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.

[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

[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.

[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]

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]

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??????

[GrahamHenderson]

and occasionally shooting tight groups on paper.

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

[TonyL]

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

Hey up, Graham.
Lovely to hear from you, matey, it's been some time!
Hope you're okay.

I can well remember your lovely little Crosman (Medallist?) with the electronic trigger. Very nice!!

And I can muster up about 16 yards outdoors and about 10 yards indoors, you cheeky little mite!!

Wot you shooting now?

[GrahamHenderson]

Hey Tony! i couldn`t resist mate lol, yeh i`m good thanks, keep plodding on ...
well, i happened to get a deal off the `for sale` on here a few weeks ago,
a slightly used Weihrauch HW100 Thumbhole, lovely bit of kit but it weighed a flippin ton!!
yeh, i soon sorted that problem by getting a Titanium `Carbine` cylinder,....> Weihrauch HW100 Ti Cylinders for sale
Yes the carbine cylinder fits beautiful, just needed a shim (piece of cycle innertube) in the cylinder band!
oooh la la! she handles lovely now! (still utter junk compared to the GC2 though)
and i`ve still got ye olde Crosman 1377 surprisingly the electronic trigger still works a treat, proper 2 stage with a featherweight final `touch`
sadly, it succumbed to some condensation and has an `oxidized` finish shall we say!
still hardly have time to shoot on account of having to go to work!
well best of luck in your quest for accuracy, i tried everything
always ended up back on the backsight i fitted off the HW77!
ATB

[TonyL]

Hey Tony! i couldn`t resist mate lol, yeh i`m good thanks, keep plodding on ...
well, i happened to get a deal off the `for sale` on here a few weeks ago,
a slightly used Weihrauch HW100 Thumbhole, lovely bit of kit but it weighed a flippin ton!!
yeh, i soon sorted that problem by getting a Titanium `Carbine` cylinder,....> Weihrauch HW100 Ti Cylinders for sale
Yes the carbine cylinder fits beautiful, just needed a shim (piece of cycle innertube) in the cylinder band!
oooh la la! she handles lovely now! (still utter junk compared to the GC2 though)
and i`ve still got ye olde Crosman 1377 surprisingly the electronic trigger still works a treat, proper 2 stage with a featherweight final `touch`
sadly, it succumbed to some condensation and has an `oxidized` finish shall we say!
still hardly have time to shoot on account of having to go to work!
well best of luck in your quest for accuracy, i tried everything
always ended up back on the backsight i fitted off the HW77!
ATB

Hi Graham,
Great to hear back from you.
Sorry no reply sooner, as I'm in the same boat as you....work, work and more work, and so little time to play with the toys, and less and less time to get on here!!
Managed a 1 hour plinking session last Wednesday with the Ratbuster......Prior to that was four weeks before, when I shot a smurf!......No need to worry, it was one of those freebie McDonald's giveaways with Happy meals....my daughter didn't like this particular specimen and said I could shoot it, so my low powered, old knackerbag of a garden gun '35 blew the back of its head away!.....
Before that, it was another 3 or 4 weeks!
Glad you're still loving the GC2 and your new HW100..... Old dinosaur me is still sticking with the boingers.

You'll have to find the time and rejuvenate that little Crosman, I seem to remember it was fun and accurate.

As and when I can fight my way to the gun bits cupboard in the garage (path blocked by the wife's and the kids' garbage), I'll have a rummage, as I might just have a 77 rear sight and mounting block hiding in there. I've often guessed that it may offer the best solution. I think the Ratty suits its original design brief better, with it being such a stumpy little thing.....My phase 3 1377, however, will most likely remain a scoped carbine, as it's so clinically accurate.

If you fancy it, and we can both make it, time-wise, it'd be GREAT to meet up again, maybe Gainsborough, or some other club, and catch up?

All the best and great to hear from you, matey.

Tone.