4 Simple Pistol Red Dot Tips For Beginners - SurvivalMag

Knowing that it can take a bit of time to get used to using a pistol red dot sight and that the main complaint from beginners is that they find it tough to find the dot, what can you do to become a red dot pro?

Here's the 4 main beginner red dot tips you need to know:

1. Stick with it
2. Forget what you know
3. Nose up a little
4. Maintain target focus

Below, we'll have a quick look at each of these.

Ready? Let's get started...

IN THIS ARTICLE

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• 1. Stick with it
• 2. Forget what you know
• 3. Nose up a little
• 4. Maintain target focus

1. Stick with it

Our first piece of advice is that learning to use a red dot sight does take a bit, so you simply need to stick with it.

This isn’t unique to shooting with a red dot sight either. It’s pretty much the same learning curve as anything you’ll approach in life.

You wouldn’t expect to pick up a crossbow and be an expert at it right away, even if you have experience hunting with a rifle, right?

2. Forget what you know

Okay so don’t forget everything. I mean, shooting is still shooting. But using a red dot sight does require a few body readjustments if you’re used to iron sights.

For instance, you’re going to be holding your pistol a touch lower when using a red dot sight, which helps you get a good alignment with the red dot in the center of your view sights.

You may also need to unlearn some natural adjustments your body has made to learn to shoot with irons.

For example, as you progress as an iron sight shooter, you unconsciously learn to reposition your body slightly to make up for the fact that you’re not holding the gun dead center in front of you. If you’re right-handed, you probably have a slight right-lean, and your body adjusts to this over time.

Things like this are less relevant when shooting with a red dot sight, so your body will need to unlearn this habit, which will happen as you spend time practicing using a red dot.

3. Nose up a little

Compared to shooting with iron sights, you want to have the nose of your gun a little bit higher.

This makes it easier to find the dot in your view sights and solves the beginner problem of burying the dot by having your muzzle pointed too far down.

You can achieve this muzzle rise by pushing the bottom of your wrist down slightly into the butt of the gun, which brings the nose end upward.

4. Maintain target focus

Our last tip for using red dot sights is that you want to be target-focused the whole time.

With iron sights, you’re usually maintaining target focus as you line up the shot, and then as you move your index finger down to the trigger you typically adjust your focus to the front sight to get the perfect lineup.

With red dot sights, you’re just going to keep your vision and focus on the target throughout the process. You set up the shot with your sight on the target, and then superimpose the dot over that vision, rather than switching your plane of focus to the sights.

Don't forget to check out our Best Pistol Red Dot / Reflex Sights Guide that we keep updated monthly with the latest models.