Poll: Red dots on shotguns growing

[Savage Jav]

Curious everyone's through on red dots becoming more accepted on shotguns? I think its just another progression as it offers the same advantages as a red dot does on a rifle or pistol. I understand its not everyone's thing but i'm curious what everyone's exposure is like.

For me a shotgun is a hunting tool (HD is a rifle) I've been very pleased with the results since mounting a dot. I feel I've taken more game successfully with it.

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[Alexx1401]

My last defense type shotgun has long been a safe queen now. If I was going to bring it back for use? Hell yes I would gladly put a dot on it. My aging eyes LOVE dot sights.

 

[drstrangelove]

If you are wingshooting it is fairly pointless… Unless you are crosseye dominant then it can keep your weak sighting eye with at least a sustained lead. Great wing shooting though will always be subconscious.

 

[TTSX]

Heck, why not. Faster, better acquisition is never a bad thing

 

[Oro]

If you are wingshooting it is fairly pointless… Unless you are crosseye dominant then it can keep your weak sighting eye with at least a sustained lead. Great wing shooting though will always be subconscious.

I've been seeing rds's showing up on shotguns and wondering about this exact topic.

This post above is where I'm coming from I think. All my shotgun time has been trap and skeet shooting, in the furtherance of wingshooting skills. To do that, you learn to mount the gun and hit what you see, or put the pellets where you are looking (leading). You and the gun are a unit and the lead computing is instinctive in your head. I just don't see how a red dot could do anything but get in the middle of that simple system. That brass bead out there IS your "_____ dot sight."

But then there must be ways to use the gun that I'm not familiar with that it makes a lot of sense. I've never used my shotguns to shoot slugs, steel, or in a liquor store. Or maybe people use it as a shortcut to not have to learn how to really shoot the gun. I don't know, but I have wondered.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

For my style of shooting...nope.
( Even with a modern shotgun )

I prefer a plain bead and using my eye as the "rear sight"...
Familiarity with the firearm and lots of practice works well for my shooting.

Nothing against folks using 'em...just not for me.
Andy

 

[Stomper]

Since you can only (ethically) hunt during daylight hours, my bird gun has a magnetic green light-pipe at the front of the rib, which works amazingly well.

My "fighting" shotguns have a Meprolight tritium front bead-sight which replaces the brass bead sight.

No batteries, no mechanical internals to fail, and not all "Buck Rogers".

 

[bbbass]

When I could still see out of my right eye, my hunting shotgun had a green light pipe on the end, and my HD shotgun has a reflex optic which oddly enough, has not grown a single mm.

 

[Member 34319]

I'm not sold on the need for a dot sight on a shotgun.

Turkey hunters have enjoyed them lately. Maybe deer hunters if you hunt deer with one.

Birds, I don't see any advantage, same for any shooting discipline involving clays.

Home and defensive use maybe. I've come to understand that many Holosun optics have a ring option. I use mine a lot with non shotguns. The ring is supposedly representative of buckshots spread. I haven't tested this, but if that's the case, a red dot with a ring reticle would be an amazing choice for a defense shotgun that should likely only ever see buckshot through it.

I'm not sure why they decided to go with the micro red dot instead of a regular RMR sized one though.

 

[bbbass]

For hunting, I would worry about not having a stable cheek weld with a standard red dot tube type optic mounted high off the rail. Shotgun shooting at game birds is a swinging technique not a pointing technique and requires a stable cheek weld with a view down the rib... swinging, esp with the pistol grip shown might cause the dot to wobble all over.

That said, I do know some shooters the are successful with a rifle snap shot technique rather than the traditional shotgun swing.

I don't think I could change over if I was still hunting bird.

 

[mjve671]

I do enjoy some RDS on my budget shotguns.

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• mjve671
• Oct 7, 2021

 

[Savage Jav]

If you are wingshooting it is fairly pointless… Unless you are crosseye dominant then it can keep your weak sighting eye with at least a sustained lead. Great wing shooting though will always be subconscious.

Hey @drstrangelove curious if you'ld be open to meeting at a trap or skeet range and shooting a couple rounds? I run a benelli M2 with a dot and it works pretty well for me on birds and clays. Curious if your open to try it at least it?

Is their any range open around your location? If not the Canby rod and gun club has trap open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

[Savage Jav]

I'm not sold on the need for a dot sight on a shotgun.

Turkey hunters have enjoyed them lately. Maybe deer hunters if you hunt deer with one.

Birds, I don't see any advantage, same for any shooting discipline involving clays.

Home and defensive use maybe. I've come to understand that many Holosun optics have a ring option. I use mine a lot with non shotguns. The ring is supposedly representative of buckshots spread. I haven't tested this, but if that's the case, a red dot with a ring reticle would be an amazing choice for a defense shotgun that should likely only ever see buckshot through it.

I'm not sure why they decided to go with the micro red dot instead of a regular RMR sized one though.

Same offer I made for @drstrangelove. Just curious if you want to come try it on some clays.

I thought the ring option would be good as well but in practice a sing dot is way less distracting for clays and birds.

 

[Member 34319]

Same offer I made for @drstrangelove. Just curious if you want to come try it on some clays.

I thought the ring option would be good as well but in practice a sing dot is way less distracting for clays and birds.

I use the circle only for many applications, it's extremely fast. I wouldn't mind trying it on clays. I've been raised on shooting down the barrel, it would be a hard thing to relearn shooting a red dot for clays!

 

[drstrangelove]

I certainly would love to try it out... but I'd be lying if I said I already hadn't. I put a Burris FastFire on a Benelli SBE1 many years ago for duck hunting and found it much more of a hindrance than the magnet-on fiberoptic pipe sight, especially if it's getting wet in the rain with drops scattering the reflex dot.

 

[PORSCHE928S4]

I would pass ghost rings work fine for me and the trap guns have double beads can't see retraining myself.

 

[Savage Jav]

I certainly would love to try it out... but I'd be lying if I said I already hadn't. I put a Burris FastFire on a Benelli SBE1 many years ago for duck hunting and found it much more of a hindrance than the magnet-on fiberoptic pipe sight, especially if it's getting wet in the rain with drops scattering the reflex dot.

A closed emitter on the dot will eliminate that. I am using the scalarworks sync so I can use aimpoint micro foot prints (just using a holosun for now). Shoot me a day and wll makt it happen

 

[huzar]

Specifically for those red dot sights that give you a donut of death (like the Holosun and EOTech), having that superimposed over your target may not be a bad thing from a shot accountability point of view. If you know how your load patterns, you can rely on knowing that if the target fills the circle, then all pellets should be inside the target.

 

[titsonritz]

Specifically for those red dot sights that give you a donut of death (like the Holosun and EOTech), having that superimposed over your target may not be a bad thing from a shot accountability point of view. If you know how your load patterns, you can rely on knowing that if the target fills the circle, then all pellets should be inside the target.

The "donut of death" seems to be made for a shotgun.

 

[Savage Jav]

The "donut of death" seems to be made for a shotgun.

I found regular dot better for wing shooting