Weaver Micro red dot sight reveiw

[flightsimmer]

A Weaver, Micro-red dot reflex sight reveiw.

I've been looking for a small red dot sight that I could mount on my Ruger 22/45 Lite.

I've seen several brands including the Burris Fast fire 3 and a JPoint that I found interesting but they are over $200.00. So when I came across the Weaver brand I took a closer look because of the name recognition.

Now I don't know and didn't bother to research to see if it is actually made (by) or made (for) Weaver. So for $70 on Amazon to $80 at Optics planet both with free shipping, I took a chance and ordered one. That was on the 22nd.of August.
It finally arrived on the 3rd. of September, some kind of shipping snafu they said plus it went from Chicago to Ohio and back to Indy but it did arrive safely. Chicago to Indy is only about 200 miles.

OK, so let's get it mounted up, and that part went very well. I mounted the Picatinney rail that came with my Ruger and then mounted the sight, it was just that simple and easy.

I have a laser bore sighting tool that I used to get the Weaver sight lined up and on paper with and that went quick and easy.

So next day I was off to the range where I work part-time. My first shot was 1/4" left and about 1/4" down from the B-2 bullseye at 7 yards, so I moved it on out to 25 yards and fired 4 more shots. WOW! I'm done already and it only took 5 shots and less than 5 minutes.

So I set up a new target to fire 10 more shots for my record keeping which was just the beginning of my problems. Those 10 ten shots were not what I'm used to seeing from this Ruger Lite which is 1" groups or less at 25 yards with iron sights. So I tried a different ammo that is used for suppressed rifles/pistols and is subsonic.

What the heck, they all shot to the right by about 2". What is going on here, I knew it couldn't be the ammo so I rechecked the sight for looseness, that's when I discovered that the two allen head screws holding the sight to the Weaver mount were loose and I hadn't brought the supplied allen wrench with me so that ended my session for the day.

That evening I tried to tighten the mount with the allen wrench that came with it but the wrench didn't want to fit the screws so I used one of my own metric wrenches and the screws were in fact loose. It turns out that there were burrs on the end of the supplied wrench that kept it from going in so I stoned them off enough to get it to fit.

By the way, to change the 2032 lithium button battery (you get a spare with it) you have to remove the two allen screws that hold the sight to the mount base and it's under the sight. I know, it's a bummer and I have know idea how much it might effect accuracy.

The supplied screw driver caused me some problems because as I found out the hard way the shaft was turning in the handle and was not locking down the adjustments that I had just made but I fixed that.
I also checked the other mounting fasteners and they were all OK.

The Weaver mount has a fast mount/dismount thumb nut which can be unscrewed without fear of loosing it because it will not come all the way off.

So I rechecked the sight alignment with my laser bore tool and it was now off quite a bit so I realigned it and headed back to the range.
I fired 5 shots and they were close but not good enough so I loosened the two locking screws at the back and tried to readjust it, that's when I discovered that there is quite a bit of slop in the adjustment screws and you cannot just turn them a little, you have to turn them untill you feel resistance before it actually moves the adjustment and then retighten the locking screws. It's not a click adjustment like most scopes.

Well I did get it adjusted to suit me, it's dead on at 50 feet, a tad low at 7 yards and a tad high at 25 yards. That's because the bullet is still rising and with the exception of two flyers (aren't there always?) they pretty well matched what I know the pistol is capable of.

The red dot is adjustable with 5 settings, the brightest is very bright and the lowest is very small, about, I'm guessing 3 MOA. You change them by pressing the button on the front untill you get what you want then if you want to turn it off, just hold it in for about 2 seconds and it goes off. Now when you turn it back on, it will be on the last setting you had when you turned it off.

There is also a plastic hood that covers it when not in use but the rest of the sight is made of metal, aluminum I think with a steel base for mounting. You lift the front of the hood with your finger tip and it pops right off.

I would have taken pictures but that takes more time.

Am I sorry I bought it? No, it does seem to do a good job once it is adjusted but..............

I'm still looking at the Burris Fast Fire 3.

I hope this has been of help to you.

 

[Walkalong]

How is the dot quality?

 

[flightsimmer]

Quote: How is the dot quality? /quote.

I'm glad you asked. I didn't take the time to address that yesterday.

I've read many people complain about dot quality in other dot sights.
I think it has a lot to do with an individuals eyes or their corrective lenses.
While testing this sight I sometimes saw a (comets tail) and sometimes didn't so that leads me to believe that it has more to do with my glasses or the way I'm looking at it or how much moisture is in my eye, I'm not sure, maybe an optometrist can shed some light on the problem.
Anyway, to answer the question I would say the quality is very good.
I tried it on the brightest setting in full sunlight and it didn't wash out or become hard to see until I looked directly into reflected sunlight like a car bumper or off the water and it was of good quality but when on the brightest setting in low light, the dot flared as you might expect. In low light the lowest setting was also very good and did not show any signs of flaring even in pitch black conditions.
So I would say that the five settings are more than adequate and the dot is round as it should be.
By the way, the Weaver web site says this dot sight has a 4 MOA dot, I thought it might have been closer to a 3 MOA but I stand corrected.
The only thing that bugs me about it is the method of adjustment, it's not as certain as I would like but, it does seem to work.
Have a great day.

 

[Walkalong]

Sounds like it is worth trying.

 

[flightsimmer]

P.S. I have developed a reliable method of making small adjustments to the sight setting.
As I mentioned, the adjustment screws have some slop or freeturn when turning the screw one way or the other so what I now do is turn the adjustment screw in the direction I intend for it to go untill I feel resistance and then stop, then I loosen the two lock screws at the back and then turn the adjustment screw using the painted white lines as a guide as to how far I want to go then tighten the locking screws down again.
I have found that this works very reliably even for small adjustments.

 

[flightsimmer]

I happened to go to my Optomitrist today so I asked him about what would cause a "comets tail" look on a red dot sight and he said "well, floaters in the eye for one and several other things could also cause it not to look round, none of which are the fault of the sight itself". So if you have problems with your red dot sight, see your eye Doctor.

 

[Walkalong]

I have red dot sights with round dots, sights with decent dots, sights with poor dots, and sights with solar flares, so I don't figure it's my eyes.

 

[flightsimmer]

I have red dot sights with round dots, sights with decent dots, sights with poor dots, and sights with solar flares, so I don't figure it's my eyes.

Obviously it's not always the eyes then but this Weaver seems to have a good one.

 

[Walkalong]

I'll have to give one a try one of these days.

 

[rgwalt]

I'm beginning to learn the value of "buy once, cry once". While a $70 red dot may do a decent job on a plinker, if it leaves you wanting more, then I consider it a waste of money. I've heard really great things about the burris, but if I'm going to drop over $200 on a red dot, I'm going to think hard about what else I might use it for in the future and consider buying an even nicer sight, like a Trijicon or an EOTech MRDS. I realize we are getting into the $300-$500 range here, but with those sorts of sights, you can repurpose them in the future and not worry as to whether the sight will hold up to recoil.

 

[Walkalong]

I have red dots ranging from around $80 to $500, because, like most folks, I cannot afford to buy all Aimpoints, EoTechs etc. I have never regretted buying an Aimpoint, I just cannot justify it all the time. The $200 to $250ish Ultra Dot and Fastfire open dots are real nice as well.