Gun trends that make no sense to me

[Alan]

Everyone's putting red dots on everything now. I'm still using iron sights on most of my stuff and doing fine. Am I behind the times or is this red dot thing overhyped? Honest opinions wanted.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Everyone's putting red dots on everything now. I'm still using iron sights on most of my stuff and doing fine. Am I behind the times or is this red dot thing overhyped? Honest opinions wanted.

My son had some sort of Optic on his service rifle. When he was in Afghanistan he would be running while shooting and hitting enemy fighters as he ran around. He was real good with the optic. They all had them.

Me I am old school 20 inch barrel, carry handle sights. I am the same way on pistols. I shoot better than my son does with iron sights, but I can’t make a red dot work for me. I guess I am too old to change my ways now.

The only dot I have been able to hold still and shoot to point of aim with was on my son’s Army buddy’s Sig P211GT. That had a 2500 dollar gun with a 1K optic on top of it though.

 

[Citified]

I am old(75)but still like Iron sights.
Dot sights work well on handguns and rifles for first hit percentages. For target work, to check groups, a
scope is my preference.
I have both red dot and green dot and have found The green dot works better outdoors for me.

 

[A11mo$t]

My red dot has sat in the same place in a drawer since two weeks after buying it 30 years ago. It's one of those "I might need it things" that I have too many. But when I get rid of those things I kick myself.

 

[MisterEd]

Am I behind the times or is this red dot thing overhyped? Honest opinions wanted.

With nearly ANYTHING (not just guns) a lot of things get 'overhyped' however WITH guns it seems to be 'epidemic' with a lot of things.

Red dots may have their place, and practicality in certain shooting scenarios however probably far more are buying off on the 'hype' and following the desire for them in a 'fad - like' manner.

A couple years ago I 'considered' a red dot for one of my rifles (Ruger PCC) for nothing more than to see what the 'hype' was all about. I looked at a few of them but before I bought one I had the opportunity to try one on a guy's AR and well, I did NOT do very well with it at all. I didn't care for the 'floating ' dot and quite frankly didn't shoot well with it at all. Heck I shot my PCC with it's stock peep sight better than the guy's AR with it's red dot AND I was benchrested.

Bottom line is all of my lever action rifles have Williams receiver peep sights and I shoot very accurately with them. I have couple rifles with TRADITIONAL scopes and thats as far as it's going to go with me.

As far as PISTOLS I prefer traditional square groove & blade fronts but DO like '3 dot' style sights and have modified a couple of my gun over the years with them, and recently did my new RIA 9mm 1911. (The rear was factory dotted already!)