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I know there are some guys here using dots on their pistols. What have yall got?

Does your carry gun have a dot? Which one? Experiences good or bad?

I've got a full size that's ready to carry at work when I feel comfortable enough with it and my carry gun should be back from the cutter next week.

It's been a bit of a learning curve. The dot is much easier to find and track than I expected. But I'm having trigger control problems, not sure if it's the very different pull on the new gun or if it's induced by the dot being "perfect right now". I'm at 900 rounds on the full size gun and I've about worked through everything. I'll probably start carrying it next week.

Shooting at distance isn't just easier, it's MUCH faster too. I'm pretty surprised by how much of a difference it made.

What range did you zero it Eric? I've been kind of curious about them

I'm dead on at 25. There's a little holdover from 0-7, but after that it's close enough to be within what I can hold offhand.

I shot a walkback with it last week. Went from 3-15 and kept them all in the dot. I had six round left so I shot 3 at 20 and 3 at 25, pulled 4 of those off the dot. But with the stock iron sights I'd struggle to do something twice that size.

I'm fairly new to the dot as well and don't have any advice to offer but I have 2 so far.

I've been shooting Steel Challenge with a JPoint for almost 2 years now, first on a Buckmark that I had trouble finding the dot, then on my current Ruger MK4 22/45 lite. Last Saturday I caught myself shooting targets as the dot passed the plate instead of getting a good sight picture but the hits were there. I have been trying to get faster and things lined up last weekend.

So much so that I decided to shoot my CORE with its RMR on it in our IPSC match today. I shot it Christmas eve and noticed my trigger control needs to be better, hits just outside of the A zone when trying to transition quickly to the next target. A big difference than just hitting a plate. Easy to go faster than I can shoot so I still have a lot of work to do but I can see more dots in my future. Making hits at 50 yards is simple compared to irons, keeping both eyes open and seeing the whole spread in front of me is a bonus too. Although I find myself lazy when going back to irons and have to really concentrate. There's just no comparison. I have a spare 2.0 Compact now and I can see me sending it off to be cut one day too.

I've about talked myself into shooting Carry Optics in 2019. I really don't want to, I've got several thousand dollars in 2011s and 12K rounds of match .40 loaded. But we're carrying them at work now and I've got the 2.0C cut, so shooting Carry Optics seems like the responsible thing to do and a way to get the learning curve accelerated.

I was reminded again today that this CORE has more muzzle flip than my other pistols. Especially on longer strings of fire. I did okay but I feel like overall I might be better to stick with irons or try and figure out why this thing bucks so much. I may switch out the Apex barrel and see if that's it, I really didn't notice it until I put it in and added the dot

Of course there were a few mental mistakes I made that had nothing to do with the gun but that's part of it.

Bluedreaux,

I tried the optic deal and I just couldn't get fast enough with it when shooting from the 7yd line and closer. My times increased dramatically. If I had access to some matches at the time I'd have stuck with it. But shooting by myself just for schits and grins wasn't worth the effort to me.

Now that I have access to competition I may give it another go.

They are the future for sure. I'd like to see some pics of your setup if you have the time.

I have been carrying a Glock with a RMR 06 as a duty gun for just over a year. I don’t see myself going back to irons anytime soon. The things I had to work thru were keeping my presentation clean so the dot would be there and realizing that the dot appeared to wobble more at distance. Accuracy at distance now comes easy and fast. I’ve got a M&P 2.0 waiting to get milled for a Delta Point next.

I've got a Leupold Delta Point Pro. Had it on a Glock 34 MOS at first, but have moved it to a Sig P320 X-five. I've been playing at the range with it, and have begun shooting carry optics with it. Like many, the big learning curve for me was/is finding the dot on the draw. But, I've been getting better. It is a lot faster once up and "found". I've been sidelined the past couple of months with a broken foot, so I haven't been getting any match time with it lately.

I've also got a Vortex Viper on a Ruger mark III and a Burris FFII on another one. I've never had a problem with either.

I haven't moved one to a carry gun yet, but I'm considering it.

How do you like the delta point pro compared to the viper? I am trying to get into the red dot game but cannot decide on a red dot. Yea the rmr has the best rep but it has a bottom mounted battery and I don't want to remove it even every 30K hours...

I thought removing the RMR or my JPoint to change the battery was going to be a pain but they've never needed to be re-zeroed so I wouldn't let that stop me.

30000 hours is like 3.5 years. Having to rezero once in almost 4 years isnt that big of a deal.

Close up of the integral rear sight for the DPP.





Work gun and personal gun.



Window difference between the RMR and DPP.

If you get tired of that Apex barrel let me know.

I got advice on my presentation from some open shooters who use dots exclusively and it helped a lot. I'd probably have to video it to make this make sense but I'll try.

On the presentation, don't try to drive the front sight directly to the target like you normally would with iron sights. It tends to bounce at full extension and I believe that's where a lot of people lose the dot, then start moving the gun around trying to find it.

Instead, push the gun straight out and then raise it up to your line of sight. By the time it's "up", the bounce has settled and the dot has settled in the window.

I've never used a Vortex dot, but based on what I've seen with their AR dot optics it's probably trash. I wouldn't even bother mounting one on a slide.

I don't think the bottom mounted battery is that big of a deal. Just break the Loctite, switch the battery, then rotate your carry ammo when you verify zero.

Agreed, the RMR wouldn't be as popular as it is if the bottom mounted battery was that big of a deal. The advantage of the lower body profile goes along with that bottom mounted battery too.

Blue, FYI, you'll want to Loctite that DPP rear sight in place really well. They do tend to come loose otherwise.

I've installed one Vortex optic on a Glock slide, and tried to talk my buddy out of it in favor of a better optic. I wouldn't consider mounting one on any of my own pistols unless it was just a range toy, but even then I'd just spend a little more for a DPP.

Interesting. I may have to try that again.

Thanks for the tips on presentation Blue.

I've got my Vortex Viper mounted on a Ruger mkiii, so low recoil and no slide movement. That's about where I think it would be good for. The glass is clear and the dot is sharp, I just wouldn't have as much faith in it on a slide with some recoil. I know several folks who use one in this application and have had no problems (yet).


But, I prefer the Leupold and have more faith in it's ruggedness and reliability. And, it's worked flawlessly on my Carry Optics rig.

Interestingly enough, the USPSA equipment survey from the nationals just came out. For optics manufacturers in the Carry Optic division, it went like this:

Leupold = 36%
Sig = 29%
Vortex = 16%
C-More = 6%
Burris = 6%
Trijicon = 5%