Ok, so maybe POS is a stretch. This particular gun disappointed more than most. They are fairly hard to come by yet, but I managed to snag one earlier than most. I was greatly anticipating this collaboration and from first glance I really liked the mounting concept. I have recently transitioned to AIWB and thought this would be a great candidate for this purpose. I should have stopped thinking right before I made the decision to buy it.
To be fair, the combo seems to be a solid, working concept. The optic seems rock solid on the pistol. The problem becomes trying to carry and shoot the pistol. IMO, the 43 is a total abortion of a gun for anyone with normal man sized hands or bigger. The gun itself is single stack 9mm and very small framed. It does not lend itself to AIWB at least with the holsters I tried. The gun is just too small to get a good grip purchase on initial draw stroke. It does not get better when shooting it. It is very snappy with moderate target/range loads and is not overly combat effective with full house defense loads.
I am pretty adept at recoil management and this gun is just not followup shot friendly. Maybe it would be a good choice for someone with small hands, YMMV. The COA on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. The sight window is quite large and dot acquisition is maybe the easiest I have found amongst the various dots I have used. There are some reports from various well known trainers that the ACRO does seem to have some glass issues. I would like to see how these questions play out long term with the COA.
Since the gun world is a lot of monkey see, monkey do, I look for other dot/gun platform mounting collaborations in the future. I think I would love to see a Wilson/Steiner MPS combination, possibly in a dovetail mount similar to the Glock/COA collaboration.
Kraken
www.John1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
- POTD – Not So Northern Lights - November 12, 2025
- Armalite AR-50 200y Zero - October 29, 2025
- A Good Day For Mr. Smith - October 18, 2025
