Red (green too) dot sights on pistols

[Wapiti]

To any of you blokes (and sheilas) who's eyes might be getting a bit old and find that the standard sights on handguns are getting so hard to see, and align properly and are getting a bit frustrated (I was bigtime), maybe think about giving these things a go.
My everyday carry pistol has a pretty short sight radius, and even with the excellent tritium sights it was getting very hard to get a good accurate shot.
Stuff at arms length is never an issue though, sick stock or larger than normal pouch finds no worries, but heaps of shots are at 10-15m and I like them to be where I want the bullets to land because I don't like causing distress or followups if possible.
My pistol didn't have a slide cut to take a sight, so I ordered one from Nioa that slots into the dovetail, and has the option of a sight to be attached to the rear of the Delta-Point, which I chose as I had one on a very abused pump 308 that gets around the place and it never ever needs rezeroing, and turns off when you put it down. I wasn't game to set up the mill to do it because the slide is rock-hard and I'm not sure that I can tap the two 4mm metric holes it needs to direct-mount super-low. I was dubious that the dovetail was enough to do the mount with the slide slamming back and forth.
Anyway, after zeroing it and being super pleased with how accurate it has made this short little 9mm, I've used it a few times in the paddocks but over the last few weeks had some real stacks where I've fallen on my arse on the gun when pulling pipes and putting in new troughs for new paddocks we're setting up.
Today, I fell backwards dragging a 250m length of poly over a log and landed right on a big rock and crack, on the pistol.
So, I thought, bet this is out a bit, because as well as that it's bashed the sight against steel posts, tractor implements and heaps of other stuff.
Thank goodness these Delta-Points have that spring steel guard that sits with clearance over the sight window, a bloody great idea for a paddock gun.
As it is the phosphate finish on the guard has been scraped off on the edges already.
So, it was 15 shots, a full mag as is always in it, at the target in the yard at 10m offhand.
I must say I was unrushed, slow fire with single action definitely not double-action as is the usual first pull out of the holster.

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Must say, if any of you guys are getting older, need to land your shots exactly whether for scores on paper or between the eyes of a troubling animal when you can't carry a rifle, these things are unreal.
Especially for such a short barrel and for PPU 124gn HP cheap ammo.
And I am not the world's best shot. Or at anything else for that matter but have a go.

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So there's no way I could've done this with 15 shots at 10m freehand with irons. Gives me heaps more confidence.

Only thing that is a bit of a bastard is that, when carrying the thing all day under a coat or a shirt hanging out (to try and save it from too many hard hits, the screen facing up in the holster fills up with lint and dust, so much so that at the end of the day it needs a squirt from an air blower before putting it away.
If anyone has a solution to this, I'm all ears. Never thought about this when using fixed irons.

[deye243]

Just don't buy a zero tech first I bought the Red Dot one and instead of a dot it was more like a star figured stigmatism could be the culprit so took it back then got the green dot one because apparently that doesn't do it I should have checked it before I left the shop so for now on I'm definitely done with cheap relex sights

[bladeracer]

I've been doing some practice with a holographic sight. I don't consider it useful though. For slow well-supported aimed shots it's okay but for fast sight acquisition I think the learning curve is steep.

I've been using it to practice ISSF Rapid Fire matches. You have four seconds to come up, get the sight picture, then put one shot on each of five targets before they turn away, at 25m, one-handed. Even with the low recoil of a .22 pistol, trying to keep the dot in sight is difficult. But the slowest part is trying to find thr dot initially.

I'll keep playing with it, but for me, at the moment, it's still way too slow

[deye243]

I've been doing some practice with a holographic sight. I don't consider it useful though. For slow well-supported aimed shots it's okay but for fast sight acquisition I think the learning curve is steep.

I've been using it to practice ISSF Rapid Fire matches. You have four seconds to come up, get the sight picture, then put one shot on each of five targets before they turn away, at 25m, one-handed. Even with the low recoil of a .22 pistol, trying to keep the dot in sight is difficult. But the slowest part is trying to find thr dot initially.

I'll keep playing with it, but for me, at the moment, it's still way too slow

Lots of practice to develop muscle memory is your friend you'll know when you're ready you'll be able to bring the pistol up with your eyes closed and when you open it the dot will be right where it needs to be learned how to do this back in the 90s with open sites works very easy for me now with any of my 1911 configuration pistols coming out of the holster .

[Wapiti]

Just don't buy a zero tech first I bought the Red Dot one and instead of a dot it was more like a star figured stigmatism could be the culprit so took it back then got the green dot one because apparently that doesn't do it I should have checked it before I left the shop so for now on I'm definitely done with cheap relex sights

Yes that's what happened to us, and including a 1-8X scope from Zerotech I got sucked into buying by the glitzy flashy marketing having so much parallax it's impossible to be precise with. Now when I see the SSAA magazine "The Report" having yet another paid fake review on a Zerotech it just tells me that the reviewers have absolutely no credibility and opinions are paid for. Am I being unfair?
Hey maybe I should just suck it up and put it in my overpriced handbag like some lounge-lizard here suggested. Don't worry about buyer beware, worry about upsetting a basement dweller... yeah as if.
We bought two cheap Zerotech green dots for two Buckmaster shotguns, one has a green dot that has a flare that is like having a torch shined at you, the other is clear and crisp. We bought the second one because the first one was clear and crisp.
So out of three, two of their products are not worth any price, cheapish or not.
For those reading this, please don't buy online, you may just get a special surprise, another QA Chinese fail rip-off. Although as far as a scope goes, how you check for parallax will be almost impossible without a mounted optic on a solid bench.

[Wapiti]

I've been doing some practice with a holographic sight. I don't consider it useful though. For slow well-supported aimed shots it's okay but for fast sight acquisition I think the learning curve is steep.

I've been using it to practice ISSF Rapid Fire matches. You have four seconds to come up, get the sight picture, then put one shot on each of five targets before they turn away, at 25m, one-handed. Even with the low recoil of a .22 pistol, trying to keep the dot in sight is difficult. But the slowest part is trying to find thr dot initially.

I'll keep playing with it, but for me, at the moment, it's still way too slow

Lots of practice to develop muscle memory is your friend you'll know when you're ready you'll be able to bring the pistol up with your eyes closed and when you open it the dot will be right where it needs to be learned how to do this back in the 90s with open sites works very easy for me now with any of my 1911 configuration pistols coming out of the holster .

Dye is spot on Bladeracer, it's breaking the previous technique you built over years. And got right for irons.

I found that I was bringing the pistol up to my eyes the same as I was with the opens, which meant that I took a second or two to find the dot because it wasn't there. I wasn't allowing for the extra height, small as it was, and I didn't have the intuitive subconscious view of a front and back sight in my peripheral to align, then bring that alignment onto the target.
That's my epileptic description of what I found.
The internet calls it muscle memory, pretty good way of describing a very effective habit that has been formed, and must be broken.

Taking more time and then losing matches because of it? I can only imagine, however when that dot has been zeroed, it is spot on, and way more precise that irons - as we know the slightest misalignment between front and rear sights is a big difference to a precise spot to hit, that's not there with a PARRALAX FREE dot sight.
And to make sure that slight misalignment with irons isn't there when squeezing off a shot with a dot sight takes just as long for me finding that dot, and I know that this will improve for me. Blokes like you guys will shoot many more rounds than I will, being at the range, and I'd bet you will master the difference before I will.
For me, it's made the pistol into a much more precision tool, and has surprised me as to how accurate these little tools can be. To get that result, for a clown like me, with irons with my aging eyes is impossible.
I'd say, FWIW, is have another go.