When we teach Red Dot Pistol courses we tend to see some interesting things. This is still a relatively new technology, and everyday we see new attempts into the market by companies both old and new. This last weekend we taught a class to 22 students. Of the 22 the majority were running Trijicon RMRs of varying types. We had three students using Leupold Deltapoints, and one SIG RX with a Romeo optic. It rained for about a third of the time and out experiences shooting these pistols in the rain was written up in a separate piece. Here are our learning points in no particular order.
1). You can shoot very accurately in the rain with a totally wet red dot. Sure its not as accurate as it would be in a dry and accommodating environment but hitting ten inch steel plates at 25 yards proved a non-issue.
2). There are four types of visual focus with these and the educated red dot shooter will use the correct one based on his needs and the problem at hand. Most accurate is visual focus on the dot as if it was a front sight. Second is visual focus on the target while noticing the dot. Next is iron sights with front sight focus. Least accurate is target focus with sights in the background.
3). The presence of back up, cowitness iron sights is imperative. Two of the three Leupold shooters were shooting without back up sights and the lack of performance in some environments was telling.
4). The SIG RX Romeo is a poor choice for anything other than hobby shooting. We have seen these fail time and again in spite of SIG's aggressive marketing and insistence that their red dots are as good as Leupold and Trijicon. This time we saw the zero fail and the dot fade out as the sight got wet. Again, on claims...if it sounds too good to be true and the price is too good to be true, well...you know the rest. We are examining methods to re-mill RX SIGs to accept the RMRs.
5). Two of the students were using compensators. These were the Suarez Kompressors, and they worked flawlessly. Ammunition and spring selection is crucial with these and these gentlemen had done their homework.
6). Serpa holsters are the most marketed and most poorly designed holsters on the planet. Truly, I would say you are far better off carrying a pistol with an empty chamber, stuck in your belt holsterless like a common thug, than using a Serpa.
7). Accuracy is part barrel, part trigger, part sights, part ammunition, and part shooting skill. If the first four are not established, the shooter will not be able to express his skill well. So it does in fact have as much to do with the arrow as with the Indian. if you want to exploit the capabilities of the red dot to its utmost, attention to developing the fundamentals is essential.
I'm just beginning to learn how to use a red dot sight. Why are the iron sights for Co witnessing imperative? I can certainly see why you need them as backup in case something goes wrong with your primary optic, but do they help somebody aim more proficiently with a red dot?
Posted by: Bill | Tuesday, May 01, 2018 at 07:24
Do some reading. It is all here.
Posted by: Gabe Suarez | Wednesday, May 02, 2018 at 12:56