Red Dot and Laser Recommendations

I have a Hammers 2X red dot that's really nice. You can have it if you have some other scope in your junk drawer I can put on my wife/loaner gun. My eyes have gone bad so I always shoot at 6X or above now.

I own a Sig Sauer that has recently been reviewed by Tom Gaylord's blog. I did a ton of research before buying and Mr. Gaylord concurs that this is very good. Mine is 2MOA Dot only. They also sell two reticles, circle and dot and dot only. Uses regular batteries and incredible hours of operation. Auto shut off. 

There are some U-Tubes about this model also. You get what you pay for.

I have 2 HOLOSUN HS403b on 2 different air rifles and a 7x magnifier.

Very happy with that set up.

Here is a green laser that I use. It has a variable width beam so that you can actually use it with a standard scope and at night, the green laser lights up the entire field of view in the scope. Animals don't seem to be alerted as much with green as with a red laser. It's not cheap but highly recommended by me. I tried inserting a photo but it didn't work. Best you probably just check it out on Amazon:

Ade Advanced Optics Adjustable Green Laser Flashlight Designator Illuminator Switch and QD Mount, Class IIIR laser product, <5mW power output

GLPalinkas,

thanks for sharing the laser — this looks really interesting!  



I have a question about it.

(1) Normally, with a flashlight there is a lot of stray light — the light does not only go where you aim it — even with a very focussed beam — but it scatters, and other people and animals can see the stray light, even though you shine the light only past them — not toward them. (Supposedly, a laser does not have stray light — but that might be just a rumor... .) 



(2) Say, on the laser you turn the zoom so as to make a wide beam.



(3) In a dimly lit environment (not pitch black by any means) you shine the light straight ahead, at your 12 o'clock, onto an object 20y away.



(4) If there were animals or people at your 2 o'clock position (obviously not standing in the laser beam but say, 10y away from it....: ➔ Would they see the beam, would they see stray light (provided they could not see the laser nor the object you shine it on)?



Thanks for your help! This might turn into a poor man's night vision device after all...!



Matthias

I have a couple Vortex Crossfires. They have a 2 MOA dot. One is on a rifle and the other on a pistol. Really like them

If you have a astigmatism I suggest getting a Prism sight. It has a diopter so you can adjust the reticle so it's focused to your eye, and the dot as well.

I just learned about the Bushnell LilP 1x, which I want to try soon.

Also Prisms aren't a bad idea for older eyes. Supposedly I don't have an astigmatism but RD's look really flared and odd shaped which I hate to see and the one Prism sight I bought solved this problem for me. 

If you have a astigmatism I suggest getting a Prism sight.

Click to expand...

Speaking of astigmatism, I would recommend OP to a local dealer & seeing if they'll let you look through various dot & holographic sights. 

There are YouTube videos that tell you how to test if a dot sight is right for you. As I recall rotating the site as you look through it & see if the distortion stays put or rotates with the scope. 

Also look at the dot through a camera on a smart phone. 

If one has any of the issues there are dot sights that are said to be better than others.

I have a Hawke red dot that is very distorted to me. I went to Cabelas to look through an Eotech holographic & it was better but still fuzzy looking. Combined with a magnifier it was going to be expensive & have too little eye relief so I didn't research any further.

I did look through a prism site & would like to try one but prefer longer eye relief & wasn't sure if target acquisition would be as good as with a red dot. 

^^^^

Of course during Covid distancing it might be easier to order one from a company with a good return policy. 

GLPalinkas,

thanks for sharing the laser — this looks really interesting!  



I have a question about it.

(1) Normally, with a flashlight there is a lot of stray light — the light does not only go where you aim it — even with a very focussed beam — but it scatters, and other people and animals can see the stray light, even though you shine the light only past them — not toward them. (Supposedly, a laser does not have stray light — but that might be just a rumor... .) 



(2) Say, on the laser you turn the zoom so as to make a wide beam.



(3) In a dimly lit environment (not pitch black by any means) you shine the light straight ahead, at your 12 o'clock, onto an object 20y away.



(4) If there were animals or people at your 2 o'clock position (obviously not standing in the laser beam but say, 10y away from it....: ➔ Would they see the beam, would they see stray light (provided they could not see the laser nor the object you shine it on)?



Thanks for your help! This might turn into a poor man's night vision device after all...!



Matthias

Click to expand...

Matthias,

Answers (mine, correct or incorrect LOL)

#1 - The laser I have does not produce any "stray light" as best as I can tell, even on wide beam. Of course, I've never been down-range to view it and of course, it's a powerful green laser that you don't want to look in to. Also, be careful not to aim the laser at anyone, car or aircraft as it will blind them temporarily. I believe that anyone would see the laser dot but not be in any stray light. 

#2 ,3,4 - I don't know how to answer the remainder of the questions. They seem to be all related and answered already in #1.

I'm going to try to figure out how to post photos on Airgun Nation. The hosting site I used to use is now defunct.

Best,

Gary
Venice, FL

OK, I'm trying to upload some photos. Seems to be working. I'll also attach the text of what I replied to Chas in a pm. 







So, on my new FX Dreamlite, I mounted a Cabela's scope. On the front scope ring I superglued a short section of Picatinny rail I cut from a longer piece. You could also use a scope ring mount with the picatinny rail already incorporated. I know they make them but I didn’t have one. The laser unit comes with all you need to mount and aim the laser to a target. The green laser is bright enough that it illuminates the target (rabbit, raccoon, etc in case of pesting at night…in addition the green laser doesn’t scare the prey as I don’t think they see it like they would a red laser and the animals eyes illuminate and glow)

All that’s needed to align the laser with the scope is a flat head screwdriver using the built in vertical and horizontal adjuster. I usually set mine up for about 30 yards. After about 35-40 yards the scope/laser dims considerably for my setup but I’m not shooting anything past that anyway. Just looking thru the scope makes it easy to sight the critters and put the cross hairs where they need to go. The laser comes with a pressure switch or you can use the standard push button cap and leave the laser light on. The laser dot diameter is easily changeable to “focus” the laser to fill the field of view in the scope. Easy peasy. The best part is that the laser clips on and off the picatinny rail when it's not needed and there are no complicated set-ups or digital scopes to mess with. 

Gary,

you deserve some green praise dots — you really brought to my attention a budget night vision device that is actually better as this thing clips on and off easily (QD), is 5.1" small and 8.4oz light, and I can keep using my regular scope. EXCELLENT!  

Let's not even talk about how much $$$ I would have thrown at an ATN or PARD....

THANK YOU!



Diameter of the Laser Beam

I read the user comments on Amazon, and came up with the following chart summarizing their comments of how wide the wide beam and the narrow beam is. ➔ See the pic.

️️IMPORANT EDIT: The data in this chart is way off -- do not use it (except User #1's data is trustworthy).





Taking the users' data with a grain of salt (look at the large difference between user #1 and the others) I seem to get the following diameters for the beam.

Range 10y ➔ Wide beam = 1ft

Range 25y ➔ Wide beam = 2.3ft

Range 50y ➔ Wide beam = 4.5ft

Narrow beam = 0.5"—1.0"

️️IMPORANT EDIT: The data in this list is wrong, cf. post below for accurate data.



I have confidence into the diameter of the narrow beam diameter, but the wide beam seems to be really narrow and limited — just think of ratting a 10y, you'd have to point the gun almost perfectly at the rat to get it into the lasers "wide" light beam of only 12"....  

Any insights or data?



Matthias

Gary,

you deserve some green praise dots — you really brought to my attention a budget night vision device that is actually better as this thing clips on and off easily (QD), is 5.1" small and 8.4oz light, and I can keep using my regular scope. EXCELLENT!  

Let's not even talk about how much $$$ I would have thrown at an ATN or PARD....

THANK YOU!

I have confidence into the diameter of the narrow beam diameter, but the wide beam seems to be really narrow and limited — just think of ratting a 10y, you'd have to point the gun almost perfectly at the rat to get it into the lasers "wide" light beam of only 12"....  

Any insights or data?



Matthias

Click to expand...

Matthias

You are welcome. I measured the wide beam width of my unit at 10 yards. It is approx 48" or 4'. However, remember that you really only need it to fill the field of view of the scope at whatever power you have it on. It can be useful to have a wider beam than the scope needs for spotting purposes. I don't use it for spotting as I have a handheld thermal unit that I use for preliminary target acquisition. Leupold LTO Tracker thermal imager. Then the rifle/scope/laser come in to play.

Hope this helps.

The following are photos from the Leupold. Warm water in a glass jar in my darkened shop (10 yards), on my dining room table. 

Thank you, Matt,

for measuring for us the wide beam. Your numbers make sense, and also mean this thing must be really good.

So, I did the math, and it's in the CORRECTED TABLE BELOW.

Great, this is a very wide beam, suitable for most scopes to light up the full field of view (FoV).

44ft FoV at 100y is wider than the FoV of most variable scopes at 3x magnification! Cool!

Matthias

One more question: Is there a difference between a prism scope and a red dot scope?

Chas

Click to expand...

Yes there is a difference.

A red dot has to be turned on to see the dot or reticle. Also the dot usually doesn't have to be exactly in the middle of the field of view to make a hit.

A prism sight is kind of like a small rifle scope, it's got a diopter which focuses the reticle to your eye, and it has some type of a dot and/or a reticle like a rifle scope. So the illumination doesn't need to be turned on to see the reticle like in a rifle scope. It will have adjustable illumination intensity levels that usually go up high enough to be daylight bright.