Really, I land on a red dot for one reason. It is always on.
Below are three pictures taken inside my home. I hung a black dress shirt in my closet, with the light off. The room adjacent to the closet (master bath) has its lights on. The bedroom is illuminated by a lamp. The “shot” is from the master bedroom, through the bathroom, into the closet.
I pulled 2 rifles for these pics. One has a LPVO; the other wears a red dot. The LPVO was off when it came out of the safe. The red dot was on.
LPVO, illumination off.
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LPVO, illumination on.
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Red dot, always on.
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The closet is certainly sufficiently well lit to make a target ID, but without illumination the reticle is missing in action. The LPVO has a relatively short battery life and is stored off. The red dot has a ludicrously long battery life and is stored on.
Yes, it is only one more step, but it is one more step. And, this optic only requires a single click on the illum knob- in either direction- to be bright enough for indoors. But, it is not ready to go when I pick it up.
From a more philosophical standpoint, I think of a HD gun as an “in case of emergency, break glass” kind of item. I don’t take my home fire extinguisher on camping trips.
I take my cc pistol to the range, but I didn’t buy my cc pistol to shoot at the range.
My range bag doesn’t double as my airline carry on.
I have a rifle that only really comes out when I go hunting in the mountains.
Etc.
And, I think that many (myself included) are prone to tune a “range carbine” to the ragged edge of reliability, where a HD gun may be better served with more margin for reliability.
As I wrote in my previous post. I don’t really enjoy red dots. I recently got my first set of prescription glasses . As one with astigmatism, I was somewhat excited to look through a red dot (with the astigmatism correction) and see the crisp red orb that everyone else sees. Much to my chagrin, they are either unchanged or in one case worse. FML. Anyway, when “they” come up with an LPVO with red dot battery life, I’ll be in line. Until then, I’ll just argue minutia on the internet.