French MacLean, Author at The Fifth Field

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So far French MacLean has created 264 blog entries.

This Day in History: January 20

Siegfried Engfer

On January 20, 1943, Major Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke, the commodore of the 3rd Fighter Wing (Jagdgeschwader 3) submitted a special recommendation for promotion to commissioned officer for Master Sergeant Siegfried Engfer. Wilcke wrote:

“I request that Master Sergeant Siegfried Engfer be promoted to officer due to his courage against the enemy. As to the evaluation, I agree with the opinion of his group commander dated December 12, 1942. As an officer, Engfer will use his talents to lead young fighter pilots against the enemy to a still greater extent. His appearance is modest and reserved. He takes care to advance himself and will continue to develop the bearing and understanding of an officer.” (Luftwaffe Efficiency and Promotion Reports for the Knight’s Cross Winners)

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Tiger Tank of the Totenkopf at Kursk

Norbert Kochesser was born in the Austrian capital of Vienna on January 16, 1924; as a child he suffered from diphtheria. He was a member of the Hitler Youth from November 1936 to January 1941. He joined the SS on January 20, 1941 and the Waffen-SS on August 1, 1942, listing his profession as a student. At Kursk, SS-Panzerschütze Kochesser served as a loader on a Tiger in the 9th(Heavy) Company of the Totenkopf Division. He was killed in action on July 30-31, 1943 assaulting the fortified defenses at Hill 213.9 east of Stepanivka on the Mius front. The company likely conducted a hasty burial of his remains on August 2. Norbert Kochesser is probably buried with the unknowns in the German War Cemetery at Kharkov in which rest the remains of 47,322 German soldiers. (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)

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Chicago Crime Calendar

On January 20, 1978, the body of Bernie Ryan, part of John Mendell’s burglary crew, was found in his 1976 Lincoln Continental, in Stone Park. He was shot four times, and his throat was slit.

This Day in History: January 20French MacLean2024-12-25T13:23:19-06:00

Dying Hard — Sleep

This is a typical description in the School of the Soldier section at the end of most chapters.

Sleep – For many an infantryman he is always tired. Really tired; in fact, after the war, a Hürtgen veteran stated: “I saw men die under artillery fire because they were so tired that they were only able to scratch the outline of a foxhole in the dirt.”⁶³ Move here; move there. Carry this; carry that; now carry some more. Dig a foxhole all day; now go out on patrol tonight. Then go back in your foxhole and spend half of the rest of the night awake on security. And tomorrow? Do it all over again.

So, soldiers learn how to sleep in conditions that seem impossible to others. They are ingenious in staying dry enough to fall asleep, when water is dripping from overhanging trees, or oozing up from the wet ground below. Loud noises, causing civilians to wake up startled, are seemingly ignored by soldiers apparently slumbering in infant bliss. Once you get used to a few mortar rounds falling in your general vicinity, you can get used to almost anything. But don’t give in to the urge to sleep in captured bunkers; the straw inside is full of fleas and lice.

As to sleeping surfaces, GIs appear can almost levitate to be comfortable – curling around large rocks, avoiding sharp jutting roots, and steering clear of ground that might appear dry now, but will be damp by morning. Louis Benoist wrote about sleep: “You know you have seen pictures of infantrymen sleeping wherever they hit the ground. It can be done – I do it. After so long a time you have to get used to it. Not so bad when you do. After your hips get tough the ground gets pretty soft.” Some soldiers even claim they can slip into a sleeplike trance while walking – trudging one foot ahead of the other in thousands of repetitions – all the while staying the proper distance behind the trooper in front of him.

After the war, former combat soldiers – now fathers and grandfathers – can seemingly take a short catnap anywhere: the sofa; the ballgame; outside in the backyard, at the beach; listening to the wife, all while the kids and grandkids are running around screaming, crashing into furniture, playing tag, lighting fireworks, and causing general auditory mayhem.

Dying Hard — SleepFrench MacLean2025-01-08T16:12:03-06:00

Not Just Another “War” Book

Dying Hard is not just another war book. It is also about how Americans lived back in the World War II years. For example, you’ll read how soldiers back then scrounged and liberated alcohol, because, “No one is more creative than American service members at obtaining booze. They drink to celebrate; they drink to reduce stress; they drink to relieve boredom; they drink to avoid facing the images of terror slinking through the dark recesses of their minds; and they drink just to get gassed.”

Even General George Patton got in the act, writing home to his wife about a special Old Fashioned cocktail, that he had helped create. If he made it with his favorite bourbon, it went as follows: I.W. Harper’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; “melt up a teaspoon of orange marmalade in a glass; add whiskey and stir; then add ice and drink; it is swell. You put a little water in first to melt the marmalade it [doesn’t] melt well in whiskey.”

You’ll read about the boxing fight for the heavy-weight championship of the world between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling. And how that was so important in society. 70 million people listened to the fight on radio in the US, as did a further 100 million around the world. Because there was no TV back then. You had to visualize in your mind what was going on.

And you’ll see how America’s most well-known Big Band leader, Glenn Miller, ended up in the US Army instead of the US Navy.

Then there’s baseball and its impact on America in this era. And Company B got into that act as well, when prior to the war, the future Company B first sergeant, Joe Gravino, signed a Major League contract to play for the St. Louis Cardinals — not a farm team, but on the big club under Billy Southworth in St. Louis!

Just another war book? Not hardly. But you will read about how Bob Hope got his start, and how his USO show wasn’t just entertainment — although that was really important. But more significantly, Bob Hope passed on what he sees overseas to the loved ones of these soldiers – who viewed his visits as vicarious travels they cannot make: “I was there. I saw your sons and your husbands, your brothers, and your sweethearts. I saw how they worked, played, fought, and lived. I saw some of them die. I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.”

Not Just Another “War” BookFrench MacLean2025-01-07T14:11:16-06:00

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying Hard

The following review comes from quite a remarkable US Army Infantry officer:

“I just finished Dying Hard. Wow! What a great read. You have captured the visceral feel of what the charter members of the Greatest Generation were so silent about. Your research is evident on every page and it makes the reading interesting, informative, and enjoyable. I do my reading in the last hour and a half every night. I found myself looking forward to that time during the day and in a few cases, like today, I cheated and read during the day.

I hope somehow that the children and descendants of the solders you write about know about the book. What joy and pride it would / will bring to them when they read it. I know the effort it must have taken to get the firsthand accounts and the diligence it took in your research to mine such great information and personal detail.

Your history of the company during the Battle of the Bulge gave the reader a great feel for the frustration and challenges leaders at the squad, platoon, and company level had to endure. The constant rotation of soldiers in and out of the company must have been frustrating and disheartening to leaders at every level. Reading Jack Dunlap’s detailed daily reports lays out exactly what junior leaders had to overcome to get the even simplest things done.

I recently read, Antony Beevor’s Ardennes 1944. Dying Hard gives a much better view of what that battle was like for the common soldier, not just the fighting but the challenges of everyday life as a grunt. Dying Hard introduced me to Paddy Flint. What a hero and great leader who understood how to inspire his entire unit with his lead from the front and deeds not words leadership.

I very much enjoyed the School of the Solder. It brought back many memories. This 30 veteran learned some things I did not know about the gear that I carried for three decades. It’s funny, my Dad gave the same advice about not playing cards with Sergeants. I caught myself several times wiping a tear from my eye as I read about the great soldiers lives during and after the war. They truly were the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation.

I am glad that you have written a book about one of the many units that were not elite or famous. These were the yeoman units that really won the war but unfortunately got very little press, praise, or recognition. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Dying Hard. You have helped me decide on what to buy my son for Christmas. The research is exceptional, and the writing is wonderful. It stands among the very best WWII reads I have had.”

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying HardFrench MacLean2025-01-08T16:08:13-06:00

Dying Hard — Selected Quotations

Below are a few captions that accompany some of the excellent photos in the book, so you know what to expect!

The Town Pump – Fayetteville 1942. The fights, brawls, and near-riots here involving soldiers of the 9th Infantry and 82nd Airborne proved that the US Army had found its “hard core of scrappers.” Note 9th Infantry patch on bottom center soldier.

Company B sprinted across the Remagen bridge under heavy fire on March 10, 1945. “When we got to the end we found a captain and his driver in a jeep burning like an inferno, a direct hit.”

When the Army issued a few beers to soldiers off the line, such as to the 9th Infantry in November 1944, it was just bowing to the inevitable, because no one is more creative than American service members at obtaining booze.

Private Snafu – goofy, ignorant, and obnoxious; star of 25 episodes of short US War Department black and white films instructing soldiers what not to do. One of the best was “Episode 5 – The Infantry Blues.” Most were written by Theodor Geisel, later author of children’s books under the pen name of Dr. Seuss.

Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint outside his headquarters, England in 1944. The 39th Infantry took on his fighting spirit and trademark AAAO. The black handkerchief? Paddy explained, “It’s the pirate in me!”

Front gate Merode Castle. Bouncing Betty landmines, barbed wire, machine guns and snipers could not prevent First Battalion from storming the castle.

39th Infantry medics transfer wounded from sled to jeep and Weasel near Höfen January 31, 1945.

First photo of American forces liberating Stalag VI G April 13, 1945. Unit chaplains organize a religious service for the prisoners.

Major General Joseph Lawton “Lightning Joe” Collins during Merode attack. When the corps commander is watching your attack, you know you’ll get plenty of supporting artillery.

Dying Hard — Selected QuotationsFrench MacLean2024-11-30T14:44:27-06:00

Initial Thoughts on Dying Hard

An initial review from an “old” US Army Infantry colonel after reading Dying Hard:

I just finished Dying Hard. Wow! What a great read. You have captured the visceral feel of what the charter members of the Greatest Generation were so silent about. You research is evident on every page and it makes the reading interesting, informative, and enjoyable. I do my reading in the last hour and a half every night. I found myself looking forward to that time during the day and in a few cases, like today, I cheated and read during the day.

Dying Hard gives a much better view of what that battle was like for the common soldier, not just the fighting but the challenges of everyday life as a grunt. Dying Hard [also] introduced me to Paddy Flint. What a hero and great leader who understood how to inspire his entire unit with his lead from the front and deeds not words leadership. I want to learn more about him. His letter to Gen. Bradley was prophetic.

I very much enjoyed the School of the Soldier. It brought back many memories. This 30 veteran learned some things I did not know about the gear that I carried for three decades. It’s funny, my Dad gave the same advice about not playing cards with Sergeants. I caught myself several times wiping a tear from my eye as I read about the great soldiers lives during and after the war. They truly were the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation.

One of the big surprises to me was the number of times solders were wounded, many 2-3 times. Some used the wound to get out of the war, but the number who just wanted to get back to B company is a testament to the kind of men we bred back then.

I am glad that you have written a book about one of the many units that were not elite or famous. These were the yeoman units that really won the war but unfortunately got very little press, praise, or recognition. I particularly enjoyed following your father’s story line in the book. His story is fascinating. To survive the combat and then the Stalag was quite an accomplishment.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Dying Hard. You have helped me decide on what to buy my son for Christmas. I have and will recommend it to all my friends as a must read.

Dying Hard stands among the very best WWII reads I have had. The research is exceptional, and the writing is wonderful.

Initial Thoughts on Dying HardFrench MacLean2024-12-28T15:04:26-06:00

Dying Hard — Table of Contents

The American Army

Foreword – The American Soldier

Introduction – “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”

Preface/Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 – Long Ago and Far Away, Ft. Bragg

Includes: Marksmanship Training; The Letter; Goldbricking; Mess Halls

Chapter 2 – The Old Reliables, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily & England

Includes: Your Helmet; Private Snafu; Combat Fatigue; Mustangs; Officers & Sergeants; Combat Infantryman Badge; Bob Hope; The Army Way; Wounds

Chapter 3 – The Americans are coming! Across France & Belgium

Includes: Medics; Bazooka; Hooch; Sleep; Krauts, Jerries, Huns, Heinies & Fritz; IV-Fs & Jody; Tiger Tank; Guardian Angel

Chapter 4 – The Hell of the Hürtgen

Includes: May Hosiery Mill; Navigating through the Woods; C-Rations & K-Rations; German Discipline; M1s & BARs; Mortars; Maps; Pneumonia; Sounds

Chapter 5 – The Hohes Venn, Elsenborn Ridge (1), Merode Castle

Includes: Trench Foot; Unit Call Signs; Latrines; Gas Masks; Deuce and a Half; Foxholes; Booby Traps; The Uniform; Foraging, Scrounging & Looting; Radios; Infantry Tactics; Penicillin; Malmedy

Chapter 6 – Battle of the Bulge, Elsenborn Ridge (2), Kalterherberg

Includes: Glenn Miller; Hey Joe. Whaddya know?; Spam; Continental Stockade; Barbed Wire; Fruitcake; Victory Mail

Chapter 7 – Mac’s War Stalag VI G

Includes: Dog Tags; Missing in Action; Typhus

Chapter 8 – Dying a Man at a Time

Includes: Repple Depots; Silver Star; Snipers; Beware Traitor…the Werwolf Watches

Chapter 9 – “Show Me the Way to Go Home”

Includes: Operation Downfall

Conclusion – “I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me”

Includes: where every soldier who died in the final year of the war is buried

Epilogue – The Silent Generation

Includes: postwar information on many of the soldiers who survived

Appendix: Company B Personnel

Includes: name, service number, rank, duty positions, medals received, dates became casualties

Endnotes & Bibliography

Dying Hard — Table of ContentsFrench MacLean2024-10-25T12:04:05-05:00

The Book Is In

Dying Hard: Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th US Infantry Division in WWII has arrived and folks are already reading it. You can go the publisher’s website, https://schifferbooks.com/products/dying-hard or go to Amazon.

342 pages; 10 maps of Company B during the war, emphasis on 1944-45. 16 pages photos, including composites showing 45 soldiers in the company. Many others are combat photos, many never in print before. Book is everything I hoped for. I think you’ll love it.

But why should you actually READ it?

Because it puts YOU in Company B. You’ll think you were there. North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Hürtgen Forest, Merode Castle, Battle of the Bulge, Remagen Bridge, and a little hellhole called Stalag VI G.

Secondly, you will fit right in with us in Company B. How do we know?

When something in life knocks you down, you get back up, wipe the blood off your nose, and say: “Is that all you’ve got?” you’re in Company B. If people told you that you were too small, too slow, too poor, or too anything, and you proved them all wrong, you’re in Company B.

Love dogs? In 1942, a young soldier found a stray dog in the Aleutian Islands and took care of him. Two years later, he put Buff in his duffel bag, climbed aboard a troopship with Buff in a duffel bag and sailed to Europe and Company B, where Buff was our mascot and pulled guard duty. So if you love dogs, you’re in Company B too.

Rise and shine, grab your helmet, and make sure your M1 Rifle is loaded. Because we’re all going back to the line.

The Book Is InFrench MacLean2025-01-06T14:59:21-06:00

Or We’ll Have Endless War

Way back in the day, some 200 years ago, Carl Clausewitz, a Prussian army officer, set out to analyze why the French army, under Napoleon, routed the Prussian army in numerous battles. He was confused because some 40 years earlier, it was the Prussian army that was kicking everyone’s ass in Europe. What had changed?

Rather than compare weapons, the size of armies, their tactics, and leaders, he took on the daunting task of identifying what he believed was the nature of war — the fundamental underpinnings of war — such as that it was violent, was a human activity, and was an extension of politics by other means. There were a few other characteristics, but if you want to delve into everything, grab Clausewitz’s book On War, some 731 pages and have fun, because there are no photos. Generation after generation of military officers around the world ever since, in war college after war college, have cursed the day they were assigned to read such a monstrosity. But later, the winners of almost every war were glad that they had.

One of Clausewitz’s most important concepts was that of the Center of Gravity, which some strategists believe is the characteristic, capability, or locality from which military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, or will to fight. It might be the mass of the enemy force, or perhaps its logistical base, production capabilities or lines of communication. Other thinkers feel that the center of gravity might be economic resource or locality, cohesion of an alliance, or something even more intangible, such as morale or the national will. There usually is just one center of gravity, perhaps two, but if you identify more than that, you probably need to relook it.

Some folks default to claiming that one individual, such as a military general or political leader, is the center of gravity, but that logic is pretty precarious when analyzing past wars. Whatever the center of gravity, Clausewitz believed that you had to go after your enemy’s center of gravity and destroy or significantly degrade it, while protecting your own center of gravity from the enemy doing the same to you.

Here is a historical example that might help visualize this. In World War II, the center of gravity for the US — in my opinion — was our overwhelming technological, logistical and industrial base that enabled us to truly fight around the world, with significant numbers of outstanding weapons (think aircraft carriers, four-engine heavy bombers to take the fight to the enemy homeland, a lethal, flexible artillery fire support system for the army, millions of wheeled vehicles that made our army truly mobile {unlike the Germans who still used millions of horses}, the atomic bomb, radar, sonar, etc.) Sure, American fighting troops of all services played a huge role, but without those production/technology assets, we are on an equal footing with the Germans who had many more divisions than we did, jet aircraft, and excellent tanks. And we aren’t retaking the Pacific without airpower. And as far as protection, neither the Germans, nor the Japanese could attack American factories in the US, or bomb the Manhattan Project, or stop those assets from getting overseas. Our motto truly was: “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

Fast forward to today and the current Israeli-Palestinian fight in Gaza. Both sides seem to have been fighting forever. Both sides are heavily influenced by founding religious documents, the Old Testament and the Koran. Both sides want control of the same territory, which is almost too small to divide between the two to where both will be satisfied.

So, since the formal founding of Israel in 1948, there has been endless violence. People on both sides want control of the other, and some people on each side want the other side dead and gone. From the river to the sea for some means that their side will control all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, while others believe that area should be Jew free, or Arab free, take your pick.

So where would the “losing side” go? Israeli Jews are simply never going to march into cattle cars again for the one-way ride to an extermination center as happened in World War II. All the Jews pack up and move to Delaware? Europe doesn’t want them back to pre-WWII levels. All the Palestinians leave the Gaza strip, and the squalor of the refugee camps in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan? Where are they going to go? Egypt doesn’t want them for fear that they will destabilize that country. Who wants endless refugee camps in which hatred and violence are preached every night to a population that appears to never want to ever assimilate anywhere else but between the river and the sea? Iran talks a good game, but most Palestinians are Sunni, and Iran is Shia, and strife between those two factions has led to countless millions of Muslim deaths since they started slugging it out 1400 years ago.

Which brings us to October 7, 2023 and the Hamas attack in the Gaza strip, killing over 1,000 Jews, many civilians, including children. The Israelis responded and have been at it ever since going after tunnel after tunnel in Gaza, probably killing 40,000 Palestinians, many civilians, including children. Israel has had nuclear weapons for over 50 years but has not used them. Iran appears to be getting close to obtaining an atomic weapon. If either side goes with a nuke attack, the casualty numbers will make 40,000 look like a walk in the park.

But it gets worse, or could. I have long thought that Israel has quietly spoken to every Islamic nation in the Middle East, and maybe even taken representatives of each on an all-expenses-paid nice holiday cruise on September 22, 1979 near the South African territory of Prince Edward Island in the Indian Ocean, where there was probably a nuclear device test explosion. And then the Israelis said something like: “Look boys, if anyone pops a nuke on Israel, we might not find out immediately who did it, because of all the devastation. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to drop a big nuke on the Kaaba in Mecca, right away, because we’re going to assume it was one of you that nuked us. And not only will that be destroyed, but that whole area will be so filled with radiation that it will take 100 years before anyone can safely go there on a Hajj. And then when we do find out who did nuke us, we’re going to rain that country with nukes. It will be like The Great Flood, Part II. So you fellas need to keep each other in line. Hal fahimtum?”

And of course, what that would do, if Israel came through on that threat/promise, would be to create an endless war.

Right now, Israel is playing “whack a mole,” trying to kill Hamas leaders when they are located; Hezbollah too. That may work tactically for the short term, but what has Israel done to identify the true Center of Gravity of her enemies.

I believe that the Center of Gravity for radical, militant, Islam, be it Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., is the current endless influx of young recruits from across Islam, which promises them martyrdom and eternal luxury and pleasure in heaven. Until that pipeline is permanently, not temporarily, broken through non-lethal means, by moral persuasion, winning hearts and minds, we’ll get endless October 7s, no matter how many current fighters and civilians are killed. These jihadis probably will not be completely persuaded by non-Muslims. That may take something like an Islamic Reformation.

Or We’ll Have Endless WarFrench MacLean2024-11-03T15:29:34-06:00

Put a Dot on It

For years I was reluctant to put a red dot optic on a pistol. There were just too many downsides, real and potential, I thought. The battery wouldn’t last long enough. And when it did run out, it would be at precisely the moment I truly needed it to function – not at the range, but in a self-defense situation. Then there was the optic itself. Everyone’s eyes are different. And when I tried red dot equipped pistols owned by friends, my particular eyes just didn’t pick up the red, plus the dot was either too small or too large. Finally, the cost was just too high, often easily half the cost of a modern defensive firearm – or more.

But I’ve now opened my eyes to recent developments. The phrase “optics ready” has become almost as prevalent on new pistols as the phrase “Picatinny rail” is on rifles. And even an old guy, like me, can see their major advantage – they are so easy to use. Just put the dot on the target and pull the trigger. That’s faster than iron sights that require you to line up the target, the front sight, and the rear sight. (For those of you that put Wyatt Earp to shame, and you really don’t need any stinkin’ sights to hit your intended target at any range, skip the rest of this. For the other 99.7%, including me, keep reading.) But there’s another key advantage. Front sights can be pretty big. Even the smaller ones can still obscure targets, more so at greater distances. A smaller dot makes it easier to see the target, and if a target is easier to see, it is easier to hit.

Or not to hit! The truly great shooter knows when not to shoot. Like if the perp coming toward you wasn’t really a perp, but you couldn’t see enough of him before you pulled the trigger and it was some truly innocent person. Individual citizens don’t get to claim collateral damage.

Take the Holosun HE 307C-GR X2 for example. Mounted on a Walther WMP .22 Magnum. It weighs almost nothing. 1.5 ounces. It’s a green optic, not a red, and for me I see green much, much better. It’s actually three optics. You can go with just the 2 MOA green dot. Or press a little button and change that to a 32 MOA green circle with four small tics on it at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. Or press the little button again and your third option is the green dot in the center of the green circle. You’ll find the one you like, and you might like different options for various types of shooting you do. You can also change optic brightness to one of 12 settings.

The sight uses a CR1632 battery that you can get almost anywhere, Walmart, CVS, etc., for just a few bucks. Battery life is claimed at 50,000 hours, which seems incredibly high, some 5.9185 years! Perhaps it’s that long, as you can have it go into sleep mode if it isn’t moving. And it has a feature called shake-awake, which turns it on by movement, so you don’t have to fumble around in a tense situation. There’s one more failsafe. In natural light, or bright artificial light, it’s tiny “solar panels” will power up the optic! But always have a spare battery.

Using the dot inside the circle, because it has up-down and left-right zeroing screws, with a HYSKORE sighting rest I could shoot all rounds of Speer 40-grain Gold Dot Personal Protection ammunition inside a one-inch circle. At 50 feet. Magnification is 1. So that means no enlargement. That’s good. Many shooters starting with red/green dots believe they need to focus on the dot when in reality, they need to focus on the target. You must look through the optic. Shooting with both eyes open, your binocular vision allows you to use this shooting method.

I turned the optic off and shot the pistol just looking through the sight window, in case of a catastrophic failure. It wasn’t nearly as accurate, but could do in a pinch. For me and this particular Walther, I tilted the barrel up and down until I could see the top of the front sight, because the rear sight is blocked. Put the top of the front sight on the center of the target and all rounds hit 4-6 inches straight up but not in a tight group.

It’s still expensive. Generally half the price of a Trijicon RMR. Box says it has a 3 year warranty. Not being a lawyer, can’t comment on how easy, or not, it is to return if you have problems. What weapon will you mount the optic on? Many gun manufacturers now include several different adapter plates – as did the Walther mentioned above – to ensure that you can mount most mainstream red/green dot options. But what about mounting it on something you already have? That may take a gunsmith to at least give you some cost options. And maybe do the work, so you don’t butcher it up.

Regardless of how compact, for concealed carriers, optics make the gun a bit larger and bulkier. So you have to plan ahead. But that’s the fun part – getting smart on the tools you have or plan to acquire. Because the best tool you have in your toolbox is not your pistol, or any type of sight. It is your brain and your ability to think.

Put a Dot on ItFrench MacLean2024-08-04T20:17:07-05:00