Pistol mounted RDS
Iron sights
My current EDC has irons, but:
1) I have EDC’d a dot sighted gun in the last year
2) I will roll two dot sighted guns through a carry routine over the next year or two because I like them and want to work with them
3) My main squeeze edc has an understudy that will get a dot in the next two or three years.
Ignore Alien Orders
I’ve gone back and forth for a few years now and finally decided that I just had to stick to it. Shot practice and comps until I felt comfortable enough to carry. Then one day at a match I noticed the whole target array had my attention and the dot was just hopping from target to target. I was shocked at how easy it felt. That’s when I knew my dedication had paid off. I won’t buy another carry gun unless it’s dot ready.
I still shoot irons now and then and can say I’m just a little faster to the dot than to the sights. But my accuracy is much better, transitions are better and distant shots are easier. Dot for me.
Usually a dotted Glock: Gen5 19MOS with an ACRO P-2. I still, however, do some drills and qualify with iron sighted guns, e.g., a G26 and a G43, the orange BOLD sights on both. Yeah, might get kilt in da streetz…Originally Posted by breakingtime91
I also have a couple of pistols with gold bead front sights that I like and carry/shoot occasionally. And, to go back the other way, a 43X with an EPS Carry on it.
Usually the railed pistols will have a light mounted. For my purposes, Streamlight TLR7/8s are sufficient. I can see the appeal of brighter lights for patrol. I can’t say enough good things about JMCK holsters. Safariland Level 3 for duty.
Finally, I had an excursion this summer with snub nose revolvers through Claude Werner’s online program. Very helpful to me.
Thanks for putting up the poll.
Irons on duty gun (the only approved configuration), and on the B92s I use for daily off-duty carry and home defense.
An LTT 92 Elite RDO w/ SRO for IDPA.
I’m still content with irons for self defense, but… the B92s mentioned above have Beretta slides with the option to mount optics, and the replacement duty gun will be a G19.5 with MOS cuts. So I’m keeping my options open down the road as my near-vision acuity continues to degrade and more small, reliable optics are developed (hey Trijicon - RMR w/ top or side-loading battery? Bueller…?).
My rotation is now down to two pistols. I carry a RDS Ruger Max 9 with a CTS-1550 about 90% of the time, with the remaining 10% being a Ruger LCP Max. With practice, I'm comfortable with the RDS and actually, seem to pick the dot up quicker than with irons. But it does take practice, with both drawing the pistol and shooting it. Most will not pick it up, right off the bat.
I had to start wearing readers in 2015-2016 when my close vision started going south. Around the same time I found myself struggling with iron sights. I can see them, but it takes time for the front sight to come into focus, especially in lower light conditions. I even wore safety glasses with about 1/2 the diopter strength of my readers when dry-firing or shooting matches. That kind of helped, but in late 2017 I set up my first comp gun with a red dot in Carry Optics division and have been primarily shooting dots ever since in comps. Every now and then I’ll shoot an iron sight division if that is all that is offered at a match (i.e. Classic Nationals).
I think it was around 2018 that I started converting my carry and HD guns over to red dots.
I have one iron sight carry gun (Glock 43) that lives in my bike pack but pretty much everything else that I rely on for HD, EDC, or competition has been converted over to red dots.
While I enjoy shooting red dots in competition, the switch to red dots was more driven out of need rather than preference.
I’d better dig my old cowboy hat out of storage, because I have just been informed that I am using “cowboy sights.” Learn sump’n new every day.
It is difficult enough, to conceal a blocky Glock. I am only going to use closed-emitter optics. Adding that much height to the pistol makes it, well, Draped Open Carry. I see an RDS’ed pistol to be a bag gun, not a belt gun. I live in a county that got “blued waved,” in the 2016 election. Concealment is necessary; the entire county can be considered an NPE.
I have an ACRO P-1 that I use on my designated dry-fire pistol, a Glock 19x with the Worst. Glock. Trigger. Ever. The dot really shows any errors in technique.
My default daily carry guns are revolving pistols, with trough-style rear sights. Caveman Cowboy Sights.
Last edited by Rex G; 01-22-2023 at 12:31 PM.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
RDS since 2010 for EDC. That is a bit of a fib though because at work I have carried iron sighted because of the conditions. Now with the EPS Carry on the 365XL that will probably change too.
I am also carrying with cowboy sights right now sir. *tips hat
Irons for me currently.
While I do generally subscribe to keeping things simple, the evidence for performance enhancement with an RDS is undeniable at this point.
However, I feel as though this technology is in such a rapid state of evolution and I am simply unable to afford to purchase an optic that will be rendered obsolete within a year.
I will wait until the technology has plateaued more in terms of optimization before I commit.
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