Red dot VS. Iron sights on your carry firearm

With my backup LCP, I am more of a point and click shooter. I have practice double transition, Rifle to primary handgun, then to backup gun. Not sure how real life realistic that is, but it’s fun to practice it. It gets heart rate up also :us:

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I don’t think there is likely any realistic real life use for that.

But.

There is real life use of the general familiarity with handling your firearms proficiently in a timely manner though. It’s a lot more real life realistic training/learning/proficiency development than not going out and training, which is where most are

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RDS sight are NOT the weakest link in any EDC firearm, the user is. Even if the battery was to fail completely you should have practiced enough with just centering the target in the optic that accurate shots where they belong are easy at any distance you need them to be. Hell, if you can’t score a whole lot of hits in the HCC of a target or BG at SD distances without really using your sights you need a whole lot more training and range time. BUT, if you don’t train/practice you’ll never know and like anything else RDS sights can be an invaluable tool, or a false sense of security and/or a crutch.

I remember years ago when a lot of folks were using the whole battery thing as an excuse to not buy RDS sights for the rifles. a whole lot of nodding going on amongst the holdouts, and NOW the damn sight are ubiquitous on any AR anyone is using for “social work”. The first EOTECH I ever bought is still going strong well over a decade later and I have sitting on my desk a Aimpoint CompM2 that is older than that EOTECH and I’m just moving it from one rifle to another. The damn thing WILL NOT DIE and will probably outlive me.

The being said, as with anything in life my father’s wise words always resurface every time I purchase anything of substance.

“Buy right, cry only once.”

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The only thing wrong with this statement is that Enzo did not capitalize and bold the word USER. Although my batteries have never died on me since I had optics mounted over three years ago, I have practiced enough to hit dead center with the optic off up to 25 yards away. The “window” centers your eyes on the target. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

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I urge you to read Enzo’s comment below.

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Same here but my newest, 507 Comp quit completely, luckily It was on my DR920 that I have trained NPOA with before ever putting an optic on it.

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I can still co-witness with my open sights if the battery fails on my CT red dot that is on my Taurus G3C

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And another thought not directed at anyone in particular, but when someone says I won’t depend on anything with batteries when I might need it to save my life, or something to that effect…

How about your car? Unless you are Fred Flinstone (now I’m dating myself) and use foot power to drive your vehicle, you put your life in your hands every time you drive it and depend on those batteries for everyday life and emergencies.

How about your cell phone? Many folks don’t have land lines anymore. We depend on cell phones to dial 911 and the GPS in them to expedite Emergency services when we most desperately need them.

Flashlights and all sorts of other emergency and SD equipment depends on batteries. Are we discarding ALL those tools because they MIGHT fail??? That’s crazy to me…

I’m only asking that folks think and not go with a cliche line when discussing these topics.

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I know. Right? Normally my “dot” (in my case circle) sits on top my front sight and I pull the trigger. If my “circle” weren’t there my routine would not change. I am still looking through the same “window”, lining things up via the front sight, and pulling the trigger.

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So true. I always preferred the SG because it didn’t feel like a dead weight after a couple of hours around my neck and because of the brighter tone. I couldn’t play a Strat. It takes a good technique to play them properly. IMHO.

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Recently I spent few hrs on the range with my old pistol with iron sights only. I couldn’t see any difference with accuracy and speed within distance 3 ft - 25 ft. NPOA does the job.
Majority of the shots from distance longer than 25 ft were way slower to keep accuracy level intact.
It’s good to shoot old style iron sights… but for EDC optics is a must for me. :nerd_face:

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I bought my 1st real Gibson SG in the 80s. It got “stolen” from my sister’s house while I was at sea along with all my other valuable ■■■■. Miraculously none of her valuable ■■■■ was stolen. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Well, I took my Max9 with the readydot to the range. I’m actually pretty impressed. It’s definitely not for target shooting but at 7 yards everything was within the 8 ring. The dot is big so just imagine the bullet going to the middle of the dot. I’m keeping it in my gun. One more trip to the range to make double dick damn sure that I can aquire the dot as fast or faster than the open sights & I will start carrying it. Ive put 200 rounds thru it without one failure 40 of which were Hornady Critical Defense 115gr.

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Out of curiosity, did you measure and compare? Same target/drill, same scores, same time on the shot timer?

What we ‘feel’ isn’t always the same as what ‘is’…your target and your timer are your best friends at the range…hey will show it to you exactly as it is, no better no worse

After years and tens of thousands rounds of shooting same basic drills you know and feel the difference.
I do not compete and I stopped using shot timer for practicing self defense.

Yes I’m able to feel time difference between my fast and slow shots.
Split of the second is not my concern, but half of the second is a difference easy to be caught.

The time difference I was talking about shooting iron sights from longer distances was between half second - one second comparing to shooting the same drills / scenarios with red dot.
And that’s a lot for self defense.

But if you are not using a timer how do you really know? :thinking: Our perception of time differs as we age.

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I’ve instructed and competed enough to learn that people’s perception of time can be rather deceptive (mine included). It’s not a lot better than shooting at a berm and calling that all 10 shots were inside of a 6" circle at 10 yards because you felt like they were…the target and the timer are it

Just train yourself with counting your shots.
You will be amazed after year or so, how easy it is.
Start with the timer, measure your shots and try to guess the time.

I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s a super easy to catch even 0.25 second difference.

If I find it, I will post a link to the video on YT, made during Travis Haley’s class where he explains how does it work.

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I found it. It’s called The Delorean Drill.
The important part of the drill is to guess your time.

I’ve been doing this for last 3 years as a part of my everyday dry fire practice and each time I’m on the range.

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