Welcome to the family brother @Thomas522 and you are blessed to be here.
Iāve shot irons for a long time, but Iāve slowly converted to mainly red dot sights (rds). The main advantage to me is that the rds is designed so that you are target focused with a single point aiming system instead of front sight focused on a two point system. Tracking and target transition are faster for me personally and distance shooting is significantly easier to be accurate imo. It was a challenge to catch the dot off draw for me initially, but it actually improved my consistency in my draw as I worked with it. I found that I had become a little relaxed in my draw stroke and that I was correcting inconsistencies with grip and alignment on my push out by grabbing my sights in my peripheral and correcting on the way to target. I canāt really do that with the rds so I had to focus and clean up my full draw.
As with almost anything worth doing, the rds takes some dedicated practice to really figure out and there are pros and cons to take into consideration. For me, the pros outweigh the cons. I do always have a co-witness set of irons on my carry gun in case something were to malfunction and I believe anyone who wants to use a rds should learn irons as well.
The main thing, as mentioned by several in this thread, is to make sure you train with your equipment and are proficient with and confident in what you carry
Idk about red dots what what about trutium night sights? Not much discussion here on that option. Iām interested in putting those on my S&W 9Easy.
God Bless you too Johnnyā¦
Thank you for the kind welcome!
Iām proud / and I sleep better being a member of the USCCA Family!
And
Richard581ā¦Pilotone440
Tritium a step up from stock sights on most guns imoā¦I like that they allow me to know where my bedside gun is in the dark. Guy at the club had a set on his G21, and two tritium inserts were missing. Forgot what brand, but may have been tru-glo. I have 8 sets, various brands including meprolight and tru-glo, no issue over 2-6 years now on 9mm and .45 acp pistols.
My real eyes are kind of starting to fail on the irons, so Iāve started on that path. But it is definitely not something one can just āpick up and doā. It requires learning a more perfect presentation than irons (and Iām not quite sure yet what makes more perfect recoil recovery).
Feels like developing proficiency might be quicker for me than originally learning iron sights a half century ago, but I expect at least months of skill development to be ready for EDC. I love what the red dot does for my precision at longer distances, but I need to get the speed and reliability down at closer range.
If you donāt need it and donāt want it, then donāt do it. But donāt wait too long to get started when it turns out that you do need to learn a different sighting system.
I have them on every carry-suitable pistol. The tritium capsules work, but they are dimmer than you might expect ā until itās too dark to identify a target. Also takes my brain a while to organize a sight picture with dim dots in a dim setting. So, a plus in my opinion ā but not even close to a magic solution. I have gotten more benefit from a high visibility front sight (i.e. large fluorescent red or green depending on what your eyes see best).
Red dot seems closer to magic ā day or night, but another learning curve.
While I be holographic sights on rifles, Iāve been less than enthusiastic about them on EDC weapons for ONE reason: the lens is a DUST/LINT MAGNET!
Iron sights for my P365.
However, Iām considering carrying with a red dot for my Glock 19. Will need to add suppressor sights and train with it first.
When a friend bought an H&K some years ago I was quite impressed with the three dots. Since then I have switched to TruGlo tritium, recently had my Trigicon vials replaced on my 4566, and have a set of TruGlo TFX I really like. The fiber optic really jumps out in daylight, and the tritium allows a good sight picture in low light. Have an Eotech on a mini 14, only dot I own. I guess growing up with irons I did not feel comfortable looking for the dot when point and shoot will most likely be the case with CQB. To everyone that masters the red and green dots I applaud you, just not my thing.
I have both mounted on my āBlack Rifleāā¦ Ahhhā¦ āAssault Rifleāā¦ Ahhhā¦ AR-15 and I use them both under different circumstances. (I always try to keep in mind: ā2 is 1 & 1 is noneā) Plus: I carry spare batteries for the Red Dot.
Iāve carried 1911s mostly from the mid 70s and exclusively the last 6 or 7 . Added high definition tritium and Crimson Trace laser grips at that time . I can point shoot across the room into the 5 ring easily and zero in with the others quickly if I need to hit finer . The laser is checked while in the holster every time I pick it up for carry . Tried red dots , but too slow for me on pistols .
Chris
A shot or two from a can of compressed air once a week will fix that.
Iād like to get more accurate with the iron sites first and then try the red dot. Then Iāll decide which way works best for me.
I prefer iron sights. With the way the world is and if Sierra, Hotel, India, Tango hits the fan, you wonāt have time to change the battery, so best to become an expert with iron sights.
If your house catches fire you wonāt have time to change the batteries in your smoke alarm either. Thatās why scheduled replacement twice a year is recommended.
All Iām getting at in these last couple posts is there are ways to easily mitigate many reasons
people give for avoiding optics.
Canāt afford them, canāt find the dot, hard to carry in a pocket, irons are easier, etc, all reasonable reasons. Dust on the lens, batteries not so much.
Battery is not a problem with good red dot.
50k hrs of constant ON or 100k hrs lifespan is longer than LED TV.
(How often do you have to change TV?)
I donāt watch tv. LOL