trace executed the activation portion of their bolt-on mini lasers; every time I've played with them, I found activating the laser somewhat inconvenient, and easy to miss.
Getting back to the R51, it has a giant safety switch on the back of it that --presumably-- is only depressed when things get real, right? Why not use it to automatically activate the laser sight?
1) How to use the safety lever to trip a switch; the lever runs from the bottom of the grip where it pivots, up and under the tail of the slide. There is a hammer and a blade ejector back in the tail of the frame, but other than that it's pretty empty in there. I'm thinking a little ball bearing or push-pin could be driven up by the safety in its default position, and free to fall away from a microswitch in the slide when depressed. All you'd need do is drill a vertical hole through the tail of the frame for the little pin to ride in.
2) How to position the laser switch and route its wires; a tiny, thin switch can fit along the right side of the hammer swing inside the slide without interfering with anything. From there, a thin copper-filament tape wire lead would run out the ~.25"x.06" frame to slide gap at the rear of the slide, and up over the tail (could be recessed if you cared) to the rear sight.
3) How to mount and position the laser/battery; The rear sight is pressed into a poorly-fitted but large dovetail of non-standard dimensions. The upper corners of the slide are tapered in with hollow-cut cylindrical reliefs. My thought was to machine the rear sight and laser support as a single unit, with the cylindrical laser portion off to the right side (for better RH holster fit), and reuse the existing rear sight attachment dovetail. You could still drift your sight, and tweak a set screw or two (or however CT does it) to dial in the laser where you want it. Front sight's driftable, too, FWIW.
So, at the end of the day, you'd have a little tube about the size of half a AAA battery tucked into the slide relief cut on the right side, increasing width about 1/8", which automatically lights up whenever the safety is depressed (or the slide racked back off that push pin in the frame). A single drilled hole in the frame, and a couple small parts would need to be fabbed. Doesn't sound too bad, apart from the price of the donor CT laser unit.
Figure out a way to make a sufficiently small suppressor that's worth a damn, and we'll be in business! Unless, of course, the laser components can't take the forces of being slide-mounted. Anyone got a clue on that?
TCB
