Air pistol optics and sighting options

Shot with Open irons .... Long eye relief pistol scopes .... Short eye relief rifles scopes ... ZERO eye relief scopes such as the MTC connect.

No matter the sighting system getting stable is paramount !! and those shots taken as HAIL MARRIES seldom find there mark.



Pistols are not for everyone and too become proficient shooting one you need to invest the time and deal with the frustration.

Yeah I have been learning that shooting sticks are pretty cool for pistol. I never used them hunting as to me that defeats the purpose of a pistol for hunting. "light and mobile" after using my rifles shooting sticks to test out the red dot on my p700w the other day I just fell in love with the extra stability.i still wont bring it hunting but im looking to build something that i can slip over my hiking sticks to quickly convert them to shooting sticks bi pod style. Pft looks pretty cool. I wish I had a place to compete close to where i live. 

@airngasman, thanks for that download. Great piece on the optical options for pistols. I will study it when I have time away from the office. I'm working with Williams notch sight setup on my 2300S and it is a challenge for bifocals on 50+year-old eyes.

I shoot with open sights and optics,open sights when I am shooting standing up, optics when setting and have a rest.I have many pistol scopes,expensive ones and not so expensive...I have been using a NcSTAR lately,it is a 3x7 x32 model,I use it at 23 yds on 4 power and I am happy with it....I see no need mounting my Leupold,Burris or Nikon....so for my needs when shooting in my backyard at less than 25 yds. I give a thumbs up to that Ncstar scope.

Lots of folks don't like them but I use see through mounts on my pp700 with a UTG 1.25 to 4 pistol scope. Open sites for close range and can still use the scope for further out. Works great for my uses.

I wish I could use iron sight but my eyes are not good enough. On my Walther LP400, I used a Burris Fast Fire red dot sight with a DIY mount : 

I wish I could use iron sight but my eyes are not good enough. On my Walther LP400, I used a Burris Fast Fire red dot sight with a DIY mount : 

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Very nice pistol. I'm almost there myself with the eyes. Most days I can shoot opens for a little while before loosing focus but it's almost gone now at 60. Even long sessions shooting with a scope will cause issues with me. I added a Burris Fastfire III to one of my semi auto carry pistols (first use of such on a pistol for me) but it failed so I have a Crimson Trace CTS-1200 on order since December to replace it.

This combination is a match made in Heaven for me. The Vortex Sparc2 is worth every penny. I use a two-hand hold standing, for silhouette and 10 meter.

I have a Hawke red dot mounted on my Ocelot. It works pretty good. My only gripe is that even on the lower brightness setting its still to bright for my liking. Other then that its fine. 

I have been playing with my little 1377 lately (Elmer Keith style) using the front sight relative to sight radius for a MOA system. Last year I pulled it out at Randy Engel's Fun Airgun Shoot he has every year in Colo. City. I ran the ballistics in Chairgun and with a 20-yd. zero I had to aim 35 MOA or 1.2 "units" down (I had painted 1/2 the front sight white) to engage the 50-yd. buffalo silhouettes maybe 12" wide or so. I steadied the pistol off sandbags and held as accurately as possible and you can imagine my surprise as the 1st shot was a hit. 5 more shots later I had 3 hits on it. Love applying the math for longer range shooting-especially pistols.

Interesting stuff....

Pistols are hard to shoot accurately. Very few shooters are competent with a pistol. It takes thousands of rounds a year in practice. If you you don't do the practice, you will never shoot a pistol well. All pistols come with iron sights. If you carry, you MUST practice. Mounting scopes and other sighting stuff on top makes the pistol unwieldy. You might as well buy a rifle. When sighting with iron sights, only the front sight should be in focus. The rear sight and the target will always be a blur and that's OK. Today, I can still put 5 in a tight group. At the age of 75 next month I have to use reading glasses for that front sight clarity, but it works for me.