Lasers. This isn’t an easy topic to capture on a web page, or from the convention floor. But watch the video above, and you’ll get a good idea what Crimson Trace has been up to. The skinny is this: they’re making grips and guide rod lasers for the most popular guns, and they’re making everything smaller, brighter, and increasing run times.
Take the new Rail Master. It is a green laser, visible out to 40 feet in daylight. It is half the size of the previous unit, and it runs for two full hours! This is the single biggest problem with lasers. You put them on your guns, train with them, and then forget they’re there. After a while, you draw your gun and the laser craps out because the battery is dead. With a two hour run time, that’s far less likely to happen.
Crimson Trace is also a very responsive company. While it has taken them a year to get out lasers for the GLOCK 42, that is only because they refuse to deliver anything they wouldn’t trust their own lives to. Lasers are notoriously delicate. And we strap them to, or install them in, guns. It would seem a bit counter-intuitive, but they make it work. Their GLOCK 42 lasers will be out shortly, and the Ruger LCRx grip is close behind. And they’re always working on new options. Check out their page to see what’s available.
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I have 6 or so CT red laser grips for revolvers (S&W 686, Jframe 642/637, Ruger GP100 and semi-autos (Sig P226, P237 and Beretta 92). The older revolver designs made more sense: front activation button & rubber overmold with finger grooves. There has been no standard button design. The side activation buttons are crap. The hard polymer grips are crap. The activation button must be large enough and capture the shooters finger with a finger groove. E.g., CT\’s 1911 design has no finger groove. Your finger can slip off the button. The Sig P226 front activation design /plastic design has a button so small it won\’t activate with a normal hold because on my left hand my finger falls between it and the bottom of the trigger guard. Some people have resorted to gluing rubber patches over these in order to make them work. I don\’t know if they have a good working relationship with Hogue or not, but they should. Hogue (and Pachmyer) know grips, CT does not understand shooter ergonomics, they know lasers.
I have no experience with green lasers; only red. However, I wanted to mention a couple of things anyone might want to consider if they’re trying to decide what color laser best suits their desires. I have noticed that the claimed battery life of green lasers can often be less than that of a red laser. I would assume that could be due to the efficiency. While green lasers might be easier to see in daylight, I also read somewhere that they are also easier to see where the laser is coming from – which could certainly be a tactical disadvantage. I would suggest that if you are in the market for a laser; to do the research to make the best choice for your use.
The instant you turn that laser not only are you painting a bulls eye on your intended target, you also are showing your position to anybody out of your line of sight.
I have dealt with Crimson Trace when they first started in the 1990’s and as far as I am concerned they have always been ahead of the “curve” in lasers. They were the first company to come up with a laser ensconsed in the hand grip while the few other lasers offered at that time were large bulky “add ons” that prohibited use of a standard holster. As far as being responsive is concerned, they worked with me to modify a set of their lasergrips to fit my double stack ParaOrdnnce P12.45. This pistol has been equipped with a stainless steel, match grade, throated & polished barrel and an extended slide release and is very accurate out to 25 yards with the laser. To this date, to my knowledge, I believe I have the only double stack high capacity Para pistol equipped with a Crimson LaserGrip as I believe they only made LaserGrip units for single stack 1911 pistols
Which laser grips did they start with? Also have a P12-45 and desire a laser for it.
I don’t know about “responsive company.” I’ve been after them for two years to put a green laser in their wood grips for a 1911. I mean, how hard can it be to switch out a red one to a green one?
Green lasers are actually two lasers. The first laser is necessary to “pump up” the second, green laser. So it’s a bit more complicated than just switching out one laser for another. Two lasers, their power wiring, the electronic circuitry to control both, and other equipment have to be configured so that they fit into their mounts and so that they’re capable of taking the shock of being used on a firearm.
See http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_lasr5.htm for an idea of the complexity of green laser pointing devices.
I too have been in touch with crimson trace asking for green lasers in the 901 grips. They seem to be deaf to the fact that us gun owners are asking for green lasers products, maybe they need to sell off their present inventory of red lasers before they produce green ones.
It took 67 years to produce a blue LED, and the guys that did it got a Nobel prize.
Up until very recently, the only green lasers available were DPSS: a diode and two crystals, precisely aligned. They’re delicate, hot-running, and downhill of 20% efficient. The fact that anyone uses them in a weapon light is bewildering to me.
Direct green diodes have only recently become commercially available, and the fact that CT is already implementing them is pretty impressive.
I’ll stick with my Viridian X5l Gen 2 on my glock.1 year to come out with a trigger guard laser ,that’s pretty bad.