Red Dots for wingshooting

[zahc]

Yesterday was my family's annual TG get together, guy shoot, gals shop day. We dusted off the thrower and went to go throw some clays. I used to be able to hit them inconsistently but the last few years have been only able to miss consistently. I took my turn, hit 1 out of 10, gave up and resigned to trap duty.

My Grandpa made me go get my dad's 870, which I had mounted a red dot on, under the theory that I couldn't do any worse. It is a bushnell trophy with 3 reticles. I was immediately able to hit them. In 5 minutes I was hitting triples. And everyone that tried it, none did worse except my dad.

Anyone ever try Red dots for wingshooting?

 

[HSMITH]

I have, I tried a HOLOSight or some such thing. It was a flat lens with a "circle in a circle" reticle superimposed on it rather than a tube with a dot in it. I hit rather decently with it but I REALLY had to work to look through that thing. I am used to my eyes having the ability to move about completely freely when shotgunning. I found myself trying to look over it and around it instead of through it, quite distracting really.

One thing that really perked my interest with it was the possibility of taking a grease pencil and marking where the target should be for teaching sustained lead methodology. Newbies would be able to SKYROCKET skeet scores for instance, and the ability to see "lead" on a target would be extremely helpful. It could be a valuable teaching tool.

I guess my position on them would be that it could be a helpful tool for learning what to do, but those who know what they are doing already would be bothered with it.

PS: the reason you did well with it is because you saw the targets from the same perspective each time. The red dot is in the same place in relation to the gun at all times. Basically it provided the consistency that you have never had in the way that you handled and pointed the shotgun.

 

[zahc]

The major bad thing I noticed is that you couldn't shoot from a cheek weld, you'd need a special stock. Also, why is my expensive sight so dark? It's like it's tinted or something.

 

[HSMITH]

Turn the objective lens, the one toward the business end. Most quality sights have variable shading for differing light conditions.