Done with BME

Okay, I give up. I have been trying for six months to get an optic mount like I showed before, and the last source I tried was BME. Not only did it take 4 months to get the finished product, but the locating pegs where 1/4" too far back on the mount, preventing the screw holes on the STS from lining up with the mount. I've emailed and called the company, but after a further two months I have heard nothing back. The piece of shit cost me $125 and I can't even freaking use it!!!

Screw this shit. I'm trading the STS in for a slide ride and getting myself one of SJCs frame mounts. Stay as far away from BME as you possibly can.

New mount!

Nearly perfect, just working out some spacing issues. This will drop your point of aim almost a half inch closer to the bore as compared to other slide mounted optics! Looking forward to getting the final version and giving it a whirl!

Marking off the first slide cuts

Next stop, drill press for a through-cut and a light chamfer.

Taylor Freelance Magazine Extensions

The next stop on this project was increased magazine capacity. I plan on adding a magwell as well at some point, but with speed reloads not being particularly necessary in steel shooting it isnt a priority just yet. Keeping that in mind, the arredondo mag extensions where off the table (they aren't beveled to fit in any magwell currently on the market), so that left Taylor Freelance the best alternative. Price being an issue, i opted for the aluminum 140mm model but the brass version was mighty tempting.

Install was a breeze; everything went together like it had been there all along. My only beef wa that the inside of the base wasnt beveled where it interacted with the carrier, making loading a bit tricky. After tiring of slapping the magazine around, i pulled the thing apart and beveled it myself with a jewelers file. No problems since.

All things considered, this is the best aftermarket pistol mag extension ive ever used. Its a bit pricier than the arredondo, but its 100% worth the worksmanship and resiliency. If money was less a factor i would spring for the brass model for a little more weight to bring recoil down a bit more, but at the end of the day the aluminum bases are solid performers.

Cmore STS and BME Slide Mount

Ive been sitting on a C-more STS for awhile now and, having had zero progress on the mount i was hoping to use, I gave up and bought a regular slide mount. The model I decided to use is the BME M&P model, which holds the STS a bit higher than I would have preferred, but after seeing it all put together I may begin to change my opinion of it.

Installation was a bit interesting on a few levels. The first issue was to get the Trijicon rear sight off without sending the internal bits flying across the room. I used a MGW sight pusher tool to slide it most of the way off and put the whole slide assembly in a plastic bag to push it the rest of the way. No springs or retaining plates lost! Now on to the tough part of the job...

As i started fitting the mounting plate to the slide, it became apparent that the it would be an extremely tight fit. Tight, to the point that I had to back the mount out of the notch and file down the edges a hair. After that, it pressed snuggly into the sight groove, held fast by several set screws. The STS mounted tight, so no worries. Haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet, but will update with more info after I do.

Apex Failure Resistant Extractor and Speed Shooter Specialties extra power extractor spring

I haven't seen more than a handful of extraction failures in this gun throughout its 15,000 round lifespan, but figure that was still too many. Picked up the Apex tactical FRE and the speed shooter specialties after marker extractor spring and set to work.

And work it was. The factory extractor pin is without a doubt the toughest fitting sumbitch I have ever laid eyes or hands on. I broke a punch, a screw driver, and bent the hell out of another punch before I relented and pulled up the Apex Youtube page for some instruction. Following their recommendations, I ground a nail punch down to the appropriate size to fit this tiny ass pin, and after a few good wacks it fell free. Installation after that was 1000% simpler, and just as uneventful.

Apex recommends 300-400 rounds to break in the extractor, but frankly I have yet to have any issues. Updates will follow if anything changes, but considering this companies already exemplary record (at least in my experience) I am not too worried about it.

Optics

At this point I began looking for 1) an optic that would function well in a slide mount and 2) a mount that would play to my strengths. The pics attached are very rough initial sketches and i'm far from being a talented photoshop gangsta, so bear with me.

Through research, my list dwindled down to the C-more STS or the Leupod Delta-point. Price basically made the decision for me. I settled on the STS. Now I had to figure out how to mount it.

I have used traditional slide mounts in the past, and found it difficult to get the dot on target as fast as I would like. I practice primarily with an iron sighted .22 pistol, and having the HUD so high above the slide was giving me problems (primary issue is that the dot is so high and the base of the dot is so bulky that it eliminates any other visual references like the front sight or the front portion of the slide. secondly, because I practice with iron sights, trying to adjust my point of aim off the draw was just taking too much time and effort)). Looking around the shooting world for inspiration, I noticed a lot of people using 90degree optic mounts for their Cmore slide rides, and decided to borrow the concept and adapt it to the M&Ps rear right dovetail. This way, I keep the slide and front sight in my peripheral vision as references and keep the dot as close to the bore as possible. Fortunately, the left side of the STS is flat and facilitates this. What I came up was this (not to perfect scale, I know):

Now I have to find someone with better machining skills than me to make it a reality. If it works out the way I hope it does, it will eventually be refined into a more competition oriented version along these lines:

Updates to come if/when I get ahold of the real thing. Clearly there will be some spring and load tuning work happening concurrently, so it should be a relatively meaty update. Aiming through a backward D will surely take some getting used to, but as I'm more comfortable shooting right-to-left than left-to-right it still plays to my strengths. In theory this is what it should look like: