NCStar VISM Flip Up Dot on G19

[Dudemeister]

It's been a while since I posted anything, about 2 months ago I pulled the trigger so to speak on my first Glock, a G19, and before I even shot it once, I bought an aftermarket slide with a RMR cutout, so I can install small micro dot.

Specifically I'd been intrigues by the NCStar VISM Flip-Up Micro-Dot. The idea of a folding dot is actually brilliant... If you can pull it off. I've read a b unch of good reviews, and I've read bad ones as well, but I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Yesterday at the range, I finally got chance to test it. On the 3rd shot, the screen folded in the locked position, something that a lot of people complain about, and no matter what I tried it wouldn't stay open for any follow up shot. Worse yet, after the 8-9 shot, it simply stopped working altogether.

So I put it away and used the iron sights. I did horrible with it, but that another story.

Today, I disassembled the sight to see what's wrong with it, and found the problem, and a solution.

The reason it stopped working altogether is because the battery has a side metal clip that keeps it in place, and due to the recoil shock, it simply bent back and was no longer touching the battery. The fix is simple enough:


The locking in folded position was due to the momentum of the slide when it slaps the backstop. The lens would fold down and catch on the lock-down spring. The solution was to straighten the spring offset angle, so when the lens fold down, the locking catch, fold behind it rather than in front. The only "drawback" is that if you want to actually locking down, you first have to push the spring in manually. Other than this it should work just fine.



Now I just need to go back to the range and give this a run for it's money.

 

[ATLDave]

Hmmmm....

It has taken years to get mini/micro red-dots to the level of durability where they will hold up to the pounding of riding a slide, and they're just barely there.

I question the wisdom of trying to add a delicate hinging mechanism (with power supply connection) to an already-at-ragged-edge situation.

Asking NCStar to do it... I mean...

 

[Coal Dragger]

Yeah, the solution to that sight is to remove it from the pistol and return it for a refund. If that is not an option then chuck it in the trash as a lesson learned.

The only two options on the market I would trust for a serious use pistol would be the Trijicon RMR, or the Aimpoint ACRO P-1. At least both of those have stood up to Aaron Cowan's testing surviving lots of rounds, and frequent drops without failing or losing zero. The Trijicon is a bit more resistant to impacts, and the Aimpoint is more resistant to inclement weather and probably abusive G forces from pistol slide reciprocation since Aimpoint did their R&D on a .40 S&W slide.

There is zero advantage to a folding screen, even if it did work.

 

[ATLDave]

Oh, I think playing with it at the range and making continual efforts to keep it alive could be very instructive for the OP. We’ve already learned that even conventional spring battery contacts start to fail under slide-riding forces. That’s interesting.

I just wouldn’t have any expectation of it ever becoming robust enough for serious use. I’d be surprised if hinged units ever get there, simply because there’s not enough benefit to the hinge/folding mechanism to be worth the serious R&D and materials expense to make them robust.

 

[badkarmamib]

On the other hand, $60 isn't too bad to decide if the benefits of a slide-mounted red dot justify ponying up for a quality optic later. I have many times bought a "budget option", for the express purpose of seeing if I like the concept, before figuring out which features I want/need when I order the final, quality option.

 

[ATLDave]

On the other hand, $60 isn't too bad to decide if the benefits of a slide-mounted red dot justify ponying up for a quality optic later. I have many times bought a "budget option", for the express purpose of seeing if I like the concept, before figuring out which features I want/need when I order the final, quality option.

I have personally bought a couple of NcStar items with just that thought process! One of them (a green laser for a carbine) turned out to be sufficiently good that I've not felt the need to upgrade it, although I have also found it of marginal utility. Another of them (a 4x faux ACOG) convinced me that a fixed power 4x tactial optic wasn't of interest to me. That scope did hold a zero pretty well, but the canted reticle and very heavy weight means it really wasn't ever going to be a "real" thing... it was just to see if 4x was interesting to me. Turns out that it wasn't, and the rise of the pretty-darn-good 1-6x variables sealed it.

 

[Dudemeister]

This is my first handgun mounted optic, so I'm going to try to make it work. And like ATLDave said, if it turns out that this is not something that works for me, I'm only out $60, not $400.

My unfortunate situation is that I'm trying to make it work on a gun that is still foreign to me, so it makes it double hard. Maybe I should put it on a gun that I'm familiar with, although I don't have one that can take it at the moment.