laststandonzombieisland

When the M17 was adopted by the Army, I thought it was neat when talking to Sig that a production requirement was that the gun have a removable top plate to accept Leupold Deltapoint Pro reflex sights (red dots optics) as standard. Since then, it seems like handguns that incorporate such slide mods are factory standard– likely in large part due to the fact that almost every big name pistol maker in the world at one time or another tried to compete for the M17 contract, so they already both (a) saw the writing on the wall, and (b) had done the engineering for it.

It should make no surprise then that this week two different manufacturers have entered the factory-standard optics-ready game.

CZ-USA announced their new Kansas City-made P-10S subcompact, P-10C compact and P-10F full-size variants.

Each ship with a blank filler plate with plates for both the Trijicon RMR and the DeltaPoint Pro available with an option to co-witness the iron sights. With that being said, they still incorporate irons in the form of a single tritium lamp in the front with a large orange surround and a serrated black combat rear. All are in 9mm.

Idaho-based Nemo Arms has branched out from the upper shelf AR business to bring a new 9mm handgun platform to market. The new feature-rich Monark was teased extensively by Nemo on social media over the last couple weeks and shown off at the recent 2018 NASGW Expo in Pittsburgh. The all-metal pistol series spans four different models, all in 9mm with 5-inch barrels complete with a mini red dot sight adapter plate system.

Featuring a billet aluminum frame with checkering and a lightened stainless steel slide with fore and aft cocking serrations, the striker-fired handguns weigh in at 31.5 ounces while eschewing polymer. Other features standard across the line are interchangeable grips, a single action billet trigger, a dustcover-mounted accessory rail, ambi slide catches, and a right or left-hand magazine release.

More on both in my column at Guns.com.