Need opinions and recommendations on which way to go. I'm thing about a G19 MOS but, I already own a Gen 3 G19 and am considering just buying a slide for it. looking at the following.

https://suarezinternational.com/suarez-supermatch-si-319-trijicon-rmr-slide-for-gen-3-g19-black/

Any input would be appreciated.

Well I had to request a refund to get my slide.   After requesting a refund, since I couldn't do a charge back because I waited too long due to Suarez delay tactics BEFORE COVID. I finally received my slide.  

I was warned before hand, but I ignored them.  I will tell you as others told me.  Research Suarez.

Anyhow, here is a pic. The insert it comes with was written by some A$$hole too.  Pretty much says "don't call us" if it doesn't work.  Let it break in.
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It functions fine.

I bought a Brownells slide with RMR cutout for my 19 Gen 3. Then I put all Glock Internals in the slide. So far I haven’t had any issues, but don’t trust it to carry yet. As far as transitioning to the dot I have just been doing a lot of dry fire to get used to it.

Zaffiri Precision makes nice slides too. If you can get them.
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Drifting.  Don't look for the dot, that will be slow.  Look for the irons as before and let the dot magically appear.

To be clear I have never handled the MOS so there is that.  

Everything I read was there were issues with MOS from the bolt length to plate sizes, to general quality issues.  Probably all resolved by Glock by now.  

However, I liked the idea of getting a special cut slide or getting a slide dedicated just to the RMR I was getting.  So I had no qualms about not getting an MOS.  I wanted to extra cuts for racking and I wanted it to look a little different than all my other glocks.  I have never bought a Zev gun but always wanted to. Now was my chance to dip into that type of slide.

As stated above the Zaffiri slides are great and have functioned well.  
The Suarez slide was a pain to get even before all the madness, but it functions fine.  

I really enjoy red dots, even on my carry piece.  My eyes are going to crap and it REALLY HELPS.
We do dualing tree competitions and I was getting sick of my friend killing me with his RDS carry piece.  Now we are back to a fair competition.

I have two slides machined for red dot sights, but both are G17.3... a Swensen slide from Midway with a Vortex Venom, and a factory slide machined by BattleWerx with a Trijicon RMR2... the less expensive option was to have the factory slide milled by BattleWerx for around $85 and that used the existing Heinie Slant Pro sight... a set of Dawson Precision co witness sights $65 went on the Swensen slide....the machine work from BattleWerx is outstanding  ... the machine work including Dawson sights was cheaper than the Swensen slide alone

A year ago I would have said "Why buy a slide when you can buy a whole new G19MOS for the price of 2 slides", but...

Now try finding either in stock

I went the Gen 5 G19 MOS route; the factory plate is ok, but you need to make sure the factory plate is actually level. Some of them aren't, as they are cast/machined, and they may not be perfectly flat. If that's the case, it'll flex and eventually break the screws mounting the plate to the gun, which is all kinds of fun to fix..

If you go the MOS route and use the factory plate, these screws are what I used to secure it. They're the perfect length and correct pitch; almost like they were made for the application. If there's better screws out there, I'd love to find out so I can switch to those...

If you don't stay with the factory plates, the Forward Control Design plates would be my go-to; Duffy is in the Glock subforum here and he churns those plates out...I'd buy one from him without a second thought.

Check out Sage Dynamics’ videos - lots of good information, instructional content and rigorous torture tests of various pistol optics. He’s not too crazy about the Glock mos system.

This is horrible advice. Do not look for your irons. Keep target focused and work on your presentation to get the dot to drop into view from 12.00.

I've actually undertaken the transition to pistol with RDS as well.

After doing my research I concluded that ZEV was a good way to go for the slide. Since their merger with Mega Arms they have one of the most impressive shops in my opinions in the firearms industry, they've been in business for some time and have a good reputation.  It follows that they therefore have some good tooling and an experienced work force and that's critical.  Also, I will say that it helped that I heard from Lucas Botkin of T.Rex Arms that he was a fan of the ZEV slides and had heard good things about them from Trijicon sales reps.  Apparently the ZEV slides are known for having a very low slide cut that makes picking up the dot easier when presenting the pistol correctly.  

The lead times are what they are right now. After about two weeks from when I ordered ZEV sent me an email telling me that my order would take about an additional four weeks to ship, which is fine since that is within their advertised lead times for the slide right now on their website and I knew that going in.  Still, I was pleased to see that they have such efficient customer service that THEY email their customers to update them on the progress of their purchase's shipment.

From what I understand the best way to transition to a red dot is to master your presentation of the pistol.  The more consistent one draws and presents the pistol the more likely you'll have the RMR's dot in your line of sight, or so the reasoning of some people far more experienced than I am goes.  That's a great thing too, because it means with a lot of dry fire practice I can improve myself, which is good during this ammunition shortage.  

Honestly, for my first pistol RDS I had considered the Trijicon SRO as a good entry into the red dot world.  However, unfortunately the Safariland holsters that I like do not accept the SRO without modification and I'm hesitant to modify something that has to work (would suck if I couldn't draw the pistol free from the retention system). I was less concerned about the durability than the holster issue.  I looked at the Aimpoint and wasn't very happy with its battery life.  I looked at the Holosuns, but from what I understand they are manufactured in China and I don't trust anything made in China enough to depend upon it no matter how good the reputation. So, I'm not a big fan of the RMR's open emitter or the need to to have to take it off to change the battery and rezero, but life is often a series of trade offs.  

From what I understand the RMR screws require a T10 Torx bit and I'm using a torque driver to screw it down when I get it at approximately 10 inch pounds with blue locktite applied.  The zeroing is going to be a process.  I have Ameriglo Suppressor height sights coming that are blacked out, they are strictly back-up sights and I didn't see any reason to clutter my sight picture with any fiber post or night sight.  I'm going to be installing those sights myself and I'll need to sight those in and bring my universal sight pusher tool to the range. Frank Proctor recommends 25 yard zero for irons and says that you should be shooting a 2 to 3 inch group at that distance, of course, resting the pistol on a stable surface.  Then I'll have to go back home and install the RMR, clean the screws in acetone let them dry, apply locktite and torque to the spec then allowing the locktite to cure overnight before going back to the range to zero.  For the red dot I've heard everyone recommend something different, some say zero for 10, some say 15, some say go out to 25.  I think I'm going to start at 10 and go to 15 for the red dot and then try for 25, it should be a process.

I'm curious what others here have to say about zero distance. From what I understand there isn't that big a variance between 10, 15, and 25 yard zero distances. I'm also waiting for a new barrel and that could take me until mid March unfortunately, so it might be awhile before I can zero anyways so I'm doing my research in the meantime before I make a firm decision.

The other issue of concern for me is ammunition.  If I zero it then I want to zero it for a specific type of ammunition.  If I zero it with expensive Federal HST or other defensive ammo then it will be off when I'm using range ammo and presumably that should make a difference that could lead to issues.  I don't want to train and get used to my POA and POI with one ammo and then have something different for defense.  To that end, I'm considering going with 124 grain NATO pressure FMJ ammo for the zeroing and using that for defensive loads as well.  Not ideal, but I may at some point get a second ZEV slide and RMR then zero that for practice and zero the other ZEV RMR slide for defensive loads.

To me accuracy is king.  I spend probably a lot more time on accuracy work than I do on anything else, because I think it's the area of pistol use that requires the most skill.  Pistol draw, presentation, and manipulation are in my mind a bit easier to do especially since you can dry fire practice those things a lot more than you can actually firing that is necessary to improve accuracy.  I am going with the RMR with the 3.25 MOA as a start, but I hope to be able to in a year or so go to the 1 MOA dot.  However, I didn't want to go down to the 1 MOA for my first go. I feel like the 3.25 MOA for me is a good starter dot size.  

Sorry, random thoughts spilled out in an incredibly too long post, but I wanted to share my thoughts and open them up to critique.

@MeatPopsicle how do you sight it in with out using the front sight as a reference ? I was told you needed suppressor height sights for co witness.  I need some learnin thanks

My RDS guns do have suppressor sights on them, and I do "bore sight" the RDS with the front sight and then adjust from there.
All the pictures I have posted have sites I got from that creepy guy who has the "precious videos" LOL, can't remember his name.  If you can't tell from the angle of the picture, they are just as you stated, suppressor sights.


ETA:  I think you are addressing the person who said not to look for sights.  Maybe that works for them.  I side with taking motions "as if you were going to look for your sights".  Most everyone I know (many who shoot for a living) just pull out as if they are going to look for their front sight and then capture the red dot.  
Not quite that simple, but after some eye training, your eye catches on and there is definitely a learning curve.  
This is the first I have ever heard of not using the front sight.

Draw like you normally would. Don't see the dot? Move your head and don't move the gun...%99.9 of the time, you'll find the dot will be on (roughly) what you're aiming at, even if you can't see it. Keep practicing drawing, with an eye towards adjusting your draw to meet your eye. It does take some practice to work out. Iron sights are pretty apparent so a lot of the time when you draw you're moving your head/eyes to meet your sights as you bring the sights up, and you can keep it all in your field of vision give-or-take. With a red dot, that's a little harder...so work on bringing the sight up a little more.

15 minutes of draw/dry fire a day will do massive wonders for your presentation, if you practice correctly. Bad practice ruins things; you want to make sure you're practicing the good stuff, not the bad stuff. Go slow, take your time, build up your muscle memory, etc..

Check out Scott Jedlinski’s “Modern Samurai Project”. He’s in my opinion a good instructor for pistol RDS use.

I’ve been carrying Glock 19s with irons for over 20 years. Back in October, I bought a Gen 5 MOS, FCD plate, black Ameriglo suppressor sights and RM06. I could not possibly be happier with my decision. I spent a few days practicing drawing and dry firing at home before taking it to the range and it’s very natural.

It’s faster onto target, much faster engaging multiple targets and shooting on the move and far easier to make precision shots, especially at longer range.

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Currently sitting on 5 dotted handguns. Only reason I don't have more is because I have not been able to find a good buy on a hammer fired optic ready gun or a good buy on single stack optics.

What I can weigh in on.

I have 2 MOS guns. One with factory plates and one with a C&H plate. The C&H plate makes the gun a viable option to use for anything. The standard MOS leaves a lot to be desired and honestly keeps me from carrying this gun in any kind of serious role. Both guns are fitted with RMR's.
I have a Unity Tactical Atom slide with irons in front of the optic. If you don't know this system, it is a plate system that uses a DOVETAIL to make the lock up tight. Designed for the use of a t/h-1 aimpoint on a glock slide. I got this in a deal and it has been lights out. EDC gun has this slide and an rmr on it.
I recently sent a 23 and a 30s to Battleworx for cuts. The 30 with irons forward and the 23 with standard cut. I am not sure the 23 will stick around so I wanted it to be "normal" optic cut for other if it moves. These guns are both OEM slides. This is best budget option as well as one of the toughest.

I have had Rockslide slides that were total shit. RMR cut that would not fit an rmr. And I understand what a TIGHT FIT is.  
I had two brownells slides that were pretty nice, just the Atom slide ate them alive so they went.

I will push anyone to have IRONS FORWARD OF OPTIC cuts done. It is much pleasing to the eyes. And I also think it will help with anyone new to the idea. It keeps a slightly less cluttered eye box, in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Bev

If you have an RDS pistol:

1.  What range did you zero your back-up irons at?  25 yards?

2.  What did you accept as an acceptable group size for your final irons' zero?

3.  What range did you zero your RDS at?

3.  What did you accept as an acceptable group size for your final zero for the RDS?

This


And this.

I took Scott’s class last year after struggling with the dot life. It was well worth it.