Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Sightmark Red Dot

A couple of weeks ago Doug offered up the chance to review a couple of red dot sights from Sightmark. I took him up on the offer, and he was kind enough to mail me the Mini Shot M-Spec FMS to give a whirl. Here is a link to the very specific sight in question....

SIGHTMARK MINI SHOT

The box arrived promptly and well packaged, which is par for the course when dealing with Cameraland. They don't have every optic I'm after every time I go looking,...but when they carry what I'm after I don't even bother looking at other retailers. They have been very, very good to do business with over the years. I digress however.

Here are a couple of photos of of the sight itself, soon after arrival...




As you can see, it comes with a variety of mounting options. Included with the sight are a riser to co-witness with standard AR sights, as well as a standard picatinny rail attachment. The "footprint" of the sight sans rail attachment(s) is the same as the Burris FF, Vortex Viper, and a host of other ubiquitous sights. Here are a list of some of those common platforms for sake of reference....SIGHTMARK SHARED FOOTPRINT

I'm by no means an expert, but I do a fair amount of recreational shooting. With the limited supply of reloading components available of late, I find myself increasingly shooting my rimfires. Since I already had a Holosun mounted on my Ruger Mark 4 pistol, I thought I made some sense to throw the Sightmark on a 10/22 and head out to my favorite shooting spot for some testing and comparison to the Holosun that I've had for a while. Here is the Sightmark mounted atop the 10/22 and ready to send a few downrange...



I was pleasantly surprised to find the first round perfectly centered on the target in terms of windage, and just slightly low. I grabbed a small screwdriver to make an adjustment, and quickly found what would be my only real criticism of the scope, albeit a slight one. The adjustment dials are of the friction variety...which is to say there are no positive clicks when turning. That's not a deal-breaker for me, I just prefer a more tactile adjustment. For some of you old-timers, it's very similar to how the old Leupold Vari-X scopes used to function. Now that I've said that, I'll note for the record that it "tracked" exactly as I hoped/expected it would. The very next round landed exactly where I wanted it to, along with the next 8 rounds that followed it. The distance to the target was 50 yards fwtw. Here are shots 2-10 that followed.



The reticle is 3 MOA, which is just about perfect for "minute of squirrel head" inside of 50 yards. It's not the instrument of precision that a 10x SS is that I had on the rifle prior to this, but it's a whooole lot more handy and certainly precise enough for 99.9 percent of what I use a rimfire rifle for every day. The levels of brightness were easy to use, and offered enough selection for any situation from a bright, mid-day sun to complete darkness.

In short, I really and truly like this sight. I failed to snap any photos of it, but I swapped it out to my AR-15 (.223) a couple of days later and had essentially the same exact same experience. It's still a bit early to speak to the long-term durability of it, as I only have about 400-500 with it so far. Having said that, it seems to adjusts/track as LEAST as well as the Holosun I also frequently use. That is high-praise in my book as I'm very fond of the Holosun and it enjoys a sterling reputation in general.

The Holosun is mounted on the Mark IV fwtw. Finn the wonder lab also approves for the record...



Many of you have forgotten more than I'll ever know about red dot sights, so I won't pretend to know more than I do. I'll just say that I'm happy to recommend this particular Sightmark to any of my family and friends, have done so already in fact. The price-point, features, functionality, and ability to purchase through Cameraland make it an easy recommendation at that.

If you're in the market for one (red dot), I suggest picking up the phone and giving them a call. I think you'd be equally pleased.

Dave

p.s. Should something change (like a failure), I'll follow-up with an update.

Thanks for taking the time to evaluate this sight.

I’ve been strongly considering trying a Sightmark LoPro and one of their red dots.

Thanks for taking the time to share your review.

Cameraland never disappoints. 👍

Thanks for the wringing and reporting, Dave.

Props on the cool Mark IV setup too.

I loaned my Mini Shot M spec to a bud.
His cheap RDS took a dump right before turkey season.

Said he zeroed my Mini shot quickly and it held zero ( turkey loads are brutal ). Held zero even after a tumble.

He wants one now 🙂

hookeye,

That's good to hear bud. I think I'm going to pick up another one specifically for turkey-hunting, so I appreciate the feedback in the experience in that application. I ASSUMED it would hold, but I just don't have enough time with the one I have yet to be completely sure. The more rounds I put downrange with mine, the better I'll feel of course.

Dave

Still in "wait and see" AFAIC.

Couple hundred 223 and a turkey gun zero session and a tumble.

No probs though.


Picked up an 870 Sportsman 12 to build into a turkey gun and yes, the plan is to D&T the receiver and put one of my Mini Shots on it.