New Range Officer Owner - Need to Mount a Dot

I finally "pulled the trigger" on getting a .45 today.  I purchased a new Springfield Range Officer   In my state, I get to wait three days before I take it home.  I'll be able to get it on Tuesday and start checking it out.  I've only shot 22'so far, but I'm excited to get started.  I figured I'd run ~300 rounds of hardball through it with open sights before I start tweaking it (it just so happens I have 300 rounds of it).  I've got some shooting buddies that will help me with reloads at that point and then I'll have to start learning how to do that. 

I do want to go ahead and get the stuff needed to put an Ultradot on it, though.  Any recommendations on how to install it on the slide?  What brand rail? Who to get it from?  I'd really like to be able to install it myself, but I shoot with a good bullseye gunsmith as well.  I'm sure he could do it for me if there is drilling and tapping required.

I'll throw some pictures up in the middle of the week after I get it. 

Thanks for your input!
Doug

I have had good luck with Clark ribs. Unless you have very good machining skills and equipment, I'd suggest sending the slide off to a qualified bullseye pistolsmith. You can send just the slide and you don't have to overnight it or use other expensive shipping.

I like these:  http://www.marvelcustomguns.com/1911_old_bo-mar.htm
they have a brass deflector to protect the scope and look great.  Your gunsmith can mill out space for your irons to stay on under the rail like this:

I run a Burris Fast Fire III on my RO. See thread here - 
https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t2193-burris-ff-iii-mount-for-springfield-range-officer

Thanks for the info, guys.  I knew there had to be a pretty standard way of mounting a dot on a 1911 slide.  I like the idea of being able to leave the iron sights on the slide.  The picture showed keeping the rear sight, will there be room for the front sight as well?  One of the rails I looked at online had a cutout milled in the bottom to allow for the front sight.  Will that line up with the RO's front sight?

Sorry for all of the questions, but this new guy appreciates all of the help!

Doug

I put my Clark scope mounts on a couple of 1911's that had Bo-Mar ribs. I thought it would be a good idea to be able to replace the scope with the iron sight rib. After many years, I never went back to iron sights. I'd suggest, just removing the iron sights and having the rib mounted, since they are just dovetailed into place. It wouldn't be a big chore to put the iron sights back in place at a later date, if or when you decide to remove the scope mount.

Anyone use the Rock River Arms scope mount with the "charging handle" built into the scope base?  Any thoughts on it?

Thanks!

its good, but i have never used the cocker, the dot sits over it so thats what i use.

The Rock River mount is steel and therefore quite heavy compared to most of the dot mounts.  I checked with them and I seem to recall they said 6 oz, which is more than almost any sight you might choose.  With our light bullseye loads a 5 oz sight with a 6 oz mount might well be just too much weight on the slide to get reliable operation.  Even with a 10 lb spring you would probably have to up the powder charge to make it reliable, which goes in the opposite direction from reducing recoil effects.

Dstates,

You do have to cut or mill a slot in the rail to keep the front sight in place.

dstates wrote:Anyone use the Rock River Arms scope mount with the "charging handle" built into the scope base?  Any thoughts on it?

Thanks!

Most folks just grab the scope to open the slide. Another thought is that if you decide to remove the front and rear sights, it might be a good idea to put a witness mark on each so that when/ if you re-install them, you know where they were located prior to their removal.

I'm going to put my .02 on this one.  The RO is a great gun, but it is a LOUSY platform for a slide mounted dot.  Because of the low mount rear sight you loose about 20-25% of your mounting area on the slide.  For any slide mount that I'm aware of you lose the rear mounting hole.  And you either have to cut off the rear of the mount or fill in the slide where the rear sight was to get a solid mounting point.  I have done this job once, and I will not do it again.  If you want a dot gun, much better option to get a different platform to start with.

I disagree with KC on this one.  Even with the 3 holes, I don't even use loc-tite anymore.  There is more than enough clamping force to keep everything in place, and it stays rock solid until I take it off to shoot irons.

I use a minimum of four # 8 X 40 Torx heads, and some appplications such as the low mount Micros will have at least two # 10 screws.. I don't know about KC, but over the years I have repaired quite a few sheared off slide mounts. For slides where the rear sight cut exists, additional holes/screws can be added.
Jerry

I have the Rock River scope mount on 2 wadguns - mine are aluminum and I use the ears at the back to pull the slide back.
I never thought using the scope to pull the slide was a good idea.

The Rock River mount uses the same hole pattern as the Clark mount - I replaced a Clark mount with a Rock River.

Jerry,
Were the rails that sheared off using a scope heavier than a ultradot?  With my 3 screw setup working so well, there must be a difference.

I'm using the 1" ultradot with the included rings and an aluminum rail on a Springfield.  I never use loc-rite on any of it and have NO problems.

Hello Ray
That's great that your gun is doing so well....Some guns run forever with 3 or 4 No.# 6 screws.
The last rib to shear that I repaired belonged to Al Bacon.. quite a few years ago. He and I both agreed that a fail safe system would be ideal. That's when I started using #8 Torx. Those were Ultra Dot years.. I really like the "button heads" which distribute more force under the head.
If...the radius of the slide, and the rib are not exact, the clamping ability of that interface is compromised, and places more shear stress on the little #6s.  I would rather over engineer, than have a competitor have a failure at a major match, like Perry.
Jerry

How about a mount like this?

Casey, I don't know of anyone that has kept that grip mount.  They almost always work loose and are very hard to keep a zero on.

The early dot grip/mount...about 35 years ago..this shooter shot at the same club I belonged to in New Castle, Pa. 

I had one of those aimtech grip mounts before my slide mounted rail.  It worked well, didn't work loose, and kept a good zero.  The key is the fit against the grip bushings.

There are 2 extra pins that thread into that grip mount.  I never used those--they are a pain to get lined up and threaded in without cross threading.  As long as the grip bushings are a positive fit to the mount, and the grip screws are only holding the grip to the gun you will be fine.  If the screws are trying to prevent an elevation change, that just wont work.

I got rid of it because it's hard to clear a malfunction with that mount and the scope in the way--same as a frame mounted rail is... I just prefer the slide mounted scope for that reason.

I had a Clark mount put on mine. Local smith drilled and tapped the slide. I haven't had it on long but its working fine.

Jerry Keefer wrote:The early dot grip/mount...about 35 years ago..this shooter shot at the same club I belonged to in New Castle, Pa. 

Is that Joe Pascarella?

john bickar wrote:

Jerry Keefer wrote:The early dot grip/mount...about 35 years ago..this shooter shot at the same club I belonged to in New Castle, Pa. 

Is that Joe Pascarella?

Hello John;
Yes, that is Joe on the cover of American Rifleman 1980.. Oxford sight.. I had several of those.. Wish I had kept them for keep sakes/conversation pieces.. Joe was very very good.. and I believe the first to win Perry with a dot sight..
Jerry

Jerry Keefer wrote:

john bickar wrote:

Jerry Keefer wrote:The early dot grip/mount...about 35 years ago..this shooter shot at the same club I belonged to in New Castle, Pa. 

Is that Joe Pascarella?

Hello John;
Yes, that is Joe on the cover of American Rifleman 1980.. Oxford sight.. I had several of those.. Wish I had kept them for keep sakes/conversation pieces.. Joe was very very good.. and I believe the first to win Perry with a dot sight..
Jerry

IIRC Joe was the first to win with a dot, Lenardson was the last to win with irons. A revolution in the span of 15 years or so. 

I never met Joe but he was from my neck of the woods; I also shot at New Castle and throughout NE Ohio/Western PA.