Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Red dots on a handgun?

I thought it sacrilege too until I tried it, then I had to do it.

I'm not convinced that that's true, but you are free to believe what you wish.

Proven fact that dots are faster and more accurate

I have a holosun 507 on my Glock 45. Still new to me but so far I’m liking it

Good catch. Let me get back to you on that. I want to shoot my guns a little more with the backup sights. I probably used the wrong term and/or conflated it with sight alignment. The backup Holosun sight is funky in that I can only see a small part of the front green sight outline when I have the tops of the front and rear sights aligned because the housing cannot accommodate a lower sight cutout on the bottom of the rear sight. It certainly is not like the factory rear iron sight. IIRC, I was raising the top of the front sight a slight bit higher than the top of the rear backup sight. Anyway, while I was playing with the guns, the minus ("-") button on my 365XL sight stopped working and I can't turn the sight off. (I replaced the battery and nothing changed in that regard.) So, now I am learning the finer points of Holosun's warranty return and repair policies. (I see that it changed 1/1/22).

In reference to Bluedreaux's comment earlier about Holosun's nation of origin, I remarked a couple of years ago that I wish that Trijicon and Aimpoint would get into the compact and mini-gun market, but they only seem geared toward military and duty sized firearms.

Thanks for the link. Does anyone have any experience with one of these on Sig P365s?

Whether or not you "believe" doesn't change what high level competition has proven to be true.

Granted, it's something that requires good fundamentals, or the "faster" part may not be true for you, especially on the draw.

As for the accuracy part, well, I'm at a loss of you can't shoot more accurately with a quality dot over irons on a handgun.

Cheyenne I have no experience with the P365s but I have mounted the RMRcc 6.5moa red on my P365XL. The RMRcc sets up a little higher than the Holosun 507K and does not have the shake awake feature. I have looked at quite a few optics at the carry optics competition and have not seen any I would trade the RMRcc for. One of the big drawbacks for the Trijicon is the price, you can buy a Holosun 507K for about half the price of the Trijicon. The Holosun has auto brightness and a backup rear sight that a lot of folks like. In all the competitions I have only seen one red dot go down and that was a Romeo one that failed due to a dead battery.

Thanks for the insight, skitish. I sure would like to see one of those.

My suggestion would be to find out where the closest gunclub that sponsors USPSA matches. Call the match director and ask if they have a pretty large Carry Optics division. Then attend a match and tell the folk you are interested, then try to fight off all the folk trying to get you to shoot a stage with their pistol. You will have plenty of time to go to the safe area and handle the weapons and look at the optics.

People's individual perception on the subject vary greatly.

Long time iron sight shooters are generally not as fast to pick up shooting a red dot as brand new shooters are who are starting with a clean slate.

Plus sometimes it depends on the individual. They may struggle with "chasing the dot" finding a proper sight picture and finding the target. This is where just a couple of hours of good instruction could shave months of frustration off the learning curve or prevent someone from giving up completely and dismissing dots. A one day class on shooting with RDOs with a competent, high level instructor might be very well worth it if one is serious about becoming competent, and not just a guy with a dot on his gun.

I had used them for years already on small and large game hunting guns before I put them on a carry gun, but I still took some time on the range to really diligently practice being competent with my RMR equipped Glock.

At close range (7-10 yards) I don't really see any advantage. But beyond that the precision quickly becomes evident as the range increases.

I have used one on my turkey shotgun for many years. Even shoot waterfowl with one. I have old eyes and open sight are difficult for me. I have a red dot on my Sig 365X and it blew me away how accurate that little gun is for me with the red dot. I can hit 4" clay pigeons at 20 yards with it! Another huge bonus for me is that I shoot the Sig with both eyes open.

There is no question in my mind that I can shoot better groups with a red dot vs irons. That being said going on 62 years old, my eyes are not what they used to be so it only makes sense.
I took a red dot class to try and help me with the transfer from irons to a red dot. I am faster up close with irons because I can get away with a less than perfect sight picture. Back at about 10 yards and further the red dot wins.
For me I still loose the dot from time to time or it takes me a hair longer to find it to start with. Either way if you are having to use your pistol for self defense, extra time is most likely not your friend.
I do plan on working with the red dot more and hope to get faster and better with one but for right now, I am going to stick with my iron sights.

As a side note, I like my S&W M&P series pistols and my EDC is a Shield Plus. To cut down on ammo cost, I am thinking about getting an M&P Compact 22LR and getting it set up for a red dot. This would be to help me with my draw and picking up the red dot without the expense of 9mm ammo. A training aid if you will, plus a 22 is just fun anyway. Thoughts, good, or bad idea?

quote=TWR]I thought it sacrilege too until I tried it, then I had to do it.

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I just put a FF3 on my 620 with that mount. Very nice setup, with no extra metal out front. Anyone wanna buy a Weaver base for S&W revolvers?

“ To cut down on ammo cost, I am thinking about getting an M&P Compact 22LR and getting it set up for a red dot. This would be to help me with my draw and picking up the red dot without the expense of 9mm ammo. A training aid if you will, plus a 22 is just fun anyway. Thoughts, good, or bad idea?”

I think a 22 is a great idea. I have one for all 3 of my carry pieces, a 43c for a J frame, a G44 for my Glock 19 and a conversion kit for my 1911. None of mine have a red dot on them but I shot a Buckmark and a Ruger 22/45 with red dots in steel challenge matches for a few years. Thousands upon thousands of rounds fired in matches and training then I put dots on my Glock 9mm’s and fired many more thousands of rounds. I came to the same conclusion as you. Red dots are not quite as fast for me on the first shot.

Folks need to try things for themselves and see what works for them. I am getting old but I’m still capable of learning. I’m also capable of knowing what suits my needs best.

On the draw practice proper presentation in order to be seeing the sights properly as well as the dot. This doesn't require firing any ammo.

All right, enough is enough! Fine, red dots are great on plastic fantastic pistolas and even have a place on these new fangled double action jobs, but John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Randolph Scott and the Lone Freakin' Ranger himself are gonna come back and kick someone's ass over this!



That's not even mentioning the fact of, ya know, a silencer, excuuuuuse me, a suppressor on a revolver....

You can order a set of mini targets from that Ben Stoeger fella and get an app called dry practice drill and set up a space just like this in your office

And it still won’t make everyone as fast as most of the red dot boys say on first hit from the draw. I’ve tried, I own a timer, I used the dry fire app, the baby targets, I worked on index and what I found is the same index works for irons and they are still faster for me.

I’m not saying overall the red dot is not a better setup cause it is. I’m saying what’s important to me is the first shot out of the holster to make an A zone hit at 5 yards under 1 second more times than not is with irons. I know others will be faster with a dot but I’m not and after having to send 2 dots back to the mothership, I don’t trust them.

I’ll also say that live fire and a timer is the only way to prove your shooting. I will also say my iron gun is a Glock 19 while my red dotted gun was a Glock 45. I always liked the 19 better. Maybe a dotted 19 will work better for me. As soon as Aimpoint gets the bugs out of the ACRO P2 and has been shipping them regularly, I’ll try again but for now, red dots are not reliable enough for me to give up irons.

That’s just wrong, so wrong!