Red dots

[Sasquatch-1]

OK, I am looking for horror stories on different brand of red dot sights. I am thinking about purchasing one of these for my Desert Eagle .44 mag. I am mainly interested in the companies that are known to produce poor products and have poor customer service so I can stay away from them.

[Artful]

Being almost all cheaper are made in China now... buyer beware

Multi reticle red-dot that looks like this

Junk

But having said that I do well with BSA red dots which are inexpensive and I use on 22LR's,
paid more for the OKO brand red-dot that I use and it works very well on 223's.

If your mounting on a 44 Mag you may want to set up for better quality due to recoil.

Burris, Trijicon, C-More, Adco E-Dot, Doktor, Millet, ELCAN (Canadian Co), True-Glo, Millet and UltraDot to name a few, all have models available with different styles, sizes and colours of reticles and shapes and sizes of the sight itself.

For even tougher recommendation look at what the military uses - EOtech, Trijicon, Elbit Falcon (Isreali Co.) or Aimpoint is the way to go per battle testing.




I especially like the triangular Trijicon for 3 gun shooting on a rifle.

If it was me I'd start looking what features I want, large screen for quick pick up with handgun, lightweight, long battery life, single pane or multi glass tube design, how large a dot do you want, how bright must it be to see in field conditions, these and many more questions should be answered before dropping coin.

edit to add a link I found interesting
http://www.gunsumerreports.com/revie..._dot_sight.php

[fourarmed]

Ultradot is a good sight at a moderate price. Japanese made, IIRC.

[NoZombies]

NCstar etc. are ****. I made the mistake once, and due to their "lifetime" warranty, the mistake kept repeating itself. I finally just glued the darned lens in myself using flexible glue. ugly, but far more sturdy than when it left the factory.

It's pretty bad when the guy on the CS line tells you you're probably better off doing the repair yourself.

[Lloyd Smale]

if theres not buget limitations get yourself an aimpoint. nothing better or tougher made. If your looking for inexpensive look at the vortex strikefire or sparc. there good units and the customer service is great if you do have a problem.

[cajun shooter]

Break out that heavy wallet and purchase the name brands that have been posted by other members.
Any type of scope is no different than anything else we purchase, the better the product, the more you pay. This is almost 100% true except when you encounter a rip off artist.
It's just like the Fram commericial of years ago; You can pay me now, or pay me later.
Stick with the top brands and believe the fact that not a single person is able to produce a scope type of optics for $39.95

[Whiterabbit]

if you want an ultradot warranty you must buy from the factory. If you buy secondhand, you are on your own.

[Egturbo02]

Sight mark and Primary Arms are pretty good for the price.

[tcbnick]

Burris fastfire ll on a Ruger super redhawk 44.mag owned it for about 3yrs. now and probably 400 rounds later same battery, many hunting trips. I love it
2

[AkMike]

I just mounted a FastFireII on my 450 NE Searcy double rifle. Range time is coming soon to see what it's like but so far it sure seems good.

[winelover]

I'm sold on Trijicon / Armson. Have six of their red dot OEG's. Two of their Reflex and two Accupoints. Recently bought a Ultra-dot, to see what the Hoopla was about. Not impressed. The most irritating feature is that you have no aiming point if the unit isn't turned on or the battery is dead. Secondly, even on the lowest setting, it's too damn bright for dusk, when you really need it. It compromises your night vision. Thirdly, their rings are junk. If you go the Ultra-dot route, do yourself a favor and get set of good quality steel detachable rings.

Winelover

[Sasquatch-1]

Round 2 for the Sightmark. The first try I had the dreaded shutdown problem. Just got it back yesterday and plan on taking to the range tomorrow and putting 50 to 100 rounds through on top of the Desert Eagle. If it malfunctions this time it may be time for a refund. BTW, Sightmark replaced it with a new sight.

Sight is the Ultra Shot QD Digital Switch SM14000.
http://www.amazon.com/Sightmark-Ultr.../dp/B004TDIDW6

[W.R.Buchanan]

The Bushnell TRS25 is a good small red dot. I have had good luck with mine. I don't know if it would stand up to a DE's recoil and banging around.

Migh ought to go with a Burris Fast Fire since putting a $250 optic on a $1500 gun would be appropriate.

Randy

[wv109323]

The Ultra-dot is the clear choice for the Bullseye pistol crowd. On the 1911 Colt the Ultradot is mounted on the slide. They take a lot of abuse because the average shooter goes through a lot of rounds. I have no experience with them on a .44 Mag.

[fouronesix]

No extensive experience with them but I know Aimpoint products are good- still have one from moons ago. Had the opportunity to get acquainted with a dot sight mounted on a big boomer rifle about a year ago- primary purpose of the set up was close range stopper. That sight IIRC was a very high end product. Now here's the BUT, there usually is one right. At 50 ft I could see nothing wrong with it. Fast, clear, simple. Built tough. Then, just playing around at 50 yards, I did the parallax test- OOPs. Most assuredly a troubling amount of parallax! So if at all possible and if for anything other than close range- fast shooting- check the parallax in hand before plunking down a bunch of $.
That's my .02 cents worth

[popper]

Sight is the Ultra Shot QD Digital Switch

Darn, just got one. Guess I'll have to mount it real soon before the 90 return is up. Think it will survive on an AR308?

[Sasquatch-1]

Darn, just got one. Guess I'll have to mount it real soon before the 90 return is up. Think it will survive on an AR308?

The Sight Mark Ultra Shot QD Digital Switch comes with a lifetime warranty. Was said to have been tested on a .50 BMG frame of some kind. I was happy with the sight picture on the first one, it just would not stay on. I have fired 30 rounds of potent .44 mag through the Desert Eagle with the new sight mounted on top and appear to have no problems right now. Plan to go to the range tomorrow and put some more through it and see what happens.

[Old Caster]

I have two ultra dots and one already went back under warranty and it took forever plus they always send them back with a statement that nothing is wrong with it. Even if they have fixed it they say the same thing because when they send it back there is nothing wrong with it or so I was told. Then you don't know if they found a problem or just decided to send it back because they couldn't find the problem. It is also expensive to send it and pay for them to send it back considering it is a warranty. They will send a test target that would be an embarrassment if it was shot standing up with one hand to prove it is just fine. Sometimes when they fail, they will all of a sudden move the point of impact and stay there for a number of shots and then move back. Many of the Bullseye shooters have been complaining that they are failing but it doesn't seem to be because of recoil since even the ones mounted on .22's might fail. They need a lesson from Dillon. We all wish there was another to choose from and the only one that has been talked about lately is the Bushnell Trophy which is a lot cheaper than the Ultradots. I have four older Tasco Pro points (no longer available) that have never failed but the parallax is worse on them however I don't know how much that matters in this sport because it is easy to keep the dot in the middle when shooting and it would feel unatural to not have it that way. I only know one person who has tried a Bushnell Trophy and he is happy with it. I am in the market for another and am leaning toward the Trophy.

[Whiterabbit]

There are a bunch of trophy models. Several look identical to ultradots. Odd, that....

[Old Caster]

If I remember correctly you had problems with matchdot also. I will ask my friend what the number was on the Trophy and post it.