Am I alone in having a hard time with red dot sights?

[brutus51]

Purchased a Sig P320XL with Red Dot. Could not be happier, helped my accuracy a lot and have no issues in finding the red dot. Just start out with your normal grip and presto the red dot is exactly where you sights were.

Really wish I had your experience but that red dot just won't work with my 70 year old eyes and 50 years of shooting with iron sight.

 

[shoobe01]

if no one said it: not all red dots are created equal, by a very wide margin. You may not get along with the SIG sight, but try others if you can. Even just looking at them un-mounted at a gun store.

It took me a lot of tries to find ones that work well with my eyes. Doesn't matter which, as those that work for me pointedly do not work for some other friends with bad eyes.

I am so bad with irons now I am older I wouldn't shoot handguns for sport and fun if I didn't have RDS on my guns. Amazing difference.

 

[Buzznrose]

Took off the Romeo zero and replaced it with the supplied night sights, now I have a gun I can shoot. Turns out the P365 XL is a pretty accurate gun without the gizmo. think I'll keep it.

I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you yet, but that’s because you haven’t learned the technique, which is actually intuitive once you “get it”.

I honestly think you just need to have someone walk you through using one properly. If you were near me in South TX, I’d be glad to help you. There are a few very good posts above…but I’ll give you my tips:

1. Sight in the red dot on a bench. If your iron sights are on, they should pretty much be the same place.

2. With an empty gun, practice bringing the guns up from low ready and looking for the front sight. If you can see the front sight, the dot should be right there.

3. Once you can get the sight on easily, STOP focusing on the dot, and focus on the target! This is a BIG difference from shooting by using the front sight, where the target is blurry. One of my favorite things about a dot is a clear target!

I’m assuming, since you say you can shoot the gun well, that you have the trigger pull mechanics down. So the three tips above will work if you practice a bit and let them.

I shoot with a friend who just turned 80. Once I introduced him to red dots, he was hooked. During the last year, I’ve mounted red dot sights on four of his guns and have one ready, awaiting a picatinny mount, for his new Ruger Mk4 Hunter. He’d basically given up pistols and was only shooting scoped .22 rifles but is now back shooting .45, 9MM, and .22’s and hitting bulls eyes at 12 yards (from a seated, rested position).

They work…they will work for you. You just have to get the “epiphany”…like riding a bike. It’s hard…until you figure it out…then it’s easy.