Recommend me a good, cheap Red Dot, please.

[TonyL]

Hi folks,
Amongst my many other toys, I have a 2240 Ratbuster, to which I've fitted a G-Mac steel breech, extended probe, Crosman shoulder stock and 4x32 scope.

I'm going to revert it back to a pistol.

Are any of the cheap Red Dots any good? Looking on the JSR site, those shallow bodied ones are what I have in mind, at about £15. But are they any good?

Pistol to be used for general plinking, and occasionally shooting tight groups on paper.

[zanes]

Hi folks,
Amongst my many other toys, I have a 2240 Ratbuster, to which I've fitted a G-Mac steel breech, extended probe, Crosman shoulder stock and 4x32 scope.

I'm going to revert it back to a pistol.

Are any of the cheap Red Dots any good? Looking on the JSR site, those shallow bodied ones are what I have in mind, at about £15. But are they any good?

Pistol to be used for general plinking, and occasionally shooting tight groups on paper.

In my experience they're pretty horrible. Got one that's been sat in one of the cabinets for years untouched after a brief spell on the CP88.

[TonyL]

P.S.
I ought to add that I have owned a couple of red dot sights in the past:-

The first one was back in the early 80s. One of the Singlepoint ones. Mounted on a BSA Mercury, it was devastating on close range rats, although the dot was far too large to contemplate use on bunnies at, say, 30 yards.

My next one was about five years ago. One of the Hawke ones. Sport, maybe? That was mounted to a Crosman Model 1, and used for plinking. I always intended using it for close range ratting, but never got round to it. It seemed okay, the dot size was fine, but the adjustments were too coarse, I felt, and they were also sloppy, so I always worried in case zero was accidentally knocked.

I'm fancying the smaller, lower profile ones, as I feel they'll suit pistol use better, with their shallower profile looking more in keeping and not upsetting the balance?

But I wouldn't want to run the risk of exposed turrets getting accidentally moved.

Also, with a pistol, will it be a case of "If you can see the dot and it's on target, you're okay?". As in, if you see it, you're fine. If you're not properly aligned you'll not see it? I understand that parallax should never be an issue with a non-magnifying dot, but what happens if the alignment isn't correct?

Or should I just get a good rear sight, like those lovely MIM ones??????

[kenhart1]

I have used most of the JSR dot sights they all work ok as pistol sights and as you say only around £15

[TonyL]

In my experience they're pretty horrible. Got one that's been sat in one of the cabinets for years untouched after a brief spell on the CP88.

What didn't you like about it?

[zanes]

What didn't you like about it?

Me skim reading, mistook it that you were looking for one of these sort of things: http://www.jsramsbottom.com/products...p-rd40rgd.html (not that exact one, but I swear many of them are clones of each other)

Found the dot too dim for use outside, dot too large for anything more than "tin cans at twenty paces" and the viewing angle very narrow. Ended up sticking to open sights

[Snooper601]

Hi Tony, I have a few of these and the Weaver rail version for my collection.

http://www.jsramsbottom.com/products...B11mm%5D-.html

The choice of 4 reticles is the best feature, a dot, a circle, a cross and a cross+circle overlaid.

Trouble is JSR are out of stock at the moment

Cheers

John

[TonyL]

Me skim reading, mistook it that you were looking for one of these sort of things: http://www.jsramsbottom.com/products...p-rd40rgd.html (not that exact one, but I swear many of them are clones of each other)

Cheers for that, Zanes.
Nope, not the sort of thing I had in mind as, personally, I think it's too bulky for a pistol.
Cheers for your observations and comments,
Tone.

[TonyL]

Hi Tony, I have a few of these and the Weaver rail version for my collection.

http://www.jsramsbottom.com/products...B11mm%5D-.html

The choice of 4 reticles is the best feature, a dot, a circle, a cross and a cross+circle overlaid.

Trouble is JSR are out of stock at the moment

Cheers

John

John,
Yep, thanks for that. Looks and size wise, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.
I'd expect that they're more than fine for plinking, "snap" shooting. What are they like for more precision work?

Or do I just go for one of those lovely looking LPA MIM rear sights?
Or maybe a HW77 rear sight, complete with its mounting block?

[Snooper601]

John,
Yep, thanks for that. Looks and size wise, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.
I'd expect that they're more than fine for plinking, "snap" shooting. What are they like for more precision work?

Or do I just go for one of those lovely looking LPA MIM rear sights?
Or maybe a HW77 rear sight, complete with its mounting block?

Hi Tony, I've used them for pistol HFT and ipas I even have one on my Rohm Top.
The choice of reticle is the best thing and the weaver rail type is easy to take off for storage and goes back on without needing to be re-zeroed. The Rohm case has no space for the pistol with sight fitted, the same as my Steyr LP50.

I want some more but I'll have to wait till jsr has them in again

Cheers

John

[TonyL]

Hi John,
If you're happy with them, especially for the uses that you've highlighted, then I've got to assume that they've got to be pretty good.
I can always contact JSR and see when they may have them back in stock.
I also see that they have the Walther Competition ones in, which I'd guess are pretty similar? Well, when I say they have them in, they're out of stock, too!

Are those cheaper Gun-Tuff ones worth a punt, or best avoided?

[shawnpurslow]

Just got one of those off an internet auction site for £16 including postage. Nice little dot sight but early impressions.

[GrahamHenderson]

and occasionally shooting tight groups on paper.

......hahahaa!, on your indoor 2 metre range?

[manxteddy]

Hi John,
If you're happy with them, especially for the uses that you've highlighted, then I've got to assume that they've got to be pretty good.
I can always contact JSR and see when they may have them back in stock.
I also see that they have the Walther Competition ones in, which I'd guess are pretty similar? Well, when I say they have them in, they're out of stock, too!

Are those cheaper Gun-Tuff ones worth a punt, or best avoided?

Just fitted an electrodot sight made by Zos.
Reflex type via Amazon.
Wow what a difference in performance and general precision compared to the plastic rubbish rear sight fitted by Brocock. Just slips over the mount and away you go.
Really a happy bunny now.
A simple and cost effective solution. Looks cool too.
Graham

[TonyL]

Cheers for that, Manx teddy, will look into those.