A Beretta Cougar. That's what Charlie kept in his house as his main defensive pistol. A quality gun that he felt comfortable shooting and shot well. Charlie's eyesight is failing. He's older than most of us. He's up on a lot of the latest firearm trends and technology, and he decided he wanted a laser for the Cougar.
Problem is, many guns that were made not too long ago did not have rails under the dust cover like most mid-to-full size pistols do now. The Cougar was one of these. He went into a large local gun shop to purchase a laser for his gun. They said that there wasn't anything for it. This is not completely true. There are some trigger guard lasers by a variety of companies that will work. That is, they'll work for a shot or two, or a bunch. The problem is, they are attached to the trigger guard by shims and screws, and it's like taping a roll of dimes on your trigger guard. The recoil loosens the laser after so many shots and the aiming point moves, making the whole product unreliable, to say the very least. To put it bluntly, and this is what I tell customers; they are crap. Give your money to a homeless person instead. Junk, Junk, Junk. The Cougars, fine pistols that they are (although I've never really embraced the rotating bolt so far), don't have the part du jour, the accessory rail.
I told Charlie that if he wanted a good laser on a pistol, he has to have a pistol that would accept a good laser. I suggested a few of MY favorite guns as a starting point. Just because I like a particular gun doesn't mean that he should, though. Hand size, controls, country of manufacture, and many other attributes contribute to what constitutes a proper gun for the user. I can't tell you that you can't like a gun because it's made in Croatia or doesn't have a thumb safety or is striker fired or is plastic of some kind. A pistol is very personal, and that's why they make blue cars and green cars.
I suggested a Glock, an XD, and an M&P, explaining that these guns do not have traditional safeties like he was used to. I try to be brand-agnostic, but that doesn't mean that I'm not opinionated. He got a great trade-in for his Cougar, and bought a M&P compact .40. Great choice. He likes the .40 S&W cartridge for some reason. Can't blame him, and I even agree with him for many reasons. I shoot an old Glock 22 in competition.
I told him that if I was in his position, and for his main purpose, I would use a Crimson Trace Lasergrip and a Crimson Trace Lightguard on his superb new gun. His main purpose was the bedroom, not carry.
He bought the products I suggested.
He called me a few times over the next few days after he ordered, and OpticsPlanet delivered the in-stock items in two days. Since some people may consider Charlie an "old fart" because of his non-spring-chicken age, I thought that these calls on my cell phone may be regarding some kind of problem. Nope, nope, nope. He was thrilled. He installed the Lasergrip AND Lightguard in a perfect and minimum amount of time, perfectly, with no questions. Simple. Straightforward. Easy. Solid.
He went to the range and shot the gun with iron sights that were to point of aim. The laser was also to point of aim. I implored him to not take it for granted and that the easily-adjusted laser should be changed to the distance he was shooting with his particular ammo. He concurred it already was. This does not always happen, and it's easily adjusted to point of aim with iron sights as easy as pie with the included wrenches. The Lightguard was installed with two screws and does not need to be adjusted.
My father and his wife drove down from Arkansas to Texas to see Charlie for vacation. Charlie has had an ongoing problem with possums bothering their dogs. It was legal, and I'm not advocating this, but it was a perfect proof test of this defensive pistol's real-world capabilities….
The ugly mammal was again antagonizing their dogs just off their property, and they were barking up a blue flame of noise when Uncle Charlie whipped (whipped being a more descriptive term than factual) out his new Crimson Trace LightGuard and Laser Gripped pistol, rested it on his back porch railing and squeezed the trigger. The wry and frothing beast died immediately with a skeevy gaping hole through it's breadbasket and dropped to the ground to be scavenged by insects and vultures, never again to bother the faultless canines.
I suggested this combination to Charlie because I've used it well at the Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational last year, and now I have this same combo as my go-to defensive gun.
Buy these same products at OpticsPlanet. You will not be able to shoot in the dark as well without them, not even close. It took a midnight competition and stress to solidify this into my psyche, and this is the way I will continue.
The above picture is of my main BBQ gun, and a pistol that I carried for a dozen years as a private investigator. It is now enhanced with two of my favorite Crimson Trace products. And by the way, the company is superb in every way, one of the best I deal with. Kudos to Crimson Trace.
The Walther PP Lasergrip is discontinued, but check out their other great products.
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