Is anyone else more and more liking red dots on their long guns. I've suddenly noticed I've gotten rather a few.
It started with me looking for a way to put an optical sight on my 9.3x62 - an old hunting rifle that wasn't drilled and tapped so a scope wasn't an option but a good buddy of mine suggested a reflex dot on a custom cut dovetail mount to replace the front sight.
So, I tried it and liked it:
Next came the pump shotgun. Here in the UK we shoot pump actions and semi autos at turning targets with slugs. I tried my supernova with an iron sighted slug barrel but hated the sights (just grey on grey and lost them) so a bit of "googling" turned up the Burris Speed Bead and a Fast Fire III (3MOA)
And a big improvement in enjoyment and scores. Not the last time I’ll put a red dot on a shotgun it turns out...
Then there came the lever action.
Started off with a red dot, went to a scout scope then decided to go back to a red dot (mainly because of local range rules it isn’t so easy to shoot shotgun slugs but a 44 mag lever action is no problem). So, for the same sight picture as my slug guns, have gone back to another Burris:
(Must get a better picture)
Them came the idea of what to do with a rifle I had that I wanted to use for hunting but I had a 6-24x56 scope on with a very fine ret and I had an 8x56 fixed scope sitting around. This 8x56 is great for sitting in a dark wood but not great for quick target acquisition if you bump a deer on the way in or out. So, borrowing from the tactical and 3 gun crowd I put a red dot on the side of my 8x56 and took it hunting:
(That’s actually on my little Brno .22lr that I used to practice / work up with to see if I liked the concept). It went on the 7x64 Mausingfield after that).
Finally, there’s the other shotgun.
It’s a Fabarm H368 (Not sure they went to the US). Anyway, with a 26” multi choke and a 24” rifle sighted barrel for not a lot of money it was too good to pass up.
Think it looks cool “naked” using the man sights (fibre optics and really need to see when I can get it zeroed with those as well).
Anyway, given how much I liked my pump with a red dot, thought might as well stick a Burris on that. Given the receiver has ~11mm dovetail grooves, thought I might try and use those.
You can get a dovetail mount from people like Recknagel and Rusan in Europe that lets you mount red dots to dovetails quite easily but they have a little retaining pin in the underside:
So, there needed to be a small hole drilled in the receiver of the Fabarm:
After that, it became a simple matter of mounting the red dot on with the QD dovetail mount.
So, I like that system as don’t have to have a bulky rail in the way if I want to go from slug shooting to wing shooting and that appeals (The Benelli with the Speed Bead you have to unscrew stuff to take the red dot off, rather less neat).
Here's sort of the sight picture:
And the gun in it’s entirety (Stock actually fits me well so need a bit of lift to be aligned with the red dot)
So, apparently like I like red dots. A lot…. (Hello. My name is Scrumbag and I’m a red-dot-aholic…) Anyone else using red dots on their long guns more than they thought they would?
Scrummy
It started with me looking for a way to put an optical sight on my 9.3x62 - an old hunting rifle that wasn't drilled and tapped so a scope wasn't an option but a good buddy of mine suggested a reflex dot on a custom cut dovetail mount to replace the front sight.
So, I tried it and liked it:
Next came the pump shotgun. Here in the UK we shoot pump actions and semi autos at turning targets with slugs. I tried my supernova with an iron sighted slug barrel but hated the sights (just grey on grey and lost them) so a bit of "googling" turned up the Burris Speed Bead and a Fast Fire III (3MOA)
And a big improvement in enjoyment and scores. Not the last time I’ll put a red dot on a shotgun it turns out...
Then there came the lever action.
Started off with a red dot, went to a scout scope then decided to go back to a red dot (mainly because of local range rules it isn’t so easy to shoot shotgun slugs but a 44 mag lever action is no problem). So, for the same sight picture as my slug guns, have gone back to another Burris:
(Must get a better picture)
Them came the idea of what to do with a rifle I had that I wanted to use for hunting but I had a 6-24x56 scope on with a very fine ret and I had an 8x56 fixed scope sitting around. This 8x56 is great for sitting in a dark wood but not great for quick target acquisition if you bump a deer on the way in or out. So, borrowing from the tactical and 3 gun crowd I put a red dot on the side of my 8x56 and took it hunting:
(That’s actually on my little Brno .22lr that I used to practice / work up with to see if I liked the concept). It went on the 7x64 Mausingfield after that).
Finally, there’s the other shotgun.
It’s a Fabarm H368 (Not sure they went to the US). Anyway, with a 26” multi choke and a 24” rifle sighted barrel for not a lot of money it was too good to pass up.
Think it looks cool “naked” using the man sights (fibre optics and really need to see when I can get it zeroed with those as well).
Anyway, given how much I liked my pump with a red dot, thought might as well stick a Burris on that. Given the receiver has ~11mm dovetail grooves, thought I might try and use those.
You can get a dovetail mount from people like Recknagel and Rusan in Europe that lets you mount red dots to dovetails quite easily but they have a little retaining pin in the underside:
So, there needed to be a small hole drilled in the receiver of the Fabarm:
After that, it became a simple matter of mounting the red dot on with the QD dovetail mount.
So, I like that system as don’t have to have a bulky rail in the way if I want to go from slug shooting to wing shooting and that appeals (The Benelli with the Speed Bead you have to unscrew stuff to take the red dot off, rather less neat).
Here's sort of the sight picture:
And the gun in it’s entirety (Stock actually fits me well so need a bit of lift to be aligned with the red dot)
So, apparently like I like red dots. A lot…. (Hello. My name is Scrumbag and I’m a red-dot-aholic…) Anyone else using red dots on their long guns more than they thought they would?
Scrummy
