I’ve experimented with optics on handguns a bit. I’ve got a Ruger Single Six with a 2X Leupold on it and it’s accurate enough to be boring. 35 years ago I could hittin cans at 75 yards with it with ease and still be a serious menace to them at 100. For slow deliberate fire or small game and gophers - that thing was the King Of Sixguns. It’s a pocket .22 carbine for all intents and purposes.
Can’t say I’m sold on red dots though. The guys are hitting with them, and no bones about it. But… there’s another layer of complexity, more bulk, batteries, holster issues…? Is it worth it? For run n’ gun games or dire social work … I’m not sure. For precision target? I’d prefer a scope to the red dot…
But whadda I know? I ain’t hitting the range like I used too anymore…
All I'm saying is give peace a chance. I've got a 10-22 clone with a red dot and another rimfire with a scope. I personally prefer the scope, but the wife can't hit the side of a barn trying to look thru the scope, I have no idea what she's looking at when she shoots it. But hand her the 10-22 clone with a red dot and she pings away at the plates and hits every time. And then won't hand the rifle back, she insists I sit there and reload magazines for her.
ReplyDeleteFor range toys, especially rimfires where you have the "fun alley" with cans, plates, rubber reaction targets, etc., plop a red dot on a .22 and hand it to a kid/wife/newbie and let them have fun. We'll put scopes on the serious weaponry for ourselves.
"Is it worth it?" For most older guys (older eyeballs) I think so. I first thought pistol red dots were a fad, but no more. A pistol red dot is just the thing, once your eye can't focus on something at the end of your arm anymore. I can't be sure I'd have my glasses on if I needed a pistol, and with a red dot, I don't need glasses to see a fine aiming point.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't come for free, most optics have a small angular field of vision and if your presentation isn't consistent, you'll have to wiggle the pistol around to find the dot. And of course the cost of the device, mounting it etc. Re battery life, many of them are good for tens of thousands of hours on a low setting, so just change it once a year and that won't be a problem.
All that to say, a red dot is worth considering- if you can do the pistol fundamentals properly, that precise aiming point can let you turn any pistol into something like the one you mention where you can hit soda can sized objects at 50-75-? yards
I finally made the plunge to pistol optics a couple of years ago. I put one on a Glock19 and ran it for a season's worth of club level matches to get used to it and to gain enough confidence in it, but well worth the expenditure I think.
Tom from East Tennessee
Yesterday the wife and I took the kids and DIL to the range for some shooting - they are all late 20 to early 30s with no corrective lenses to see well. I have red dots on all of my handguns that I use for competition (steel challenge and Action Pistol), but I didn't bring any of those along. Four Smith and Wesson revolvers (2 N-Frame and 2 K-Frame) along with a Black Mamba and Ruger Mark III. All with iron sights. The kids all shot them very well and had a great time.
ReplyDeleteI also have a Ruger (pre-Mark) that I have had for 51 years with a 2X Leupold scope on it. It seemed like it took me forever to learn how to find the crosshairs in that gun at arms length. Once I did, it was quite amazing how accurately that gun could be shot.
Based on my experience, it is easier to transition to a red dot than it is to figure out how to shoot a handgun with a scope on it. The degradation of my vision makes it very difficult to shoot a handgun accurately - I have enough experience shooting handguns that I can reliably hit "minute of badguy" out to distances that would be unlikely in a dangerous encounter, but I can't get accurate enough with iron sights to hit the 4" X-ring in Action Pistol from 25 yards as the irons are so fuzzy in my eyes that it just doesn't happen without a degree of luck.
In short, in order to continue to enjoy the shooting sports, I have gone to the red dots and demonstrate my manliness in other ways (bit of sarcasm there).
Phil K
The point of a red dot is the combination of speed and accuracy. Is it as accurate as a scope? Of course not - but it's faster. Is it faster than quick-draw instinct shooting? Of course not - but it's more accurate. And it's both faster and more accurate than iron sights.
ReplyDeleteA red dot is the cursor for the point and click interface of your wireless hole puncher.
Well put McChuck. That covers it for me.
ReplyDelete