Dot, no dot: the Glock 19 with an RMR after 2,000 rounds

I shot a **Glock 19** with iron sights exclusively for six years. In February I milled the slide for an **RMR Type 2** and have spent a full year running the same pistol in both configurations. This is what the data says, honestly.

## The baseline

I shot 2,147 rounds through the dotted configuration between February and last week. Same pistol. Same holster. Same ammunition (124gr FMJ for practice, 124gr +P Gold Dot for carry zero). Tracked split times, draw-to-first-shot times, and dot-torture scores at 3, 5, and 7 yards for the whole period.

I'm a B-class USPSA shooter in production. I'm not a professional. I am a real, trained amateur who shoots a lot.

## What got better

**First-shot accuracy at distance**, meaningfully. My 25-yard dot-torture scores went from high 30s to low 40s after about 400 rounds of acclimation. By 2,000 rounds I was shooting 47/50 pretty consistently. That's the biggest single improvement I have ever seen from an equipment change on this pistol.

**Low-light shooting**, significantly. The RMR in a dim environment is a different experience than a flashlight beam on iron sights. Not better or worse — different, and, for most real defensive scenarios, faster.

**Awkward shooting positions** — strong-hand-only, weak-hand-only, seated, prone — all got a little easier because the dot doesn't require the same alignment work the irons do. Present the pistol, find the dot, break the shot. The mechanics of finding the dot the first time are the learning curve.

## What didn't change

**Close-range speed shooting** under 5 yards, basically not at all. My 3-yard splits with irons were 0.17s; with a dot, 0.16s. Inside of car-length distances the dot is not a meaningful speed advantage, because I was already target-focused for those distances.

**Draw-to-first-shot times** at typical self-defense ranges, not really. Concealed draw from an AIWB holster was 1.42s with irons, 1.39s with a dot, averaged across 100 presentations each. That's noise.

## The learning curve is real

The first 300 rounds with a dotted pistol are humbling. I was regularly losing the dot on presentation — the pistol would come up and I'd see the window but not the dot, and I'd have to hunt for it. This is normal, and the fix is reps, not equipment.

What fixed it: slow, deliberate, focused presentations in dry fire, every morning, for six weeks. Around 2,000 dry-fire draws. The dot is there when I present the pistol now, every time. That did not happen overnight.

## The honest recommendation

If you are an average civilian concealed carrier who shoots 300–500 rounds a year and doesn't do structured dry fire, **don't put a dot on your carry pistol yet.** You will shoot it worse under stress than you shoot irons, because you won't put the reps in to build the presentation.

If you will put in the dry-fire work — 10 minutes a day, five days a week, for six weeks — the dot will make you a meaningfully better pistol shooter. After two years of owning one I would not voluntarily go back.

Both statements are true. The equipment is downstream of the practice. It always has been.