StrangerDanger

It's a shame the FCAM system from Mesa never materialized. The assembly system we developed was very inovative. I would have steered it in another direction now that I have a few more years of experience with the M4. Hookster, which of the two do you feel is more comfortable?

I went with 9mm due to capacity and ease of shooting. I find the 40 to be too snappy. You can bear down on a 9mm and put a lot of rounds quickly on a defined area. 19+1 capacity. Note the remote switch placement.

How do you plan to mount a light? It doesn't look like it has an accessory rail. Surefire doesn't make an addon for the older Glocks. Plus, the addon rail is 75 to 125 dollars. I don't think it is worth the cost to build it up in this manner honestly. You'll encounter serious holster issues even if you do find a mount. As for weapon light and laser choices, I've used almost all of them. Much of the time as a State side Government Security Contractor. For lights alone, the Surefire X300 and X400 are the best. Both are the same light, the X400 adds the laser to the package. For just lasers, Crimson Trace Laser Grips are great. They served me well since 2002 till this year here in the Mojave outdoors. When I felt they were done, I sold them for 175 dollars. So I lost 75 dollars over 7 years of use. However, the CTC grips are nice, they can cause issues when combined with a weapon light. The X300 and X400 series have the option of a remote activation switch that routes a momentary activation pad to the base of the trigger guard against the grip. Newer CTC grips often use a momentary on button in this same location. So they will not work together well. Given this, the X400 is the best choice. You operate the light and the laser via the same momentary switch. All other weapon light systems have not developed this method of activation. You're forced to manipulate switches or buttons with your support hand. With the remote switch, the light/laser activation is ambidextrous and can be operated one handed. You can open doors, search for light switches, gr***** with a-holes and still have momentary control. Any other system, you're left with light on or off while your support hand is busy. Or, dangerously try to manipulate the controls with your trigger finger. Next issue is a holster. Finding a holster that will accept a weapon with the light attached is no easy feat. I have a great maker that will make anything you need though. Raven Concealment Holsters http://www.themalabarfront.com Overall, it is not cheap to properly outfit a weapon to function at all times of the day. You're looking at 375 for the x400. 90 for the remote switch. 90 for the holster. If you can live without the laser, you can get an X300 for 185 or so. eBay has the best deals. Hope this helps you some.

I forgot to add photos to this thread. I'll take better photos in the field now that I can be a daywalker again.

While I don't kick down doors usually, I do spend quite a bit of time outdoors in low light. I've found the RDS to greatly increase my targeting times in poor light. The lack of a sight tower allows for a greater FOV. I do night time geocaching in remote areas to keep in shape, practice my night time navigation skills, coarse plotting and to test weapons. How they carry and respond to threats in the field. We get 'yotes and wild pigs that can be dangerous in many areas the loot exists. Moreso the pigs. I now use t-1's exclusively on my weapons with zero magnification. The tritium front sight tends to wash out when you hit the weapon light. It is a struggle to see during a rapid shot. If you have kids, I highly recommend giving the geocaching a try. They're everywhere and the kids have a great time outdoors. I'm about to start hiding them myself under my alter ego, The Tear Jerker. They're going to be hard.

Agreed. I tried my CompM4 from my old Ar15 on the Benelli. It was way too top heavy. It weighs something like 12 ounces vs. the 4 to 6 ounces for the T-1. With the T-1, iy doesn't feel top heavy or feel like the weapon wants to roll. The CompM4 also obstructed my FOV heavily.

I buy and sell a lot online. Funbroker and fleabay. Often times the tracking number isn't given because of time constraints. Would you rather have Kip making tubes, or matching tracking numbers to sent shipments and sending emails? One could argue that he needs an office manager to handle such tasks. However, the added costs would be passed on to customers. Kips tube is worth the price, but as you approach the cringe level, sales will suffer. The abscent orders after receiving a email saying it has shipped is wrong though. It leads himself into fielding phone calls rather than making 200 dollar pipes. I'm looking forward to seeing Hooksters warhorse!

Be very careful when installing the tacstar. It will squeeze the receiver if you tighten it too much and will cause the bolt carrier to bind when cycling to the rear. So your goal is to find a medium where it won't squeeze but won't shake loose. Good luck. I scrapped mine and went with the SideArmor unit.

20 grams. Too heavy. Stock weight is 12.5 grams. GG&G is 24.5 grams. The Design Concepts model is 8.5 grams. I bet Kip's will mirror stock weight or lighter if it benefits.

Interesting. Mine never had one. I'll look into it.

There isn't one on any of the full length tubes or extensions that i know of. Including the factory one. The cap itself simply compresses the spring so you can remove it during cleanings.

If you have no intention of hanging a light on the shotgun, I'd probably go with a M2 for the lighter weight honestly. If you intend to blast a lot of value pack crap for practice, I'd lean more towards the M4. I found the M3 to be overly complicated.

The reports I read about jamming were quite old. I can't search for them very well on my ******. I recall some were mentioned on ar15.com. I didn't have any issues with mine with the 11707 barrel assembly. There is some weight saving potential on yours beyond kips tube. You could run one or two of those short rails from Sidearmor. You'd save a few ounces. Then another ounce or so by removing the factory front sling loop. I'm tempted to buy one again honestly.

Hookster, it looks pretty cool actually. Have you shot it to see if the binding issue plagues yours? Have you tried mounting the pressure switch to the surefire rail instead? You're right about the x300 poking too far to the rear due to the xt07 tail cap design. Yours is much more low profile. On the other hand, holy expensive batman!

Mine just had white painted dots. They didn't glow. But mine are older. A 11703 model. The rear tritium isn't meant to use to align the three dots. It's meant to give you a visual reference to where the rear ghost ring is. When you're face is indexed, you can't really see the rear. This is why the meprolights rear dots are so small.

That's pretty light! How long of a runtime do you get? One benefit to having a larger glass in front of your face is to protect your face from birdshot blow back. Even with eye protection, a scope helps a lot. You might get a 1/3 co-witness with that setup. Here's my new T-1 in a crappy pic in the loading room. I hate artifial light.

I'm sure Kip's will have better machining than the Design Concepts. Th knurling on mine was poorly done. This can be attributed to having to work on Titanium -- not the easiest medium. Function is fine though. I'm curious to know if Kip is going to go lighter than stock, or aim for stock weight since that was what the Benelli was designed for.

Here are the weights for the M80. I weighed them on my postal scale at work. Benelli M4 Factory Handguards: 5.0 Ounces Surefire M80 Rail System: 7.9 Ounces Surefire Ladder Rail: 0.4 Ounces Daniel Defense Picatinny Rail Sling Mount: 1.5 Ounces Magpul XTM Panel (two pieces): 0.25 Ounces Factory Top Rail with screws and washers: 1.59 Ounces It appears that you're adding very little weight over the factory handguard. However, where the weight sneaks on is dependent on what type of rail covers you install. Figure you're doubling the weight of the factory handguards. I think the M80 fit 4 Magpul XTM's on each rail. So full coverage would be 12 sections. Or 3 Ounces total. Ladder rails will only add 1.5 ounces roughly. Also, consider how much in parts you've removed also. The factory top rail is worth 1.59 Ounces. The Handguards are 5.0 Ounces. The front sling mount is worth around an ounce. Add a Titanium magazine tube and you'll drop 5 ounces there (you'll add the weight back with round capacity though). I just tried to weigh my T-1 with the low mount, but it weighs too much for my reloading scale. It weighs a bit less than the tall mount version. I'd guess the low mount weighs 4.5 - 5.0 ounces. I wonder how that iron dot would co-witness with the M4's iron sights? Or does it seat high enough where it's above the irons completely?

Sorry I missed the question. I can't tell the difference between a 2moa and a 4moa dot when looking at them. I liked the T-1 so much that I just got my second one yesterday for my AR15 with the tall LaRue mount. I've got most of the bugs out of it so far. Had a run in with a 'Yote. Put a tracer round on him at 100 yards at night aiming at his glowing eyes. I sparked his eyes with the X300 mounted at 12 o'clock. The Vortex is the best, not a bit of flash that I could observe.

Great price. I'd stick with the 4 moa dot. More might obscure the target too much with little benefit. The 4 moa is easy to pick up. The CompM4 actually uses a 2 moa dot. It was easy to see too. How much does it weigh?

Al Gore will send his hit team to your house if you are flagrantly exposing the world to doses of CO2 gas.

I used to carry a Ed Brown Kobra Carry 1911, but I wasn't that impressed with it really. Great to carry, but it wasn't as fast as I wanted and had no light option.. So I now carry a Springfield Armory XDm in 9mm with a Surefire weapon light attached. My low light fighting capability went through the roof after switching to this. I'm trying to source a good holster for my X400 I recently bought though.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/3774660494_daff3535cd_o.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3720121278_62b709340e_o.jpg Surefire Scout Light with a 40" remote switch to the pistol grip. A remote switch could take the pad to a placement similar to Hookster's. An X300 or X400 could also be used. You'd save a few ounces. Similar light output. You could also run the light on the left side and try to use the momentary cap on the back of the light, or use the rocker levers on the X300/X400 series. There are no cheap ways to add a light to the M4 that are worth much. Each way has drawbacks. Minimizing added weight is important. The Sidearmor rail adds about 8 to 10 ounces over the stock configuration. Since you're removing some items during the install. The shell carrier from Sidearmor is the best I've used. The carrier itself weighs about 4 ounces. It bolts on via two screws. So it is easy to remove. Figure each shell weighs almost 2 ounces themselves. So the weight adds up quick.

Is 5 years of constant on runtime really an issue? Really? It also blinks letting you know when your batteries are running down. My concern with the trijicon is when used with a weapon light at night. Will there be enough ambient light to display the reticule over the illuminated area.

I liked the T1 enough to just order a second one for my AR15 project. I've had no issues with the LaRue mount on the Sidearmor rail. I've fed it a few boxes of 3" magnum 00 buckshot too. I keep checking the bottom of the mount, but I see absolutely no contact marks. I followed Mark LaRue's recommendation for the throw lever. It should be hard to close, and a real sumbitch to get off. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2479/3774660536_16ce2dbfac_o.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3720121278_62b709340e_o.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2085/3720121318_4a87717354_o.jpg