Teach me about red dot optics, I have a question

[bernie]

I am about to get a flattop AR15 and would like a red dot optic to go on it. I know absolutely nothing about them. They are sort of new fangled, and I am not!

It will go on an M4gery and I will be shooting at ranges out to 500 yards. I have a steel silhouette gong at 500 yards and I think that a 4 moa dot would entirely cover the gong at that range. But I do not know if you can pick up a 2 moa dot very quickly for close in stuff. Any input is appreciated. I realize I will have to make trade offs, but what are they?

 

[Eightball]

There's a few varieties--the "plain jane" 30mm type, and the "adjustible reticule" type. 30MM has a brightness setting, the other has adjustible aiming points (though, if you'll be shooting at 500 yards, you might be needing to get an illuminated reticule scope instead of red dot). Where I work, we sell one that alternates between crosshairs, small dot, big dot, and dot in circle (1 moa and 10 moa)--99 bucks, but man is it spiffy. If I had an AR, it's the kind I'd stick on there. Gimme 2 days (when I go into work next) and I can give you more info on it.

Or you could just get an ACOG.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I'd say the main thing is to decide what budget you have for the sight. The top red dots like the Aimpoint and Eotech run in the $350-400 range. There are cheaper red dots available but you will usually sacrifice some things such as ruggedness, battery life, repeatable click adjustment, and mount reliability.

That isn't to say that cheaper red dots are worthless; just that it is very tough to make a cheaper sight and not give up some ground in one or more of those areas.

The neat thing about red dots is that they are typically parallax-free (they actually have parallax; but it is usually only apparent at ranges of less than 50yds and the deviation is small - 1.2 inches for an Eotech). This means that regardless of how sloppy your position is or lack of cheekweld, the red dot shows where the bullet will be going. This makes them very fast. The downside is without magnification, you need to have good eyes to use them at longer ranges. I can hit something at 300yds just fine with a red dot; provided someone will talk me onto the target first

The newest Aimpoint comes in a 2 MOA dot model and there is also the Eotech which uses a 1MOA center dot surrounded by a 64MOA ring. The ring helps you for fast acquisition and the small center dot lets you go after long range targets. I tend to like the Aimpoint myself. While the bigger dot does obscure the target some, it also serves as kind of a drop compensator - yow know that the bullet will strike within the portion covered by the red dot out to 300M.

 

[Hoploholic]

I absolutely love red dots. As mentioned above, the EOTechs are darned fine pieces as well as Aimpoints(EO's are my preferance). They are fast into action and since both eyes must be open to properly use them, a full field of vision is maintained. I must warn you though that once you go with a red dot you will be ruined for life and not want to bother with anything else. This being said, 500 yards is rather long for a dot but not outside of the realm of practical. I say go for it and have fun.

 

[Scottso]

Out to 500 yd's might want an Illuminated recticle scope, Acog or Elcan,$500+ depending. Aimpoint and Eotechs are a little less and Trijicon Tripower also. 2MOA dot is easy to pick up ata any range, have the 2 moa M3 Aimpoint, for longer ranges I have the 3X Magnifier on a flip over mount give best of both worlds. Pricey setup though. You can buy an Illuminated Recticle scope for long range, and close front Scope cover to use recticle as red dot, and keep both eyes open for close ranges. Options are plenty depending on Wallet lol. Remember you get what you pay for!

 

[MikeH]

Red dots are designed for fast aiming at relatively close range. I can manage maybe up to 100 yards using my Aimpoint clone, but beyond that iron sights actually work better.

 

[another okie]

I bought one of the thirty dollar 30mm tubes. It was fun but didn't hold zero well, so I put it on a .22 pistol and bought an ATN ultra sight, which may be the one referred to above with four reticles.

It's ok out to about 100 yards, but past that I need a magnified scope. Horus and Meopta make some good 1 x 4s, but they are pricey. If you want to read a full discussion, go to the three gun boards on brianenos.com.

 

[hossdaniels]

ultradot

eotech's and aimpoints are very nice but pricey. ultradot makes a very good quality red dot for about $130. i have one on my gp and love it.
but 500 yds is a strech for any red dot.

 

[railroader]

http://www.kalinkaoptics.com/detail.aspx?ID=116 Here's an option. Mark

 

[taliv]

i have one of the aimpoints on an ar15 and use it in two different ways, both of which are actually sufficient, but leave me wanting something a lot better, which is why i'm shopping for an acog.

specifically, i find that the dot is too large for precision work (trying to keep sub-moa groups at 50-100 yrds) because it obscures the target and the device lacks magnification, which i'm needing more and more these days.

so what i do is adjust the brightness. i'm not sure if the dot actually gets smaller (i doubt it) but it appears to my eyes to vary in size more or less proportionally to the intensity. i.e. if i set it where the dot is dim, it appears very small, allowing me to take more precise shots, but i have to concentrate and hunt for the dot a lot. alternately, when i'm just popping aluminum cans, if i crank the power up, the dot really stands out and is easy to find, but to my eyes, it look about the same size as the can at 50 yrds, so it's good enough for me.

really, i can't complain. it's a good system.

 

[BozemanMT]

Trijicon ACOG TA11 or TA31

2nd best is an Eotech, but they are really better for close up work (and they are better than an ACOG for that, but you wanted 500 yards)

3rd is an Aimpoint, but it's going to be tough at 500 yards.

Everything else is you'll be buying one of these three sooner or later, so you might as well save your money.