Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Red dot choice for hunting handgun?

I own a Freedom Arms .454 Casull that I use for hunting, and intend to use again this year. I am not a 'long-range' handgun shooter, preferring to get close and keep my shots to 75 yards or less.
I have used a JPoint sight in the past on this firearm, and took it off to put it on my turkey shotgun. I then went back to 2x scopes. The JPoint worked okay, but I didn't like having to take it off to replace a battery and then reinstall and re-sight it afterwards.
The recoil of the .454, with full-power hunting loads, is hard on scopes- I have used Leupold and Burris LER pistol scopes over the years, and found that scope life is measured in hundreds, not thousands, or rounds before failure.

I am thinking of going back to another red dot sight this year, and looking at the Leupold Deltapoint Pro, Trigicon, Aimpoint, and a few others, meanwhile leaning towards the Leupold since it will fit on the JPoint mount for my Mod. 83 FA, allows for top replacement of the battery, and is waterproof.

Any thoughts or preferences on red dots for handgun hunting?

I have a Trijicon RMR sight on my Glock 40. I am very pleases with it

I debated between a Trijicon RMR and the Leupold Delta point pro. I wanted the Delta for the bigger window and top battery mount. After watching some vids comparing how they work (actual use, Delta has one button you have to cycle through brightness settings, RMR has up down on opposite sides... faster to adjust, with eyes off if necessary) I leaned toward the RMR. I know the RMR has a great durability track record, the Delta is probably no slouch.

Then I got my hands on the Trijicon SRO... big window, shooting with both eyes open you really dont notice the frame at all. And and top mount battery. You may sacrifice some ruggedness. After some range time i was sold on it....

Then a friend offered me a smoking deal on a month old RMR.... he went SRO across the board on several pistols.

I will end up with an SRO on the gun i shoot in matches.. The RMR is on my G40 and is a huge help accuracy wise.

I dont think you could go wrong with any of the 3.

Me too. I've not handled the SRO. If it's better than the RMR, it's pretty good.

I got the Trijicon suppressor sights to co-witness the RMR. Helps find the red dot faster.

Also dropped in a 7" KKM barrel. Prefect fit. Had my smith, who is a Glock trained police armorer, do a trigger job. He retired from the local SWAT team, was a sniper.

DF

In my limited experience with Red Dot sights the Ultra Dot was great, others might be as good or better, don't know. I can just tell you that the two Ultra Dots I had were great & held up to a lot of rounds of heavy recoil loads without fail. There are some here on the forum who have much experience with Ultra Dots on very big revolvers.

Dick

I purchased a Holosun HS507 on close out for $229 mounted to my CZ pc10.Nice red-dot for the $$ IMHO..

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Sig Romeo I just installed on a Ruger BH, I really like it.

they make a RMR with a 1moa dot. That may be the ticket for a hunting gun

Dick is spot on the Ultra Dots hold up under the extreme recoil of the heavy kicking revolvers.

I’ve used Ultradot’s extensively on really heavy recoiling revolvers and in any estimation there is nothing tougher on the market.

Any RMR experience Max?

I've use 2x scopes with good results on FA 454's in the past but seem to struggle with that setup as I get older. A couple years ago, I bought 2 RMR's when Cabelas had a Father's Day sale and put one on a FA 454 and the other on a Ruger 480 Bisley. I also have a Fastfire 3 on a Buckmark - I'm still getting used to the red dot optics but my accuracy has improved considerably and my nearly 60 year old eyes do much better than with open sights. I'm currently working on setting up a 9mm carry pistol with a red dot and am trying to decide between one of my RMR's and a Deltapoint Pro.

With all that, I think if I was setting up a FA as a dedicated hunting handgun, I'd be looking at the Ultradot due to the FA scope mounting options. In fact, pulling the RMR off my FA to put on the 9mm, and adding an Ultradot to the FA is making a lot of sense...

Romeo4H W/Green dot and two dots below the first looks good but my experience goes with a 2x leupold for years, to RMR on a 45 Super, to various cheapie scopes that were junk in the long run. It all makes me wonder why? Why didn't I try the 30MM Ultradot. I have read and own several of Whitworth's books. He has used several Ultradots. And he has lots of success. One should listen to that much experience. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Decided to go with the Leupold Delta Point Pro sight- got it a couple of days ago, and got it mounted up yesterday AM. I had a mount plate for my Freedom Arms .454 that I have used in the past for a JPoint sight, which now sits atop my turkey shotgun. FA says this plate works for the Delta Point, but I found that for the newer Pro model, the anchor pins on the base fit perfectly, but the screws are longer and larger diameter, so I just drilled out the old screw holes for the larger screws, tapped the holes with the screws, and mounted it up.

Haven't shot it yet, but am really impressed with the overall quality of this sight and the number of features it has, like the ability to change batteries with removing the sight, windage and elevation screws that work just like on scopes, it is waterproof, and made of aluminum and steel.

Anyway- here's an iphone shot thru the Delta Point, at my neighbor's bison, distance is 80 yards. The FOV with this sight is great, and very clear. Dot intensity is set at brightest level, it can be reduced with the push of the on/off button. The dot actually looks smaller in real life than it appears in this photo- iphone is zoomed all the way in, making things a bit fuzzy. This buff would be dead with a heart shot, if I wanted to shoot him through the glass in my office window. BTW, no ammo or cylinder in the revolver for this shot. Think I will use my .454 in a couple of months on a trip to Nebraska to fill the freezer with some buffalo steaks!

I got an Ultra Dot for my .500 specifically based on recommendations from this forum. Still holding on.

Bighorn,
Using your 454 on a Buffalo hunt will be quite rewarding.