Alignment pins

[Pumpkin]

So my son bought a Staccato XC from his buddy a while back, actually during Covid.
It came with a Trijicon RMR and recently the battery died.
After removing the sight we found it didn’t have any alignment pins.
Are these necessary, the mounting screws are tapered, seems like would they locate the sight well enough?

 

[Nathan]

Probably that is an aftermarket machined slide. It seems like many folks are not machining the pins in. I don’t know if it’s OK or not. As a design, it seems weak, but it is common.

 

[Pumpkin]

Thanks Nathan,
As far as I know, it’s the first time the battery was replaced.
The gun came with it when bought new.

 

[OPC]

I did some poking around on this and did not come up with clear answers either. Those posts can serve as orientation/alignment, but some have found them to also be a tight enough fit to potentially also absorb recoil forces and minimize stress on the screws. To confuse the matter more, some googling suggested that if the cutout pocket hugs the RMR well (front and back), that can also take up the recoil forces and therefore maybe not need the pins as shear load members.

It's not clear in the searches I've done what amount of recoil protection is needed to prevent the screws from failing (if any at all).

 

[Pumpkin]

Well, the gun itself being an steel slide and frame 9mm has very low recoil as you might expect although this might not have much bearing on the slide velocity. As best I can tell, it never had any pins and information on the internet has been hard for me to find.
Thanks for the responses.

 

[TunnelRat]

Post a picture of the slide and its optic cut.

 

[Pumpkin]

I don’t have it, I gave it back to my son last weekend.
Next time I’m over there I will get some pictures.
I do know the gun was bought new with the sight installed.
They do come with a removable sight and RMR cutout machined already.

 

[TunnelRat]

I don’t have it, I gave it back to my son last weekend.
Next time I’m over there I will get some pictures.
I do know the gun was bought new with the sight installed.
They do come with a removable sight and RMR cutout machined already.

Newer Staccatos use a plate system to provide the recoil bosses and rear sight. The only optics that mounts directly are those that use a DPP style footprint, which is not an RMR. The hole pattern on a Trijicon RMR is wider than the slide and can’t mount directly. Something in your description is off.

Edit: These pictures give you an idea of what the plate system looks like and how it interacts with the slide. The plate in those picture is for a Holosun EPS Carry, not RMR. The EPS can make use of the holes milled in the slide (the plate provides the recoil bosses and rear sight like I mentioned above).