Red Dot Styles

[Kevin]

At Contender's place this past weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot one of those PC 9 carbine's. They are on Ruger's website. It's a 16 inch barrel rifle or 16 1/2 whatever is the legal limit. With an AR 15 collapsible stock and AR 15 grip.

Far too much fun. There are plenty of reviews on YouTube about these rifles.

But my question is the red dot. This one had an Ultra-Dot tube style red dot. Probably 30mm and 3 inches long or so. I found I could pick up and center the red dot very fast with this tube style optic. I've got some of the other small one piece of glass style. Not sure what they are called. But definitely not as fast, for me, to visually center the dot for my next shot.

Is this true, or did I just not try to mess up hard enough? I've got an older Ultra-Dot Red dot, I haven't used it in a while. I went with the other small optics because of weight. Mounting one of those tube style optics up on a small pistol, in this case a Mark IV lite, and the pistol gets top heavy.

Have ya'll found this to be true as well? That the tube style has advantages the other style doesn't?

 

[krw]

IMO no. I hav Eotech’s and Holosun 510’s. Completely satisfied. I hav Tippmann AR 22 pistol w Holosun 510c. It is one armadillo, skunk, possum, coon killn machine!!

 

[Kevin]

Thanks! Both of those brands you mention have excellent reviews. Especially the Eotech.

 

[RoninPA]

Kevin,
Both have there places. The single "lens" red dot is called a reflex sight and the smaller ones are typically used on pistols. The larger ones are typically used on rifles as are the tube type. A lot of people who shoot with scopes can transition to the tube type red dots easier because they are use to the way they sight through a scope. I have the single lens type on several of my rifles and the tube type on several other rifles as well as regular scopes on others and they all work just fine for me but I've been using all for quite a while so I'm comfortable with them.

 

[contender]

+1 to Ron's reply.

 

[Mobuck]

I think you'll find that 'finding the dot' is much easier with a rifle than a handgun since you have a cheek reference for initial alignment.

 

[blume357]

We really did not have enough time there... I had two rifles that had red dots on them...

The M1 Carbine built in June of '43 has a Sig red dot on a scout rail that is raised so you can still use the iron sights.

The other is the 'survival' pistol with brace in 357 Sig with another flat to the rail red dot.

both are too much fun to shoot.... I'll try to remember to bring them again next year... and maybe even the original Ruger Police Carbine.

 

[GunnyGene]

Kevin, just so you know, these optics (reflex or tube type) are also useful on shotguns. A couple of the local turkey hunters here use a reflex sight with considerable success. I have a Vortex Venom on my IWI TS12, and it is quite accurate, especially with slugs (Brenneke in my case).

 

[Kevin]

GunnyGene:
Thanks! No, I didn't know that.

Blume:
True, we don't get enough time. I would have like to try out those rifles you brought. Hopefully next year.

And thanks everyone for the comments. I guess this was the first rifle I've shot using a red dot, and was really impressed. Impressed and also hadn't considered red dots for rifles before. Usually with a scope on a rifle, it takes me 3 or 4 seconds to acquire the target in the scope's reticle, even longer with a scoped revolver.

This red dot-with-rifle setup was just, bang, bang, bang right away.

 

[blume357]

That 44 magnum revolver with a scope was a bear to get sighted on the target with.

 

[mishtub]

The main difference for me is the reflex sights generally tend to "wash out" the dot if a bright light comes from above and behind, not so much with a "tube type".

 

[Mobuck]

"Usually with a scope on a rifle, it takes me 3 or 4 seconds to acquire the target in the scope's reticle, even longer with a scoped revolver."

This is a factor of use and experience. I've seen far too many hunters(?) who did the 'head bobbing' thing for several seconds because they simply hadn't learned to shoulder the rifle well and/or had not mounted the scope so that when properly shouldered, the eye and scope were aligned(usually due to those dufus extra high, see-under rings).
Spend 5 minutes per day shouldering the rifle. When you can pick a target, close your eyes, shoulder the rifle, open your eyes, and see both the crosshairs AND the target you chose--then you're 75% of the way to conquering the 'can't find the crosshairs/red dot' issue.

 

[Uncle Howie]

Wow… lots of great advice, here! I’ll add my $0.02. 😆

I bought an UltraDot in 1991. Still works great!

I also have a Burris FastFire 3, mounted in the rear sight dovetail on a Ruger MK II pistol. I often have a hard time “finding the dot.”
(Time to follow Mobuck’s suggestion, re: practice!)

In my (limited) experience, if I can’t find the FastFire’s dot on the handgun, aiming the barrel downward usually brings the dot into sight.

I’ve heard others report the same experience.

 

[contender]

This discussion on "finding the dot" is a common occurrence with many shooters. And Mobuck has offered a great response. It's about CORRECT mounting of a rifle,, or moreso with a handgun, a CORRECT grip.
A handgun is a bit more critical to align, and a proper grip, repeatedly done is required. I see it a LOT in USPSA where a shooter is trying to go fast,, and doesn't get a good proper grip, and following that,, I see the hand moving & head bobbing stuff.
ALL of the top, world class shooters practice a lot of dry fire practice daily or almost daily just to make sure of the training of their motor memory skills to allow them to be at speed AND be correct.
A red dot will allow faster & often easier shooting once you get it aligned. But often, PRACTICE is what many fail to do to achieve this.