Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles new to red dot

dumb question do you use it like a peep sight, or like a scope? I see where guys are using them with there iron sights.

Like a peep sight, just faster. I wouldn't consider it a replacement for a scope nor would I use it in conjunction with any other sighting device.

Coordinating a red dot sight with your iron sights is called co-witnessing. This is done so that both sight systems are aligned the same. If the red dot dies or you take it off, your iron sights are ready to go.

Co-witness explained

thanks that's what I thought

I'm curious what you are doing differently between a peep sight and a scope? The question is not clear to me.

He's probably not shooting the red dot with both eyes open.

I shoot both eyes open, what happens is I see the front sight too and then I try and put the dot on the front sight and it screws me up, then I can't hit anything, my buddy tells me to ignore the front sight and focus on dot,

Your buddy is right.

You can line it up with the front sight if you want, but don't need to. The bullet goes where the dot is, not the front sight.

I can see how some of the replies above may be confusing, because people answered without understanding your question. A red dot is not used as a peep sight in the way you're thinking, as a rear sight to line up with the front. It is a stand-alone sight system that does not depend on the front sight.

my eye should naturally center the the dot is what I meant by a peep sight

the dot does not have to be in the center of the window. Consistency is best of course, but other than a potential for some parallax error, the bullet goes where the dot is, even if it's at the edge of the glass.

Try covering the front lense so you can't see the front sight, only the dot. Shoot with both eyes open and you'll be amazed how it works.

After that just put the dot on target and pull the trigger.

Here's an example of the red dot with a 1/3 mount on a carbine set up for training classes.

Red dot is centered in the window, zeroed and dead on at 50 meters. The iron sights are visible below the dot, in the sight window. They also zeroed for 50 meters.

The dot is centered in the window, much like a peep. The difference is that you can cover the front of the red dot optic, and still shoot with the left eye open, and "see" the red dot on your target.

OP - you probably have a strong dominant right eye. Your brain is trained to look at a tube and at sights on a rifle in a certain way, it's going to take a while to "unlearn" looking through a red dot like it's a scope.




With the irons lined up, the red dot - still zeroed- lines up with the irons. If the dot fails, the irons are still visible to shoot with. I've got a bit of cant, juggling the phone camera, and the rifle, but you get the idea.

Ding ding ding dot float right above the post.
Yup!!!

Ah64 good visual training aid, other than that looks like your weapon is screaming for a barber brush and some oil man . Mooshoo. Im saying this real slow and just kidding. "You got to train your brain" your reddot instructiond will say if the mount is 1/3 cowitnessed or include a half moon insert to put in to get it that way. Redots are the shyt as long as you keep the setting crisp and dont crank em up and make the dot look like a star burst supernova.