Pistol Red Dot Sights

Introduction:

Innovations surrounding pistols have been largely stagnant for decades. Most modern pistols are derivatives of either the Browning High Power or the Glock. Sighting systems have also been the same since the invention of pistols in general. The overwhelming majority of pistols use a simple notch in the rear and a post in the front, with three white dots. Over the years, there have been some variants of this, including sights with glow-in-the-dark painted dots, or tritium inserts for shooting in low-light. Things are different now though, Nowadays, red dot sights that became incredibly popular on rifles have gotten smaller in smaller. They've gotten small enough, in fact, that red dot sights can now easily be mounted to the slide of a pistol without adding significant weight.

Details:

Pistol red dots have come a long way in a short amount of time. In the early 2000's, the idea was fairly new and limited. The first pistol red dots were essentially just rifle red dots mounted to race guns that emphasized super fact target acquisition. 

These types of applications were limited only to competition and really didn't make sense for duty or daily carry. It really wasn't until red dots got as small as the Aimpoint Micro T1 that the idea really started to take off. A T1 is small enough that is can be mounted directly to the slide and can maintain a low enough profile that the pistol can reasonably be carried.

Source: https://www.trex-arms.com/

The T1 is about the biggest red dot that can reasonably be mounted to a slide. But now that the concept had proven itself, companies began developing specialized red dots specifically for pistols. One of the most popular of these has got to be the Trijicon RMR. This red dot has become the gold standard for pistol red dots. It's lightweight, small, and has a battery that will last years on a medium setting. 

The RMR is really what blew up the market for pistol red dots and solidified the concept as having practical applications for carry and duty use. Since establishing the concept, pretty much every optics company, from Vortex to Leupold have come out with their own miniature red dot. 

The benefits of a pistol red dot are largely the same as the benefits of a red dot on a rifle. The primary benefit is ease and speed of target acquisition. Although there does seem to be a learning curve when using a pistol red dot for the first time, the benefits largely outweigh deficits. 

Pistol red dots aren't perfect however. With the RMR in particular, the LED emitter is open to the elements. This means that if a pistol is dropped or if dirt gets into the top of the red dot, the dot can potentially be obscured. This issue is resolved by some models such as the Aimpoint ACRO, but at the cost of size. 

Conclusion:

If you watch inRangeTV on YouTube, I pretty much agree with everything they say about pistol red dots. In short, this is the way of the future and is superior to pistol iron sights. In my opinion, pistol red dots do what rifle red dots did, get better and better as technology improves and problems get solved. Battery life is a concern that is pretty much a non issue with pistol red dots. With battery life in the tens of thousands of hours, a yearly battery replacement is completely sufficient and worthwhile for the ability to have a red dot as a force multiplier.