Originally Posted by Formidilosus
Originally Posted by Yondering


Such as varying light conditions, for one. A carry gun might be used in the dark, or in bright noon Arizona sun, and the optic should be automatically functional in either without adjusting settings. An optic on a competition gun can be adjusted for the current conditions, for the most part.

Leupold's motion sensor tech is another one, where the dot is switched on when it detects motion and shuts off after 5 minutes of inactivity. For a range gun that spends most of it's life in the safe, that works great. That same optic carried in your waistband will be switched on all the time, and the electronics should be designed around that.

And of course there's durability. Competition shooting is not fighting. Priorities for a competition or target optic are more towards clear glass, window size, etc (all things the DPP is great for). For a carry gun though, being able to take a beating and always being on, visible, and zeroed are higher priorities.

I'd think anyone looking for a carry optic would want to consider these things before just copying whatever the top competition shooters are using.




I wouldn’t go off the USPSA list either, but only because most shooters are cheap. Durability of RDS’s on pistols is lacking in all but a few. However, the problem with your thinking, is that every single high level organization that uses red dot pistols for real have all come to the conclusion that Auto adjust sucks. There is no difference in using a RDS on a pistol and an RDS on a carbine. Set the brightness to the highest light level expected and shoot with both eyes open. I adjust the brightness once in the morning, and once in the evening.


I’ve been using red dot equipped duty/carry pistols since 2009. This is at the beginning of their use for duty. Between myself and teammates I have seen at least 50,000 rounds put on JP/Tasco/Shield/Trijicon/etc mini’s, Trijicon RMR and Type 2, Leupold DP and Pro, MRDS, Burris, Vortex, etc, etc. All used heavily on duty, carry, and competition pistols under all conditions. From -20 degrees and in 4 feet of snow, to 140 degrees and desert.


The only ones I would mount and use are-

Trijicon RMR 06 Type 2
Leupold Delta Point Pro.



Well, I've only been carrying a red dot Glock of some form every day since 2012 so you've got a couple years on me, and I've only got about 40,000 rounds through the various high end red dots myself. I test my gear pretty thoroughly and have not run into the light issues Bluedreax describes with a LED RMR. The "dual illuminated" versions definitely have those issues though IME. All of my testing and pass/fail criteria are based on personal concealed carry though, not proactive door kicking, and there are some differences that apply to dots as mentioned above.

If you really think you can predict the light level for an unexpected fight with a carry gun, more power to you. Personally I think some of you guys confuse proactive vs reactive stuff sometimes; chances are high you wont' be able to adjust dot brightness of a carry gun when you need it, and I've yet to find a brightness setting that works everywhere on either an RMR or DPP. The dot in my belt right now is an adjustable RM07; I could adjust the brightness if I thought that was better, but it stays on auto mode and is always visible when I need it.

I do agree on choosing between the RMR and DPP, although not necessarily the Type 2 RMR as I've killed 4 in a row in the past year on the same guns that ran the type 1 RMR flawlessly before.
Durability is just the most basic requirement, but you're right that most of the dots out there don't cut it; I've seen most of the others you mention go down as well.