Red Dots best for Rural Home Defense

[Elbert P . Suggins]

I have purchased two Ar's and 3 Ak's in the past two years. Have tried the open sights, scopes, and have finally settled on the red dot sighting system for 100-300 yard open range shooting. I mounted an Eotech 512 on the front forestock on the Ak and an Aimpoint COMPML2 on the Bushmaster upper receiver rail. For quick acquisiton on moving targets up to the 300 yards, this sighting system is pretty hard to beat. But for me where they really standout is in low lighting conditions or even at midnight on a full moon. On those nights you can see coyotes at those distances and easily hold them in your sights with these things. Especially the windowed Eotech. Shooting with both eyes open is quite natural. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to shoot anything at midnight using iron sights or scopes without night vision or a lighting system.

With the talk of SD, HD, and protecting your farm or smaller acreage from whomever and whatever, these Red Dot sights are an invaluable tool for personal and family protection in a rural setting.

 

[Surf]

No arguments here. I will also add that red dots allow for much more flexibility when shooting from less than ideal, or "improvised" shooting positions that don't allow for a more traditional sight alignment.

 

[rcmodel]

If you can hit a coyote at 300 yards in the dark with an Eotech, you should be on next seasons "Top Shot" TV show.

You can beat all commers I betcha.

rc

 

[LoonWulf]

I had a night shooting permit when we had a farm, and shot alot of deer at night. Ive always used a scope, never had much luck with red dots or open sights, as the scope provided better visiblity imo. I also never had a chance to use any of the high quality reflex sights. In truth my normal night scope was a 44mm Aetec on my 597, so while i could see well enough with a bright moon i couldnt shoot till inside of 50yds. I used a spot light quite a bit also, and it never mattered one way or the other what sights i had then lol.

 

[Elbert P . Suggins]

RCmodel said "If you can hit a coyote at 300 yards in the dark with an Eotech, you should be on next seasons "Top Shot" TV show." I have downed two at 150-200 yards but haven't gotten the chance at 300 yards. You can still track the target very easily at 300 yards. I agree, that would be quite a shot. Alittle luck involved, it could be done, especially with the 223.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

ive got a number of aimpoints on ars but when the sun goes down and your talking low light an acog or an accupoint do much better. Both do a much better job of light transmition compared to any red dot sight.

 

[gotigers]

I have an Eotech xps2-0 on my AR. I feel it is perfect for inside 300 for all purposes. The 1MOA center dot is nice for a somewhat precision shot and the 65MOA circle is great for fast close target acquisition.

for night hunting yotes, i would use a green light to help.

 

[henschman]

I would think you would want to mount the red dots the opposite from how you have them... I would put the EOTECH on the AR and the Aimpoint on the AK. The EOTECH is the proper height for an AR, but sits way too high to get proper cheek weld on an AK. But with the Aimpoint you can put it in a low ring and it will be just right for the AK.

No arguments on the benefits of a RDS for shooting inside "battle sight zero" range.

 

[Strykervet]

If you can hit a coyote at 300 yards in the dark with an Eotech, you should be on next seasons "Top Shot" TV show.

You can beat all commers I betcha.

rc

I know I can do it. I was at the range day before last shooting the 200y 12" gong with a 14.5" M4 and EoTech. No misses, all hits. If they had one at 300, that wouldn't have been a problem either, easier actually. It was dark, but they have lighting, still pretty dim though. With the 20" Grendel, I had the thing swinging back and forth until I ran out of ammo, there were two kids at the range with dad and they were pretty excited about that.

I agree, the red dot is great for anything 300m and less. The Aimpoint, the Army issue one, is a good rugged device, but lots of people like the EoTech because of the window. More like a HUD. I like this too, only thing I don't like is forgetting to turn it off and dealing with batteries. With either one, you can easily shoot to 300m with 5.56mm, the Army adopted them because they thought it would increase hits, and still without teaching how to shoot.

I have a Trijicon ACOG reflex sight as well, it doesn't have this problem with batteries, but firing from one light source to another can cause the reticle to be dim, and the reticle is bigger than the small red dots, so the groups are bigger. I can't get a group under 3 inches or so at 100m using the ACOG reflex, but I get about 1" using the EoTech.

If I had to carry one into a fight, I'd have to pick the Aimpoint. It ain't my favorite, but I've seen the abuse they can take and keep working. Amazingly well built, and the new ones don't burn through batteries. I prefer a tritium only ACOG scope, 4x, if given a choice though.

Trijicon has a newer one, a newer reflex sight, it uses batteries, tritium, and fiber optics. I'd like to try one, if they are as rugged as their other stuff, accurate, and have a small dot, I think that one would be the best one you could get.

BTW, I use the M4 with the EoTech as my HD rifle too.

 

[mortablunt]

I've never tried electronic sights. They'd probably work wonders for my shooting. I've heard about getting Kobra sights for an AK, but I never felt like dropping the money for an aiming device when I could get mags full of ammo for the same price.

 

[pale horse]

I have used the Aimpoint, ACOG, and EOTECH in a combat zone. I will try to give my impressions of each one.

Aimpoint - is a good optic and many of my Bn swore by them. I found that the small red dot gets lost really fast with my eyes. The new comp 4 is awesome in its battery life. It uses a AA battery and lasts 80,000 hours. One other down side for me is the knob that gets bound up on my gear.

ACOG - great day optic and gives the magnification, rugged as hell, its light weight, and does not have any batteries. Some down sides; need to thump on it to adjust it when you have to rezero, there is no regulatory brightness control except duct tape, non adjustable eye relief, and a large cross hair for distance work.

EoTech - Great combat Optic. I used mine in the turret as a back up for the 240B. The good; rugged, no parallax, fastest of the three mentioned, 65 moa dot to acquire your target, the window can be used when damaged, retains zero even after being mounted to a M2 50 for 5 qualification tables, rugged and easy to zero. The bad; the sun washes out all red dots, battery life is about 400 to 600 hours, shuts down after 4 hours (512), cleaning the lense can be a PITA in a mud/dust storm, and its buttons (512) are butting up against your back up sights making it hard to operate controls. BTW dont over pay for the NV button on eotech's they all can be seen with night vision. When you mount the NV you have to move the optic forward making the front end heavy and the reticle really small.

I am not a fan boy of any of them but if I had to choose one for rural ranch work I would have to go with the aimpoint. If the price is not a problem. However, if you are like most Americans right now you would be better served with an Nikon 223 1x4 power, a Leupold 1x4 power or the Millet DMS. It really comes down to what your landscape and terrain allows. If your on open ground like south texas I would suggest a 1x4 power scope and if your in the Ozark mountains I would suggest a red dot.

See if your buddies have some of the optics you can use. I have tried burris 134 red dot and the cheaper Bushnell (eotech's) and found them all to be lacking severely when it comes to battery life. Dont get any optic that uses batteries that are not easily acquired at the local store.

 

[d2wing]

I like red dots but in very low light I can't see well enough with illuminated sights. I've had better luck with good scopes.

 

[TonyAngel]

Elbert, while I can't many any negative comments regarding the usefullness of a good red dot sight, I just want to point out that if you are going to a red dot simply because you can see through it at all times, most notably at night when you can't see through a traditional scope, I'd suggest that you may need to try a better scope. For the price of an Eotech or Aimpoint, you can get into a nice traditional scope that will perform well in low light.