Preview of the ALG Mount Review: The Fight Lasts 6 Seconds

Since their debut in 2012 ALG Defense has produced a series of innovative, quality products at a price most in our industry would consider reasonable. One of the most contentious ALG Defense products has to be the 6 Second Mount, which unfailingly provokes debate and commentary. Sadly, most of the time this is done without context or background. We've been curious about the 6SM since we first caught wind of it in December of 2013 (I think I saw Steve Fisher of Sentinel Concepts using it in conjunction with a Raven holster, but I'm not sure). Not surprisingly a subsequent article really stirred the pot. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do more than speculate until it finally debuted at SHOT 2015. There we were able to poke, prod, handle and otherwise paw at it. Ultimately we were given the opportunity to use during media day.

It's really hard not to like this thing. I'm clearly not alone in this opinion; there's an increasing demand for holsters that accommodate it (as witnessed by offerings from OTG, RCS, Advanced Holster and others).

If you're unfamiliar with the 6 Second Mount, the most concise background of the how's and why's can be found on ALG's webpage itself:

The ALG Defense 6-Second Mount was designed when a counter-terrorism unit approached ALG with a strict set of criteria. When entering a linear environment, such as an airplane or bus, the team’s primary weapon was their pistol and they were looking for a fast sighting method that was rugged and robust. Red dot scopes mounted directly to their pistol slides were showing a high failure rate due to extreme acceleration or deceleration of the slide. The balance of the pistols was thrown off from the rearward scope mounting position, and the slides were weakened from machining a pocket for the scopes into the top of the slide.

The name, 6-Second Mount, comes from a description used by one of the operators:
“The fight lasts 6 seconds… Either they’re dead or you’re dead, and aggression saves the day.”

Mounting an optic to your weapon decreases engagement time, allowing for faster and more accurate hits on target. By separating the sight from the reciprocating slide it allows the pistol to function properly without the added mass of the optic sight, and produces a favorable weight distribution.

Recently David Merrill (one of our contributors who has a propensity for breaking things) got his hands on one. He's been abusing it for a while now and will shortly be writing a review. He's going to cover installation, use, pro and cons, etc. There may be some surprises in store. If you have any questions or concerns you'd like to see address while he wraps things up, please leave them in the comments below (not on social media, if you don't mind, he'll be watching here).

Several holster manufacturers have contributed to the project as well. You're definitely going to see features and details with these you haven't in the past, and I've asked him to do a ‘holster roundup' to follow the review; speaking of which, if you know of a holster you'd like to see covered in the roundup, let us know in a PM and we'll try to establish comms.

More to follow; have a great weekend. Go forth and conquer.