Since their introduction to the
commercial market some ten
years ago, formerly exclusive-to-the-military red dot sights have
undergone a rebirth to become
critical to tactical uses on not
only rifles, but shotguns and
handguns, as well. It’s not
unusual to find both red dot
and magnified optics double-stacked on tactical rifles, an old
trend made new for the
recreational tactical market.
By Jeff Fletcher
Contributing Writer
Factory sights on yester- day’s handguns made shooters rely on aiming above all other considerations. Nothing wrong with that;
hitting the target squarely gets the
job done. But how long it takes to
aim accurately generally slows
down the shooter and, in the event
of a kill threat from an assailant,
time is crucial.
In earlier days, some bow hunters, including the writer, preferred
the recurve over the more powerful
compound bow. Because old habits
die hard, newer hunters learned to
use compounds, complete with pin
and peep sights, easily; and accuracy was fairly certain due to the confidence the hunter placed in both
him/herself and the equipment.
The recurve hunter had far
fewer accessories on which to rely,
thus a quick shot had to be taken instinctively since recurves offered no
hold-over of the bow string; and trying to maintain aim with a recurve
often resulted in missed shots or
lost, but mortally wounded, game.
Some handgun shooters learned
to shoot instinctively, as well. Unfortunately, the writer was not
among them despite successful
instinct shooting with a bow. Call
it laziness; we simply practiced
more with the bow than with the
gun. Handguns were seen as tools
for self-defense rather than hunt-
Red D Revi
ing (though that practice certainly
changed over recent history).
Eventually, curiosity over sighting systems resulted in mounting a
red dot sight on an especially large
Smith & Wesson revolver. Voila!
Target acquisition and trigger pull
became near instant because aiming
was no longer the most important
element of shooting. Even clamping
the odd eye shut while aiming be-
