Red dot or Iron?

Aimpoint PRO with the Midwest industries mount.

Sterl1ng said:

Decent sets of irons are typically cheaper than a decent red dot. Lanbos Armory has magpul MBUS sets for ~$65

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Not really...

Sig Romeo 5 $125 done.

Bountied said:

Not really...

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I agree. A really nice set of fixed iron sights will cost the same as a decent red dot. With that said, I use both but prefer irons.

If you go with iron sights don't get flip up...go fixed.

Inigoes said:

Only problem with a red dot for HD, is the batteries.

You need to make maintenance part of your regimen, and keep the batteries fresh for when you need the firearm the most.

If you can afford a red dot that does not require batteries, go for it.

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Sig Romeo 5 has a 5 year battery life. Even if the red dot doesn't work in an emergency you can still fire the weapon.

omegared24 said:

I agree. A really nice set of fixed iron sights will cost the same as a decent red dot. With that said, I use both but prefer irons.

If you go with iron sights don't get flip up...go fixed.

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Ehh, my favorites are the MI low profile folding sights. I don't see the point of fixed irons unless you have a fixed front sight. The whole point of BUIS is that they are out of the way until needed as "back up". If you run fixed sight with a red dot you are blocking your sight picture. That's my opinion of course. YMMV

Bountied said:

Ehh, my favorites are the MI low profile folding sights. I don't see the point of fixed irons unless you have a fixed front sight. The whole point of BUIS is that they are out of the way until needed as "back up". If you run fixed sight with a red dot you are blocking your sight picture. That's my opinion of course. YMMV

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The OP is trying to choose between fixed sights OR red dot. They aren't used for back up in this case.

If they are back up sights I agree.

why not a bit of both? since handguns come with iron sights, I assume you are referring to a rifle setup. Then why not a bit of both for the price of one. There are a couple (primary arms cyclops and vortex spitfire) prism scope (not red dot). Theya re a bit of an outlier because they do not magnify. They are 1x small scopes. Their primary intended purpose is for people with astigmatism. The interesting part about them is that they have etched reticles, so even if your battery runs out or you do not want to use the illumination, you still have a cross sight etched into the glass. On my next setup I plan on trying it out, just to see if I can do without the additional iron sights. saves space, $$, and weight (minimal).

I had an Aimpoint Pro and Trijicon MRO on two different rifles. Both dots looked fuzzy to me. I also could not dial the MRO's brightness to my liking - either was too dim or too bright...it needed a finer adjustment to my eyes.

What boggles my mind is that every single cheap Vortex, Sig, or Primary Arms red dot I have looked through looks crystal clear in comparison. I know this is highly personal, but I just don't get it. My wife's rifle rocks a Vortex Crossfire ii, although I'd say there are some "better" competing options these days, such as the Sig Romeo 5 and Primary Arms stuff that has "shake awake". My HD rifle which is a DD Mk18 SBR with suppressor rocks a Holosun 510c. I felt a lot of guilt putting a "low/mid tier" optic on it (like putting ebay headlights on a Porsche), but it is the best option for how the rifle is used, is the clearest dot i've ever seen, and it has held up to considerable abuse.

At this point my rifles have either a holographic sight, reflex, or LPVO. Holographic sights do not effect my astigmatism, reflex sights look like a 4K TV in my eyes, and a good LPVO has an etched reticle which is useable with or without batteries. My HD rifle has Daniel Defense fixed sights at 1/3 cowitness to my holosun, but beyond that I typically go without backup sights.

For varying ranges, I like a LVPO.

At 1x, works like a reflex/dot sight. But you can dial up the power for longer range.

For shorter ranges only, some form of the dot. I have a Holosun 510C for my HD AR.

SkiPatrolDude said:

I had an Aimpoint Pro and Trijicon MRO on two different rifles. Both dots looked fuzzy to me. I also could not dial the MRO's brightness to my liking - either was too dim or too bright...it needed a finer adjustment to my eyes.

What boggles my mind is that every single cheap Vortex, Sig, or Primary Arms red dot I have looked through looks crystal clear in comparison. I know this is highly personal, but I just don't get it. My wife's rifle rocks a Vortex Crossfire ii, although I'd say there are some "better" competing options these days, such as the Sig Romeo 5 and Primary Arms stuff that has "shake awake". My HD rifle which is a DD Mk18 SBR with suppressor rocks a Holosun 510c. I felt a lot of guilt putting a "low/mid tier" optic on it (like putting ebay headlights on a Porsche), but it is the best option for how the rifle is used, is the clearest dot i've ever seen, and it has held up to considerable abuse.

At this point my rifles have either a holographic sight, reflex, or LPVO. Holographic sights do not effect my astigmatism, reflex sights look like a 4K TV in my eyes, and a good LPVO has an etched reticle which is useable with or without batteries. My HD rifle has Daniel Defense fixed sights at 1/3 cowitness to my holosun, but beyond that I typically go without backup sights.

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I had somewhat the opposite experience with the Aimpoint Pro, my astigmatism is kinda bad. It's really clean and clear, the dot looks great with glasses, and is a big blurry, although useable dot without glasses. The main thing I noticed compared to my other RD sights was the clarity, and lack of a visible tint and glare. Dot sights have a coating that allows most light to pass through, and reflects light around the wavelength of the LED, the better the coating, the narrower the band that gets reflected(including natural light that causes glare) and the better all other light passes through. This is why cheap red dots always have a blue tint, the older MROs had a relatively wide band reflective coating, and IMO looked like crap especially given the price. Mid priced PA and Sig red dots look pretty good, but usually have a smaller tube/field of view, really the only reason I prefer the Aimpoint PRO over them. Holosun has some models approaching a level above the other mid-priced optics, which they probably manufacture for the other companies anyway. The 510-512 are pretty awesome, the EoTech reticle in LED/reflex format with Aimpoint battery life, and while not as "battle proven" as Aimpoint/EoTech, they seem to hold their own with every torture test and comparison, so maybe one day they might be, probably with a Sig sticker on the side of it.

I love EoTechs, they look great with my glasses, but look terrible without them, the reticle is the best, being holographic, they don't need reflective coatings like LED based red dots, and in turn are as clear as possible. I use them on some stuff, but the requirement to turn them on means they are really only good when you are expecting to use that rifle, not great for a bedside HD gun, that is where red dots with a few years of battery life have a huge advantage.

Not a fan of prism sights, they have an eye relief box, and relatively dim illumination with a little parallax and "fish bowl" effect, also larger/heavier than a red dot with the same field of view. Figure if I'm going to have all the downsides of a LPVO anyway at 1X, might as well just get a LPVO and have their best feature, magnification too.