Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Red Dot scope vs. Reflex type sight, Contender

Looking for an optic to put on a Contender handgun. Still up in the air on cartridge for new barrel but however I go on this barrel it will be for woods ranges on whitetails, most likely 50 yard and under.

Anybody using the reflex type sight on a Contender or Encore??

If so what brand, reticle style, any durabilty issues?

I have ultradot red dots on my SRH in 44 and my wife's GP100 in 357 ( we hunt with these guns ) these red dots are legendary for how tough they are on hard recoiling hand guns, the biggest thing I like about tube dots is hunting in rain or snow I installed butler creak quick flip covers on ours and they work great keeping every thing clear. I routinely shoot my red hawk out to 100 yards and I can usually keep my groups at 3 to 4 inches.

Thought never had occurred to me about the rain/snow situations.

I have an Ultra Dot 30mm on my SBH that I shoot out to 100yds and it's been flawless.

I had a 10" .22 magnum Contender pistol, put a Bushnell TRS25 on it.
Hated it.
Much better was the 2.5-7X TC scope. I ran it at 2.5X most of the time, just never liked higher mag (OK when shooting 100 yds or farther on range though).
On my .35 Rem and .223 Super 14's I did a 30mm tube reddot w 3 moa dot.
On the .223............it shot so well, the dot was too big. Proly better to run a finer aiming point optic. Straight 2 or 4X scope would be my vote.
On the 35 rem...........indeed the red dot was cool, IMHO perfect for deer. Only thing I'd change was go with a 2 moa dot and not 3 moa.
Arthritis now, so the boomer went bye bye.

Reflex are lighter, and don't have tunnel effect.
For me a reddot sight is OK if it's 30mm tube.

Aimpoint I want, kids in college says Primary Arms (they have a new 2 moa version).
It;s gonna go on my Great Eight 22/45.

Have you seen the Holosun line of red dots? I had a member on another forum turn me their direction, some good prices.

Holosun gets good reviews.
Wonder who rebrands their stuff.


Reflex sights are cool, thought about one on a .22rf pistol or in a Ruger Superredhawk doevtail slot. Burris FF or Leupold Delta Point.
My .44 mag days may be over, blast and noise just too much anymore.
But if I score a deal on a 9.5"............


Am thinking just get a .357.............maybe a 686 6" and call it done.

Buddies run RMR and Deltapoints on various Ruger .22's pimped and some centerfires.
I like how small and light such sights are.
Can still be holstered.

I did have to Loctite the ring screws that held my 30mm reddot on the .35 rem Super 14.
No magnification, no fixed eye relief..............it was pretty easy to shoot.
But with Grippers it'd still numb my hand/ arm for 2 hrs after shooting.

I took the hint.

Moving critters and reg EER scope..................pops had a SRH w Burris 1-4X. It shot very well so I took it hunting. And after a week (no shots taken) took that friggin' scope off.
Ended up popping a deer past 100 iron sights.
Think a Burris FF in one of the scallops/slots would make that a perfect woods gun for old eyes.

Last handgun deer I took was 50 yards w a Python, and I had to look at the sights 3 times before shooting, and that was in good light. And that was 5 or 6 yrs ago LOL.
Yeah, I dread going to the eye doctor.

Haven't been for 11 yrs. Used to have exceptional vision. It's been crap for too long. Bifocals for sure.

IMHO the contender w a 30mm looked OK.

Dangit. I miss that gun now

Slick looking rig. Wonder if those older barrels have a nicer blue than the newer stuff?

I purchased the Ultra Dot to put on my Encore it is still in the box in the safe. I'm going to have a 12 inch barrel in SS made for one of my receiver chambered in 460 S&W before deer season comes around again this year.

Getting ready to have MGM build me 10-11" barrel and chambered by Mike Bellm with his 357 Max chamber.

Was wanting something shorter but changed my thinking on this one.

Cannot decide whether blued or SS.

FWIW my buddies have .357 Max rifles and handguns.
They all went back to .357 magnum.
With shots under 100 yards they just didn't need the extra.

Looked at 12" .357 mag TC bbl............but got out of the TC game before giving one the chance.

Guy I know had an Encore w OTT .500 bbl w brake. Said deer went own and never got up. Fun, but ultimately too much for whitetails.
I shot it on the range.............the brake worked very well.
You could however feel the heat off that thing...............hot loads (no pun intended). Pretty darn fun!

Going groundhogging in a few.................gunshop nearby....................wonder what TC stuff he might have..................

need to stay off this thread. Could get costly.

I dunno. Paid $100 for the .223 bbl used. It was like new.

Reason?

Turns out the scope base holes were a little shallow in depth/threading. Prev owner didn't spot it, hence the sale.
I just took a thread off each base screw and it snugged up just fine

IMHO a reflex on a 10" would be pretty handy. Doesn't look bad.
12" w 30mm reddot (Aimpoint type) looks good.
14" just screams scope........and one with a front bell. Since I can't stand much mag, that'd push me toward an old Trophy 2X or Leupodl 4X, and deer hunting.............no thanks. Yup, shoulda kept that .223 Super 14". Even w reddot I was getting half inch groups at 50 yards screwing around.

Never pushed it past that to see what it could do, w factory or handloads.

Not enough chucks to play that game and .223 too hot for fox. So I figured a 12" .22 mag would be my next bbl................

never happened.

The t/c factory 357 mag barrels shoot like crap, look up Bellm's writeup on the toilet bowl throat.

A 10" 357 max is an impressive round, I was pushing 200 gr cast a tad over 1900 fps using AA-1680.

Anemic and maybe silly, I might shoot a deer w a .256 win TC...........in handgun or rifle form.
Pops has 'em.

If I buy the rifle I'll need a Bullberry stock set for it.

Uncle had a .460 S&W Encore. With a Williams muzzle brake it still ate scopes. He had to buy a JD Jones TSOB mount to get scopes to hold. They would slip no matter what 2 ring system he put on it. He cried having to spend that much on a mount but in the end it was the only one that would hold. He killed a Burris and one other scope before he put a Leupold 4x on it and it was the only survivor. The encore is so much lighter than an XVR the muzzle flip is pretty gnarly on an encore. We shoot lots of magnum pistol but one day off the bench before he had the brake installed i was shooting it off a sitting bench with HEAVY loads and the barrel touched the tip of my cap. I probably didn't have a great grip on it but that baby had some flip to it.

A gunsmith friend of mine has a 12" 460 with no brake and it's unreal with full power loads. It's broke several scopes, sheared rings and even cracked one scope base. It's quite the spectacle watching him touch a few off with it.