I can hit 16x16 gongs with a stand-alone RDS from the standing at 400m, with a 50yd zero (POA/POI @ 205m), regardless of the size of the dot, because I know my zero and my offsets, and can see the target. It's also slow-fire (let's be realistic...!
), but the fact remains that it's not a question of whether the optic/gun combo is capable or effective....quality
machinery is always capable.
Awful metaphor: Reality TV sucks goat nuts. An 80" HD TV allows one to have the most crisp, clear view of crapy TV programming one can get. It doesn't make the show more or less of a steaming turd.
As has been stated before, magnification allows the shooter a better chance of
seeing a target,
discriminating it from the background,
identifying it to decide whether or not it's to be engaged. It aids a competent shooter in getting hits because that shooter can now SEE further, and perhaps shoot more rapidly at distance because he's not constantly searching to re-align sights with target. It doesn't change the effectiveness of the gun/ammo one iota, and the wild-card always ends up being the dope behind the optic, not the dope ON the optic.
-Put a garbage shooter behind 3x magnification, he's gonna see the same jitterbugging he sees with irons or at 1x, only ALSO magnified, so that he Jedi mind-tricks himself into forgetting he's still inside his wobble-zone (IF he was ever taught or if he ever assimilated that lesson). It's possible to see that shooter's errors magnified by 3x because that dude's gonna be ambushing the dog snot out of the trigger. Less than desirable...
-Hand a gun to Milky from
Me, Myself and Irene without his specs, and it'll be a miracle if he can hit Oprah in the ass at 5 paces, with or withough magnification.
I think in the end, a competent shooter that's gonna be shooting at distance is always gonna prefer to use magnification because of what it allows him to see. I've used both the RCO and 1x w/3x magnifier in combat, along the Euphrates River from Ramadi to Al Quaim (and other garden spots), where we'd go from urban-ish building setups, to flat terrain, hilly terrain, and 80m cliffs...but only on days that ended in "Y". Magnification did ZERO to add Jesus Juice to the gun or my ability to hit what I was shooting at, but it allowed ME to observe/discriminate, and therefore reduce targets. Close-up, magnification can slow you down, but not significantly if you train your way through it.....and 3x magnifiers are usually in a QD or wing-aside mount of some sort, as in the above photos.
A less experienced shooter might think that they can effectively
buy skill by slapping something magnified on-board. They get frustrated when they STILL can't hit, and end up blaming the gun/optic/ammo/moon is in the 7th house, etc.....
3x magnifiers also allow one to "burn through" concealment, see into shadowed areas, fish-eye through small holes in walls (dismounted magnifier); there's more to a combat environment than just shooting. They do absolutely nothing to aid or detract from the "effectiveness" of whatever RDS mounted in front of it, but being able to see better is unquestionably helpful, whether it's on a flat range or not.