Upgrading gun laser sights

I am considering after-market laser sights for several of my firearms. However, all of the options seem to be laughably under-powered, especially compared with the equipment regularly discussed on LPF :gun:. Some of the most popular options are 5mw dot sights, but I'd be a lot happier with a beam sight. The blue burning lasers I've handled that are roughly 400 times as powerful seem too large for application on a small handgun. However, I know beams can be achieved with much less powerful diodes, ones that should work nicely on a gun in theory. I have a few questions about this:

1. It would even be possible to replace the diode/power supply or whatnot on a laser unit within the same form factor?
2. Is this a DIY job for someone with no technical laser experience but sufficient circuitry/soldering know-how?
3. If this is not an easy DIY, how much I should expect to pay for this modification in the buy/sell/trade section or wherever else?

If anyone is interested, the two guns I am looking to equip with good lasers right now are a Kimber 1911 (rail system, many options for mounted units) and a Kel-tec P3AT (laser unit in front of trigger, not as many options). It may be against the rules to post the other lasers I was looking at but I can PM those if anyone is in the same boat or interested in doing this job for me.

Thanks for your time, any guidance at all would be greatly appreciated!

The problem you're going to find moving up to a better laser are the batteries. Red lasers sights usually run off little button cells. Those probably aren't going to drive a laser of any significant power. Also, if you want a visible beam, you're probably going to be looking at a green laser, because they apppear so much brighter at a lower power. However since they're not a regular diode laser, they're much larger because there's a lot of extra stuff going on inside. And of course with all that complication, there's much more going on... so the recoil of a 45 is going to be a problem, probably going to cause lenses and crystals to become misaligned. So something has to be done about that as well. So you've got a big fragile module and you're needing bigger batteries, say 2 AAAs or a CR123... all that adds some bulk to your laser. Before you know it, it's looking more like a tactical light and less like a laser sight. Of course... if you don't mind it looking like a tactical light... then you can just build yourself a nice 445 with 2 cr123s and heatsink and all the good stuff and mount it on a light mount... but then you need to figure out how to make that adjustable so you can sight it in, and you need to wear laser safety glasses to shoot anything close up. So if you ask me, a relatively low power green is by far your best option.


This is a 30mw green laser I built for my gun... this is just my first version to test it out, I'm working on version 2 that will be a lot smaller, basically it'll have the 2 AAAs mounted on the side of the laser in a much much smaller battery holder, making it a lot shorter but a bit wider, but I think it will seem much more compact. Big and ugly as it is though... the dot is completely visible on a sunny day.... so I'll file it under win.

Wow that is quite impressive there, definitely a win. Nice piece too. Care to share where you got the housing and what the time investment was? I'm gonna try a DIY build myself but I know many folks who would be interested if you're considering selling.

Well, this one is basically a rail riser I bought and did a little machining to, bolted to a piece of delrin with a hole bored through it for the laser module, with a battery pack bolted to the bottom of that... pretty simple. The only thing that would take a bit of time is the round piece pressed into the front of the delrin block. Basically the front of the laser module is sitting in there and there are 3 set screws holding it in place. By tightening and loosening the set screws, you move the front of the laser module and that's how you sight in. The next one I make is going to be one piece cnc'd aluminum instead of bolting 3 pieces together, which should make the whole thing much smaller. I just haven't had a lot of time lately. Either way, there's no real housing I started with. If I were to sell something, it wouldn't be for awhile, since I have to make the program, program the mill and then find enough time at work when they're not using the milled to make a bunch of them.

I just came across this site. There's no fancy little units like your current and planned designs, but quite a few options. Not sure if it's against rules to post this, if so sorry mods:
gun laser at DinoDirect.com, Australia (6052Grid)

The lasers are probably way over rated but they're are a few different rail mount options. I may try to get an adjustable mount and then just affix a real higher-powered laser to it. My concern is that it would hang too far out and get damaged so I'll have to figure that part out. I would love to get a Yobresal 1.2W blue on my .45 but it would be way too far past the barrel.

Yeah, that's the problem I was trying to get away from. One of those is like having a tactical light on your pistol, plus it's probably even longer than a light. I'm hoping to get my sight down pretty small eventually. Also trying to figure out if it would be better with 2 AAAs or a 1 CR123.

Also, a 1.2watt blue is going to require goggles to shoot. It will seriously damage your eyes to look at the dot. Trust me, I have one. So then putting on glasses defeats the purpose completely. If you were to not care about your eyes and ruin them... the dot is literally so bright your body naturally wants to look away, like staring at the sun. A sight that makes you squint and tilt your head down isn't going to be very effective. Not to mention... it's very hard to shoot after you've gone blind. Do not underestimate how powerful a laser like that is... honestly, people probably shouldn't be allowed to have them with out passing some kind of class or something. And just remember a 200mw green is going to appear brighter than a 1.2watt blue anyway. I'd say try to stick with a green 50mw or less. It's going to be brighter than a blue 5x more powerful and will save your eyes. At 10 yards or more outside, I don't believe a 50mw green is going to be too bad on your eyes, you'll be able to easily see the dot on a sunny day, in low light you will be able to easily see the beam. Mind you that is a true 50mw... not a 5 dollar dx or ebayer... those will likely be underspec.