would anyone here purchase $400 iron sights for a hd shotgun?

[RobMoore]

Showme, the percentages may be in your favor, but it doesn't make it a fact.
Not everyone disregards their sights when the shooting is live.

 

[Dave McCracken]

I've managed to muddle through a half century of shotgunning in all its aspects without a holo sight, and my rifles likewise.

A bead works well for inside the house, though we DO have to aim a bit to place that tiny pattern in the right place.

Outside, open or peep sights do aid in best placement, but good work can be done out to 50 yards or so by a reasonably good shotgunner using a bead. That's with both slugs and large shot.

 

[RobMoore]

With respect to your many years of shooting, Morgan's Rifleman made it through a whole war against a superpower armed with muzzle loaders, but that doesn't mean centerfire rifles aren't a good thing to step up to.

I don't think anyone is arguing that the job can't be done with a bead.....just that it can also be done with an optic, and arguably better. Do you need it? No. Do you want it? Maybe. Tritium irons satisfy my needs for now, but who knows what I might decide in the future with a few hundred $$$ burning a hole in my pocket and nothing better to spend it on.

 

[oneounceload]

Maybe you should take that extra few hundred dollars and buy some ammunition and get to the gun club and practice. A lot more fun also......

When you start to become dependent on hardware and not software, you're setting yourself up for disaster......perfect practice makes perfect, not some gadget. Perfect practice takes time and money. I would rather spend the money to become "one with the gun", before adding something that Mr. Murphy might decide needs to break/snag/malfunction at the wrong moment.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Funny you should mentions Morgan's Riflemen.....

Morgan insisted the troops be armed with rifles, preferably their own. His premise was they could use the equipment they were used to and be thus more effective.

Catch my drift?

Expertise cannot be replaced by "Stuff".

And like one oz says, learn to run the gun.

After a pallet or three of shells, then decide if it and you "Need" any addon or just more ammo.

 

[RobMoore]

You're assuming that I haven't already burned through a pallet or three of ammo.

Oneounce, how about becoming "one with the gun" AND adding a better sighting system?

 

[PandaBearBG]

I say no for the optic and a vote for the tritium sites, but in the end it's your gun and what you choose will be the "correct" choice.

 

[tango2echo]

Home Defense=rooms less than 20ft, and more practically 12ft. Shotgun patterning 12" at 12ft. If you can't hit the target by pointing the noisy end at the target then a $400 sight isn't going to be much good.

IMO, drop the tacticool crap on the shotty. I can see where a good focused beam flashlight mounted under the barrel could be of help in a HD situation, but I see little need for "optics" and "holo sights" on a HD shotgun.

t2e

 

[Dave McCracken]

Rob, I don't see a lot of folks with high round counts putting holos on their shotguns. Some gamers maybe, but betcha they have a different shotgun for defense.

 

[oneounceload]

You're assuming that I haven't already burned through a pallet or three of ammo.

Oneounce, how about becoming "one with the gun" AND adding a better sighting system?

IF you ARE one with the gun, then those added sights are a superfluous extra that isn't necessary

A shotgun needs a full stock - plastic or wood, your choice

it needs the simplest trigger/operating system for fool-proof operation under stress/duress

it needs to be operated by anyone in your family with the least amount of instruction/capability during the above-mentioned stress/duress

guns with gadgets do not meet ANY of that criteria......

JMO, YMMV

 

[RobMoore]

Rob, I don't see a lot of folks with high round counts putting holos on their shotguns. Some gamers maybe, but betcha they have a different shotgun for defense.

Guilty as charged. I'm a gamer, but I make my game guns do double duty. In fact, my usual carry gun, the pistol on my hip right now as I sit here waiting on a plane, is the one I'll be using in the USPSA Production Nationals this weekend.

Edit: I feel the need to clarify. I don't do this for some "tactical" reason, but its more about just liking my M&P that much, and I don't feel like buying a second one for no reason.

 

[jakemccoy]

No, I would not spend $400, even if I had a substantial disposable income.

 

[Youngster]

EOtech type sights might be okay for military users who might have to run a shotgun with a gasmask and/or NVGs on in complete darkness, for HD use I wouldn't run one even if I were PAID $400 to use it.

 

[Fred Fuller]

On MY defensive shotguns, I want things as KISS as possible. Given a choice, I like ghost ring sights on a gun that will see duty outside, for a genuine 'house gun' I can do fine with just a bead. I don't want to have to turn on a sight when I pick up the gun, and I'd rather have a conventional stock with a good cheek weld and a sighting system that doesn't raise the line of sight enough to center up on a tube perched up above the bore somewhere. But that's just me. I'm an old stuck in the mud. Get over it already.

As for someone else, if it floats yer boat, go for it. Doesn't cost me anything for someone else to spend their money, whether it gets spent for training, practice ammo, or stuff that gets bolted on whatever gun.

Only thing is, if it's to make the gun look kewel so the owner can shoot pictures of it to post on the InTraW3bZ.... mmmm, I'd as soon not go there. If it's to help the owner shoot the SHOTGUN better, and it actually does so- that's an improvement as far as I'm concerned.

Ol' Elmer Keith, in his book on shotguns (Shotguns by Keith, copyright Stackpole and Heck, 1950- yepper, Elmer was real big on shotguns too) talked about mounting 1X scope sights on shotguns. The old Nydar sight was available at that time as well, along with the usual complement of beads, ribs both solid and vent, etc. Elmer pretty much endorsed a person using whatever they needed to shoot their shotgun better. I just can't see anything wrong with that attitude, myself, and I'm not a patch on old Elmer for crusty.

lpl

Never heard of a Nydar? Thought 'dot' sights were something newfangled and modren? Surely you knew better, right?

See:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=139565192

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=139838727

 

[ArmedBear]

Ol' Elmer Keith, in his book on shotguns (Shotguns by Keith, copyright Stackpole and Heck, 1950- yepper, Elmer was real big on shotguns too) talked about mounting 1X scope sights on shotguns. The old Nydar sight was available at that time as well, along with the usual complement of beads, ribs both solid and vent, etc.

Ol' Elmer's shotguns have plain beads on them, at least all the ones I've seen. Doesn't matter how fancy the guns are, otherwise, and Elmer Keith liked his guns engraved and his wood top-grade.

 

[jdub3]

I have a Win 1300 Defender that came with a bead and a snap on Fiber Optic. I have kept the fiber optic on b/c I can pick it up much quicker. Don't see a need for much more for an HD shotgun. If I thought I needed to engage out further I might get some ghost rings or a red-dot but I wouldn't pay $400 for them.

 

[jdub3]

Home Defense=rooms less than 20ft, and more practically 12ft. Shotgun patterning 12" at 12ft. If you can't hit the target by pointing the noisy end at the target then a $400 sight isn't going to be much good.

IMO, drop the tacticool crap on the shotty. I can see where a good focused beam flashlight mounted under the barrel could be of help in a HD situation, but I see little need for "optics" and "holo sights" on a HD shotgun.

t2e

I thought it was 1" per yard not foot meaning at 12' the shotgun will roughly pattern 4" not the 12" you stated.

 

[tango2echo]

That would depend on the gun/choke/load. My Mossberg Mariner patterns 12" at 12ft with Federal 12ga 2.75 #1 buck using a cylinder bore choke.

I have also heard the "general rule" of 1" to the yard, but in my experience this seldom holds true. You need to actually pattern your gun to see what it is really doing.

Even so, if your shotty is patterning 4" at 12ft and you're aiming at a roughy 20"x20" target and you still cannot hit it without having a $400 sighting device......well, chances are you will not be making further contributions to the gene pool.

No harm intended.

t2e

 

[dom1104]

I think the young ones wont listen to the old ones no matter how much sense the old ones are making.


Too much money and not enough sense is what makes a man buy a pricey battery powered sight on a close range weapon.

 

[chuckusaret]

I dunno, $400 will buy a lot of shotgun ammo. The last time I used one of my shotguns (today), I didn't even use the bead that is on the front of it.

Lets see, Wal Mart has 100 round boxes of 12 ga #6 shot for $20 and change, that means you can buy 2,000 rounds for a bit over $400. Thats a lot of point and shoot practice.

 

[MCgunner]

I hit one teal the other morning that I could barely see in the dawn light, about 20 yards hauling butt over the deeks with grass in the background. I couldn't see the bead, just point shot him using what I could see of both barrels and the rib in between and the natural fit of the gun. Funny, but on teal, I hit a lot of shots like that. A man at 12 feet, a teal at 25 yards and MOVING. The man is the much easier target even if I load slugs.