Red Dot On a Pistol Advice

[Hsing-ee]

As it is taking more than 6 months to get a spare for the somewhat fragile rear sight on my Brno Aeron Model 5 single shot self-cocking match pistol in .22, and I have failed to come to terms with pistol scopes, I have bought a Hawke HK3204 red-dot system. It is on its way from an individual on the auction site.

I don't think I have ever used a red-dot sight, they are the kind of 'combat' thing that I am not interested in. Still needs must when the Devil drives.

Is there any particular trick to using one of these? It is described as a 1 x 25 so I presume one looks THROUGH the sight and not that both eyes open malarkey that was needed with the SinglePoint or BSA Reflex sight of my youth. Are these suitable for ten meter or twenty yard NSRA type targets or are they just for plinking?

[Geezer]

Suitability for precision will depend entirely on the quality of the unit. (I have no experience of Hawke red dots.). Some of the cheap stuff have big, slightly imprecise dots and dodgy adjustments. Whereas an Aimpoint or EO Tech or similar can shoot 1MOA at 100 metres all day long on a good centrefire rifle.

Unlike the Singlepoint, BSA reflex (a truly poor sight) or the Armson OEG, you don’t need to have both eyes open, but you should - with any and all sights.

[u.k.neil]

I cannot see iron sights any more, but I shoot pistol HFT with my Steyr with a Bushnell red dot.






Neil

[Segata]

Works perfectly fine on the Guns I have them on, they don't generally magnify though so if thats something you need you might want to look at something else.

[Hsing-ee]

I cannot see iron sights any more, but I shoot pistol HFT with my Steyr with a Bushnell red dot.






Neil

That looks 'well Star Wars' Neil! Or possibly a 'Steyr Wars Blaster'.

[Waddy]

Red dot sights are brilliant for pistols when your eyes won't do opens anymore. You do get what you pay for & the more expensive ones have a lot smaller dots making accuracy a lot easier.

I got one of these for my Crosman 2240 & I can cut sideways playing cards in half at 7 yards with it on. https://premium-quality-air-rifle-ac...ing-p188095514




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[Hsing-ee]

Red dot sights are brilliant for pistols when your eyes won't do opens anymore. You do get what you pay for & the more expensive ones have a lot smaller dots making accuracy a lot easier.

I got one of these for my Crosman 2240 & I can cut sideways playing cards in half at 7 yards with it on. https://premium-quality-air-rifle-ac...ing-p188095514




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That looks excellent value. And amazing shooting Waddy.

[Jesim1]

Good red dot sights are fine, poor ones are not

There are a couple of issues with the bad ones, if you use one which has too large a dot, then the dot gets larger the further away your target is, so it's hard to get good accuracy, and a 5MOA is just too big most of the time, a 3MOA is a far better size.

The second issue is quality, the cheap "reflex" type are pretty poor, they loose zero, are hard to adjust, and suffer form parallax, so getting a good quality one makes a massive difference, but your budget is your budget or we would all buy top of the range everything

[angrybear]

It's all about the size of the dot most are 3moa, good ones are 2moa, unfortunately that's an old one at 4moa.
1moa = 1" at 100yds or 1/10" at 10 yds
So at 10yds the 4moa dot will obscure 4/10" of the target, at 20yds it will obscure 8/10" of the target,
so not great for accuracy if you can't see the centre of the target.

[Hsing-ee]

Good red dot sights are fine, poor ones are not

There are a couple of issues with the bad ones, if you use one which has too large a dot, then the dot gets larger the further away your target is, so it's hard to get good accuracy, and a 5MOA is just too big most of the time, a 3MOA is a far better size.

This is just a stop-gap but what would you recommend as a high-end version in case I take to the system?

[tinbum]

Karen uses a Geco red dot on her Buckmark. It has a 2moa dot and os surprisingly good


[IMG]hostpinc[/IMG]

[Shed tuner]

and to answer your "both eyes open" question, yes, for sure you can, and it's more relaxing to do this. your 25mm one is pretty small, so this will probably be far more comfortable. 40mm size much easier to look thru, but a bit buylky for a pistol. I like the rectangular, reflex style.

For accuracy on the lower qaulity round type, just ensure the dot is centred in the image when you shoot, to eliminate potential parallax error.

I shot some prefectly reasonbale groups with a cheapy red dot using an pp750 whilst my shoulder was recovering, so they can be perfectly adequate:
https://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread...lue-PCP-pistol

[Hsing-ee]

and to answer your "both eyes open" question, yes, for sure you can, and it's more relaxing to do this. your 25mm one is pretty small, so this will probably be far more comfortable. 40mm size much easier to look thru, but a bit buylky for a pistol. I like the rectangular, reflex style.

For accuracy on the lower qaulity round type, just ensure the dot is centred in the image when you shoot, to eliminate potential parallax error.

I shot some prefectly reasonbale groups with a cheapy red dot using an pp750 whilst my shoulder was recovering, so they can be perfectly adequate:
https://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread...lue-PCP-pistol

Very impressive Jon!

[Jesim1]

This is just a stop-gap but what would you recommend as a high-end version in case I take to the system?

They have gone very expensive like so many other things, but the reason I bought my Vortex Vipers (3 MOA and no longer available) was that they were really light weight, which made a big difference to the handling of the gun, they were 3 MOA, so were good enough for 10m targets and up to 20m on spinners, and they were almost parallax free, unlike some cheap versions, so you get what you pay for.

If I was buying one again, I'd be tempted to go for another 3 MOA vortex https://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/vo...miRTYCNuvQdqRu But if I could get a 2 MOA at a reasonable price I'd go for that, but they are up another level, at least for Vortex.

My last ones had a good system for varying the dot brightness, which meant it was better for getting the right light and not being too bright so it made the dot look bigger. I have mine on a dovetail/picatinny adapter for a Steyr as they were a picatinny mount on the sight, so check how your mounting it and what mount it comes with. The batteries also lasted for hundreds of hours, and had auto shut off, I think I only replaced them ones in about 3/4 years?

[Hsing-ee]

Karen uses a Geco red dot on her Buckmark. It has a 2moa dot and os surprisingly good


[IMG]hostpinc[/IMG]

Gosh that is what a modern Buckmark looks like? They have developed it nicely. Remember shooting the club ones back in 97 or whenever it was before the ban..