Red Dot Best Practices? Slide Manipulations, Dot Brightness, etc.

[Mark D]

I hoping some of our red dot cognoscenti can help with a couple questions.

1) Is there a recommended way to rack the slide with a pistol-mounted red dot? I usually bring my support hand over the top and grasp the rear of the slide. However, sometimes my support hand makes contact with the Holosun "-" button and unintentionally lowers the intensity of the dot.

2) For EDC, how do the smart people manage their brightness settings? I've presented my pistol in training and found the dot either way too bright or completely washed out. Obviously this is sub-optimal for a defensive tool. What is best practice here?

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I manipulate the front of the slide normally. I try not to manipulate using the optic unless I'm in a hurry; don't want to accidently hit a button or smudge/scratch the lens. I am also able to slingshot it without interfering with the optic. A bit trickier is to power stroke in a fashion which you only grasp the slide underneath the optic, but I can do it without too much difficulty. This will depend on your hand size and optic size, I guess, for viability.

I leave mine on brightness high enough to overcome my WML indoors against a white wall. This will create some blooming while indoors, but I use a DG switch, so my light is usually coming on anyway when I draw, and this also allows for sufficient brightness outdoors in the sun, too. This is with an ACRO and X400UH, and I did the same when I had RMR RM06es.

[tlong17]

I hoping some of our red dot cognoscenti can help with a couple questions.

1) Is there a recommended way to rack the slide with a pistol-mounted red dot? I usually bring my support hand over the top and grasp the rear of the slide. However, sometimes my support hand makes contact with the Holosun "-" button and unintentionally lowers the intensity of the dot.

2) For EDC, how do the smart people manage their brightness settings? I've presented my pistol in training and found the dot either way too bright or completely washed out. Obviously this is sub-optimal for a defensive tool. What is best practice here?

I am no professional or expert but this is where I'm at based on my own practice and attending RDS focused training.

1. I rack it the same as I would for an iron sighted pistol. If your Holosun is a newer X2 version, you can activate "Lock Out Mode" to prevent the issue of changing the brightness level inadvertently. I don't worry about my palm or any part of my hand touching the lens and smudging it, it's not that big of a deal since the occlusion will be minimal at most and won't prevent you from acquiring the dot with proper target focus. I try to use my fingers to pinch the slide and put less pressure on the optic and mounting system, but sometimes it happens.

2. Set it and forget it. Usually 2 down from brightest setting on Trijicon and 3 down from brightest on Holosun. It blooms indoors but doesn't require adjustment when outside and doesn't wash out against 500-1000 lumen lighting. The blooming is an acceptable tradeoff. You will have to play with the settings on your unit until you find the best balance. I wouldn't worry about a bit of blooming indoors or darker environments.

[alamo5000]

I am no way an expert. I've only had my Holosun less than six months. That said you should lock out any inadvertent button pushes. Read the instructions manual about how to do it. I found good settings and locked mine out once I set it where I like it. I've personally come to believe that with anything (not just red dots) if you constantly fiddle with it it makes mastery of it harder.

By that I mean set it up even if it turns out to be sub optimal in the long run. Work with it how it is and then try to figure out 'why not'. If you need to change anything do so sparingly.

As far as brightness setting go I can only tell you how I did mine. I went outside on a pretty bright day. I chose a less than optimal background and set my brightness from there. Everything else is gravy.

Is my brightness a little too bright at night? Yes. Is it insane crazy to make it unusable? No. I put my dot on my EDC and I decided to train through the obstacle. No dot is a bigger obstacle than a slight bloom. It's also a huge pain in the butt to constantly try to adjust the brightness. I have the understanding that I will be shooting primarily in the day time. If I am required to pull that gun out at night odds are it will be in less than optimal circumstances. A fuzzy dot is the least of my worries.

If I am going to do a range day or something like that I will unlock the settings (maybe) and then return them to a known quantity. Keep in mind I set it up for carry, not for plinking or range use.

I don't think you are hurting anything by using the dot to some degree. Look at what Aaron Cowan does. I won't even go near that level of racking a slide off a wooden post doing one handed manipulations.

[Mark D]

I appreciate the input, folks. It all makes good sense.

[RJ]

I just wanted to say thanks to the OP as well as everybody who posted. There’s a lot of good solid advice here.

I’m about a month into converting to dots with a G34+507c and a G48+507k. I shot the 507k for the first time today.

I was wondering about where to put the brightness setting and got some good suggestions. I just tried the “3 down from full” and it looks pretty good as a do it all setting for the moment.