NixieTube
Blackhawk
This is just a preliminary review after having installed and tested the laser, but without having shot the gun+laser yet. I will follow up later.
I've been waiting for a while for either the price of the Viridian Green R5 laser for the LC9/LC9s/LC380 to drop or me to be willing to spend something like $200 on one, and it only went so far down this holiday season. So I took the rash and possibly inadvisable step of buying an out-of-box sample from an eBay seller for under $100. The seller was highly rated, and I still have 3 weeks to return the product with Buyer Protection so I took the plunge. I'm cheap. That may have been a mistake, time will tell, but read the rest of the preliminary:
For about $98 I got the R5 Green laser minus the factory box and instruction manual, but with all the rest of the kit, including the little allen wrench and "star" screwdriver wrench that are necessary for installation and adjustment. 2 sets of batteries, also.
Initial impressions:
1) You can download the manual from Viridian and it purports to tell you how to install this product on your gun. They show no illustrations and in fact I found the manual's information almost useless. When you install this product you should watch this video because it makes life easier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqyZ7IGvFA
He's installing one on an LCP but there's no important difference. Actually he shows the correct polarity of the batteries as they should be installed.
2) The laser itself is made well but it's a little tricky to get onto the frame of the LC9s. There are three screws (with tiny internal star heads) and the SMALL one should go on the BOTTOMmost position when the pistol is pointed the way it usually is. Small = Bottom = Recessed.
3) Put the LASER SIDE of the unit on the gun first. Guide it into place (it takes a little working) and snap it on there.
4) Install the batteries into the other side of the unit. Watch the video. There is a visible difference in the way the green plastic on the batteries looks when they're installed correctly.
Now, as Hickok45 says, hold your mouth right (this is the tricky part) and:
5) Finagle the little "tab" into place and gently force the whole thing together while holding the batteries in the other half of the housing and trying to let gravity work for you. If it sounds like a contradiction in terms, that's because it is. This is the worst aspect of installing this device: holding the batteries while getting it to fit together. It took three tries for me.
After a few tries, what will happen, assuming you have the battery polarity correct, is that you can press the two sides of the unit together and you'll see the little green LED battery light come on. That means you've done it right. The LED goes off after 2 seconds, so don't worry. The fact that you see it tells you that the unit is working.
6) Install the three screws with the supplied "screwdriver/wrench" and tighten them but don't go full Ahhnnold on them. I snugged them up gradually, moving from one to another. Remember, they're metal into plastic and you will have to remove them again when you replace the batteries. You strip the plastic, it's going to be a problem. If you cannot get the laser to cycle with the button after you've screwed it together, something's wrong.
Total Time: About 20 minutes the first time through. Whew! Now that's done. So what's it like?
Well, I wouldn't trust the whole thing in a war zone/combat situation where things are being battered around for very long. The housing is plastic and it has seams. However, it does fit very snugly to the gun once the screws are tightened. It should be fine for "real world defensive" use. It doesn't wiggle on the gun at all. It's well-fitted. The ECR (auto-on when drawn, auto-off when holstered) feature works with both the supplied holster and my Remora that was made to actuate it. The front edge of the Remora is sealed and at first I didn't believe the laser was actually shutting off/turning on, but I made a little tool to look and it really does.
First Impression: If you've never held a small pistol with a laser before, the first time you do is a kind of revelation. There's definitely a "wow" factor. It's amazing to see how steadily you can really hold the gun from almost any position, even at longer distances. The laser itself is BRIGHT. It's superbright, in fact. Maybe even too bright indoors. I can see it on fresh snow in the daylight, and in a darkened room it's WOW bright. If you did the installation correctly, the unit will be *solidly* affixed to the gun and it won't move. You will move the gun before you'll move the laser once the two halves of the housing are screwed together.
At "across the room" distance without doing anything to the windage and elevation adjustments (which are what one of the hex keys are for), the laser is almost perfectly aligned with the front sight. This is maybe 25 feet. So far so good, it's not pointing far off.
Next up are objective measurements. I'm taking it to the range, doing my best to zero it, and shooting 4 magazines: 1 Without Laser, 1 With Laser, then repeat both, at 50 feet. Yes, I will post the targets.
So far my ratings are:
1) Basic concept - 9/10
2) Installation - 5/10
3) Post Installation Results - 9/10
4) Accuracy and Improvement in the Real World - To Be Determined
5) Reliability - To Be Determined
If the latter two work out well for under $100 I'll be very pleased. I still have three weeks to send it back if anything goes wrong, and I have the feeling that Viridian would fix it anyway if I sent them this post and my receipts. So far so good. And it adds virtually *no* weight to the gun with almost no penalty in concealment - the Remora holster, if anything, retains the gun better now, the way it was supposed to.
[Update: One thing I didn't add - because people have probably seen pictures of this unit already - but it should be said anyway. The laser truly looks like it was made *with* the gun. It's more impressive up close than it is in photos because it really does look as though it was all factory, except for the small "Viridian" logos, which are done in a very muted way (thanks for not slapping a big garish logo on it, Viridian.) The surface finish of the laser unit is very close to the surface finish of the LC9s, so the whole thing really looks "together." There's nothing to snag.]
I've been waiting for a while for either the price of the Viridian Green R5 laser for the LC9/LC9s/LC380 to drop or me to be willing to spend something like $200 on one, and it only went so far down this holiday season. So I took the rash and possibly inadvisable step of buying an out-of-box sample from an eBay seller for under $100. The seller was highly rated, and I still have 3 weeks to return the product with Buyer Protection so I took the plunge. I'm cheap. That may have been a mistake, time will tell, but read the rest of the preliminary:
For about $98 I got the R5 Green laser minus the factory box and instruction manual, but with all the rest of the kit, including the little allen wrench and "star" screwdriver wrench that are necessary for installation and adjustment. 2 sets of batteries, also.
Initial impressions:
1) You can download the manual from Viridian and it purports to tell you how to install this product on your gun. They show no illustrations and in fact I found the manual's information almost useless. When you install this product you should watch this video because it makes life easier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqyZ7IGvFA
He's installing one on an LCP but there's no important difference. Actually he shows the correct polarity of the batteries as they should be installed.
2) The laser itself is made well but it's a little tricky to get onto the frame of the LC9s. There are three screws (with tiny internal star heads) and the SMALL one should go on the BOTTOMmost position when the pistol is pointed the way it usually is. Small = Bottom = Recessed.
3) Put the LASER SIDE of the unit on the gun first. Guide it into place (it takes a little working) and snap it on there.
4) Install the batteries into the other side of the unit. Watch the video. There is a visible difference in the way the green plastic on the batteries looks when they're installed correctly.
Now, as Hickok45 says, hold your mouth right (this is the tricky part) and:
5) Finagle the little "tab" into place and gently force the whole thing together while holding the batteries in the other half of the housing and trying to let gravity work for you. If it sounds like a contradiction in terms, that's because it is. This is the worst aspect of installing this device: holding the batteries while getting it to fit together. It took three tries for me.
After a few tries, what will happen, assuming you have the battery polarity correct, is that you can press the two sides of the unit together and you'll see the little green LED battery light come on. That means you've done it right. The LED goes off after 2 seconds, so don't worry. The fact that you see it tells you that the unit is working.
6) Install the three screws with the supplied "screwdriver/wrench" and tighten them but don't go full Ahhnnold on them. I snugged them up gradually, moving from one to another. Remember, they're metal into plastic and you will have to remove them again when you replace the batteries. You strip the plastic, it's going to be a problem. If you cannot get the laser to cycle with the button after you've screwed it together, something's wrong.
Total Time: About 20 minutes the first time through. Whew! Now that's done. So what's it like?
Well, I wouldn't trust the whole thing in a war zone/combat situation where things are being battered around for very long. The housing is plastic and it has seams. However, it does fit very snugly to the gun once the screws are tightened. It should be fine for "real world defensive" use. It doesn't wiggle on the gun at all. It's well-fitted. The ECR (auto-on when drawn, auto-off when holstered) feature works with both the supplied holster and my Remora that was made to actuate it. The front edge of the Remora is sealed and at first I didn't believe the laser was actually shutting off/turning on, but I made a little tool to look and it really does.
First Impression: If you've never held a small pistol with a laser before, the first time you do is a kind of revelation. There's definitely a "wow" factor. It's amazing to see how steadily you can really hold the gun from almost any position, even at longer distances. The laser itself is BRIGHT. It's superbright, in fact. Maybe even too bright indoors. I can see it on fresh snow in the daylight, and in a darkened room it's WOW bright. If you did the installation correctly, the unit will be *solidly* affixed to the gun and it won't move. You will move the gun before you'll move the laser once the two halves of the housing are screwed together.
At "across the room" distance without doing anything to the windage and elevation adjustments (which are what one of the hex keys are for), the laser is almost perfectly aligned with the front sight. This is maybe 25 feet. So far so good, it's not pointing far off.
Next up are objective measurements. I'm taking it to the range, doing my best to zero it, and shooting 4 magazines: 1 Without Laser, 1 With Laser, then repeat both, at 50 feet. Yes, I will post the targets.
So far my ratings are:
1) Basic concept - 9/10
2) Installation - 5/10
3) Post Installation Results - 9/10
4) Accuracy and Improvement in the Real World - To Be Determined
5) Reliability - To Be Determined
If the latter two work out well for under $100 I'll be very pleased. I still have three weeks to send it back if anything goes wrong, and I have the feeling that Viridian would fix it anyway if I sent them this post and my receipts. So far so good. And it adds virtually *no* weight to the gun with almost no penalty in concealment - the Remora holster, if anything, retains the gun better now, the way it was supposed to.
[Update: One thing I didn't add - because people have probably seen pictures of this unit already - but it should be said anyway. The laser truly looks like it was made *with* the gun. It's more impressive up close than it is in photos because it really does look as though it was all factory, except for the small "Viridian" logos, which are done in a very muted way (thanks for not slapping a big garish logo on it, Viridian.) The surface finish of the laser unit is very close to the surface finish of the LC9s, so the whole thing really looks "together." There's nothing to snag.]
