Teach Me About Pistol Red Dots

[skatz11]

I agree with this. If you need to use your pistol you doubtfully will be aiming with sights let alone red dot, more than likely point shooting. But recent events really have got me appreciating the potential need of good distance accuracy out of a CCW pistol so this is where a 1moa would come into play.

If you want to be cheap the Holosun 2moa is nice

The greatest benefit of the RDS in on a pistol extremely fast and accurate target focused shooting. This translate to all distances.

Dot size a personal preference for sure. I don’t want anything smaller than 5 MOA on any of my guns. I’m way more precise past 25yds with a 5 MOA SRO than even the thinnest front sight would be shooting irons.

The 6 MOA Holosun 407k is awesome on my g43x. Looking forward to their EPS and EPS carry models coming soon.


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[georgeib]

I have zero experience with an RDS on a handgun, so this is an interesting thread. Ya'll have got me on the verge of slapping an SRO or whatnot on my Gen 5 G19.

The SRO does have a nice big window, but just keep in mind they are primarily aimed at competition use. They don't hold up to being dropped. The RMR is solid, however. I have 4 different Holosun red dots on pistols, and I'm very happy with them all. Would recommend.

[georgeib]

The greatest benefit of the RDS in on a pistol extremely fast and accurate target focused shooting. This translate to all distances.

Dot size a personal preference for sure. I don’t want anything smaller than 5 MOA on any of my guns. I’m way more precise past 25yds with a 5 MOA SRO than even the thinnest front sight would be shooting irons.

The 6 MOA Holosun 407k is awesome on my g43x. Looking forward to their EPS and EPS carry models coming soon.

I picked up an EPS carry 2 MOA only a few weeks ago from Europtic. It replaced the 507k on my EDC p365xl, so I no longer have to blow fluff out from inside it. The 507k got moved to a p322, where I'm just running it as a 2 MOA dot with the circle turned off. So far, so great.

[.45fan]

Roger that, good call, you're right. I set my RM06 to current lighting and leave it, but one of my RDS is a Type 2 RM01 and I pretty much hate it. It works fine about 80% of the time and sucks the other 20%.

The first two rds I got back in 2015 and 2016 were the RM01. They were type 1 and completely useless in situations where a weapon light was used/needed.
I sold them and now all the full size units I have now are type 2 RM06.

The amount I use the manual adj switch is very small, but is there if needed.

[B Cart]

I picked up an EPS carry 2 MOA only a few weeks ago from Europtic. It replaced the 507k on my EDC p365xl, so I no longer have to blow fluff out from inside it. The 507k got moved to a p322, where I'm just running it as a 2 MOA dot with the circle turned off. So far, so great.

I'm looking to do the same thing. I have a 507k on my P365XL EDC and hate the build up, not only on the lense, but the emitter. I really want to go closed emitter. How have you liked the EPS carry so far?

[Defaultmp3]

In the past few months I've purchased a couple of pistols that are factory cut for red dot sights. One is a S&W M&P 10mm. The other is an IWI Masada Tactical 9mm. I'd like to start with putting a RDS on the IWI. When it comes to Trijicon ACOGs, I definitely prefer the green illumination. Would I be correct to assume that this translates to RDS, or should I say GDS? What about the dot size? The smallest green dot that Trijicon offers is 9MOA. What are some other quality options? According to IWI's website, the Masada will work with the Trijicon RMR, Vortex Venom, Leupold Delta Point Pro and the Sig Romeo1.

The problem with the Trijicon 9 MOA is that it is an optic fiber sight, and not LED based. This means that it is much more likely to wash out than even the auto-adjust.

Dot size is rather personal. That being said, I've heard many folks state that with the larger dots, the auto adjusts work way better and that they are much harder to wash out with a WML, primarily in the context of the RMR 6.5 MOA vs. the RMR 3.25 MOA. That being said, I'm not too sure about a 1 MOA, I wouldn't even want that on a rifle without some kind of larger ring.

Typically, for raw gaming, it seems to be that the highest level folks prefer a single dot to have the cleanest sight picture and ease of reading the dot when hitting small, low-percentage shots. On the flip side, the more complex reticles that incorporate rings and the such seem to offer a slight advantage for larger targets, as there's more reference points to pick up and allows a less refined sight picture.

At this point, especially for a duty gun, I don't see why anyone wouldn't pick an enclosed optic over an open reflex sight, outside of size on NPE guns.

[okie]

Jon Dufresne has a 1 MOA on his primary pistol. I'm thinking of going that route myself. I've found my 3.25 MOA larger than I like sometimes, 9 MOA would be insane as far as I'm concerned, can't even picture a need for 6.5 let alone a 9.

100% agree. I'm a complete newb to pistol RDS and 3 MOA was very workable right out the gate. I don't think I would want 1 MOA, at least not yet, but I wouldn't want more than the 3 I have, that's for sure.

[gaijin]

I've found the Holosun 2 MOA Dot fine for my needs.
In theory, 2 MOA is 1/2" at 25 yds., it actually appears larger than that, even turned down low. Obviously at the brighter levels it "blooms" and appears much larger.
It is possible for me to be very precise with the 2 MOA Dot.

[georgeib]

I'm looking to do the same thing. I have a 507k on my P365XL EDC and hate the build up, not only on the lense, but the emitter. I really want to go closed emitter. How have you liked the EPS carry so far?

I anticipated the EPS Carry's release for quite a while, so I jumped on it as soon as I found a 2 MOA only model in stock. It perfectly solves the problem I bought it to solve, namely fluff and dust on the inner window and emitter. The lenses still get some dust on them, of course, but now it's simply a matter of a quick wipe with a shirt, finger, or microfiber cloth. From a usage standpoint, however, I really can't tell the difference between the EPS Carry and the 507k, so that's good.

Decided on the 2 MOA only version for a few reasons. 1.) The longer I've had red dots on pistols, the more confident I am of finding the dot immediately upon presentation. I've even turned off the 32 MOA circle on the other ones that have that option. 2.) Didn't want to wait nor pay for solar equipped dot/circle version. 3.) I have a 6 MOA Romeo 1 Pro (sits in a spare parts bin) that came on a Sig I bought, and I really see the 6 MOA dot as distractingly large for my preference. I won't own another large MOA red dot.

[gaijin]

Is the “footprinf” with EPS Carry same as 507/K George? Looks that it might be.