Dot Technique … Learned
I learned the suggested technique is to raise the pistol to eye level and push straight out in an Isosceles stance, look at where you want the bullet to strike, letting the dot appear and pressing the trigger.
The event made me feel like I was shooting in a parallel universe. I gave up on GLOCKs a decade ago because no matter how much I tried, they always shot high for me. Additionally, after shooting 1911s with really nice triggers, going to a mediocre trigger is not conducive to accuracy.
On top of this, for five decades I’ve been trained to not look at the target but to focus on the front sight, and for almost as long used the Weaver stance instead of Isosceles.
Determined to get the most this class had to offer, I made a point of trying to overcome my deeply ingrained habits and take the instructor’s advice. My groups began to improve dramatically except for when I found myself not looking at the target and chasing the dot.
The final day on the range found the class in both the outdoor and indoor (shoot house) simulators. On a different square range than what we had been using — and offered a 180-degree field of fire — we were challenged by Gunsite’s robotic charging target.
The RDS didn’t seem to help me get on target faster than iron sights at close range, such as in one of Gunsite’s shoot-houses, but this could change as I become more familiar with them.
Where I did notice a distinct advantage was at longer ranges. Gunsite’s outdoor simulators uses terrain to conceal steel targets and you must “slice the pie” in this environment just as you would indoors. On one target in the North Draw, 60 yards distant, only the head and upper shoulders were visible. I placed the dot on the head and took the target down with a single shot. Honestly, quite possibly a shot I could not have made reliably with irons.
After only three days working with the Bushnell RXS-250, I can definitely see the advantages of using a red dot sight on a pistol. For me personally, it would likely take thousands of repetitions to build enough confidence before I would carry it daily for defense.
Both the RXS-100 and RXS-250 come with a five-year transferable warranty.
For more info: Bushnell.com, Gunsite.com
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