SimonRL
Hellcat
Better than explaining how you killed Santa.
Pistol Red Dots: Are Iron Sights Better?
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
SimonRL
Hellcat
Breaking news: Advanced Robot with red dot in eyes can’t use a red dot.
Next up: Antisocial weirdo named Marvin claims to be from Mars.
Annihilator
Emissary
As much as I dislike anything that takes batteries, I was pretty much forced into red dots by old age and declining eye sight. I just can't see iron sights any more. Instead of the front site being in focus, nothing is in focus! My times and accuracy took a huge nose dive. Now the red dots have brought everything back to life for me, so yes, I have a Holosun 507T on my carry gun. Made in China, unfortunately, but just about anything in a reasonable price range is these days.
Cheers,
crkckr
Cheers,
crkckr
Bassbob
Emissary
Hard to get away from Chinese optics. Or should I say expensive. I only have real world experience with 3. The Vortex Venom ( which is fine except it doesn't have shake awake) the Romeo 5 ( which is bullet proof and has shake awake) and my latest, the Holosun 510C which sits on my 1301 T and is a fantastic optic and my favorite.
As for red dots on handguns, the only one I have is the Vortex Venom and it is on a Q5 Match which will never be a carry gun. I have 5 or 6 carry guns, all of them sport irons and I like them that way.
I feel ya, brother.
It's hard putting up with batteties after all the disdain I've heaped on items requiring them. However what convinced me on the Holosun was the shake awake function. The batteries will last much longer, especially since I dont go out often, so it sits most of the time. Same for my bedside gun, so the batteries will last a couple of years. At least, that's how often I'm going to replace them! I've got a Holosun on both my bedside pistol and my AR but I will replace all of them at the same time. I don't expect to ever come up with a dead battery... but have backup sites just in case! One can never have too many backups!
Cheers,
crkckr
Cheers,
crkckr
Doughboy86
Alpha
Boy... I really thought I wanted one until I read the comments here. Now I think I'll stick to the irons on my carry guns.
With that said, I did put a cheap UTG red dot on my 15-22 recently just to see if I like them. I do like it, super accurate out to 50yds, which is as long as I've tried it so far. I will say though, I use it on the green dot setting. I tried it on the red dot and couldn't see the dot. I know it's there because I played with it indoors and it was fine, but on a bright sunny day I couldn't see the red at all.
With that said, I did put a cheap UTG red dot on my 15-22 recently just to see if I like them. I do like it, super accurate out to 50yds, which is as long as I've tried it so far. I will say though, I use it on the green dot setting. I tried it on the red dot and couldn't see the dot. I know it's there because I played with it indoors and it was fine, but on a bright sunny day I couldn't see the red at all.
No, not for me. I can no longer see my iron sights, so it's a red dot life for me until some sort of corrective surgery. I had no issues in the transition, except for cleaning up my presentation. I've even practiced battery failure drills using the sight housing as an aiming reference with decent results.
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The human eye/brain is pretty good at putting things in the middle of circles or squares, so it's actually pretty easy to put a target in the center of a blank circle such as a red dot site with a dead battery. I've turned mine off and tried to practice that but it's pretty hard to ignore the back up sites. I've got my pistol Holosun's mounted on a Glock no gunsmithing plate from the Glock store so I didn't have to get any machining on my slides. These plates mount in the rear site cut out and have back up irons built in. It's nice to have options!
Cheers,
crkckr
Cheers,
crkckr
Having mounted and used dots with a CC weapon under a lot of conditions for me now the dot is king, nailing a failure drill 40% faster. What conditions? having to use the weapon inside a building for a threat the dot is always king. Outside mostly no as I live in the AZ desert. Even with a 6 mil dot it just doesn't focus over 7 yards. Under 7? By golly now, with practice I got that dot even in the AZ sun. Took a lot of practice though. For me never less than 4 and usually a 6 mil dot. I cannot stress the practice practice practice enough. You have to get confident that the dot is going to be there when you expect it to be otherwise those couple of seconds going to the irons may cost someone his or her life, maybe yours.
Blackfeather
Custom
Iron night sights for all of my pistols... they point naturally, and they have never let me down. Red dots for most of my rifles, but I still keep the iron sights on the rifle with the longest sight radius readily available.
At 70+ years old and shooting for 60 of those years iron sights on a rifle only work out to about 50 yards or so & I am a scope man after that. I can do iron sight pistol work just fine at pistol distances (25 yards and under) but dots are king in my opinion. 7 yards or under a 6 mil dot works for me even in AZ sunshine. Indoors it is a no brainer I can do a two & one exercise under stress in the time it takes to do one to the body with iron
youngolddude
Professional
At my age, both my good and bad habits are unlikely to change. I'm not gonna carry dots or lasers, but do appreciate night sites and fiber optics. Muscle memory in my case, is difficult to overcome.
Keystone19250
SAINT
So following this thread I don’t believe in which is “better” but more what works and the individual is comfortable with. I always said no optics on my handguns and here I am with one on my 10mm Elite compact and loving it.
Deadeye10x
Alpha
To all those endorsing iron sights, do you think they'll still work for you when your eyes are 70+ years old like mine? The Leupold red dot is left on, goes to sleep after so many minutes, and turns back on when you move the gun. So far, a one year battery replacement has worked fine. Lastly the optic is 1" above my beltline in a Vedder light tuck, height adjustable holster worn AIWB. This also allows me to get a full grip without having to dig for it. Oh, and a large Tier 1 wide foam wedge stuck to the bottom of the holster keeps the grip tight against my body. No printing.
Same here.
Ive seen at the range, magazines etc, there has been a huge proliferation of RD sights on handguns. I understand the "fun factor" in putting one on your gun, but why on earth would someone want to mount a large, obtrusive block on top of a gun used for concealed carry? Is it just a fad? Unless Im wrong, the whole idea of a CC weapon is to have as few things on it that could possibly get hung up on something or get in the way when drawn. And doesnt proper training dictate that when aiming you zero in on your sights, not go looking for a bright little dot on what you are about to shoot? That being said, Ive never used one and dont intend to get one. Im just curious as to what the allure is.
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Bassbob
Emissary
Try it before you judge. Since this forum’s inception I have been one of the guy’s saying I wouldn’t put one on a carry gun. I put one on a VP9 a couple months ago and changed my mind.
No you don’t zero in on your sights. You zero in on your target. Which you will acquire dramatically faster with both eyes open and a dot in your peripheral.
Quality optics have impressive reliability. And if you co witness with your irons it’s a non issue anyway.
I’ll never buy another semi auto handgun that isn’t cut for an optic.