My journey through testing gear and training others and myself. I'm on a quest to find what works best for me in my world. The gear, the training, the schools, the callouts. Join in as I find out what works and what doesn't and more importantly why.
Medical gear and training is a passion. Shooting long range is my game and occasionally something tries to kill me.
I'd like to think having a "Heat Chest Rig" from Kommandostore is the all-season-tire for the situations you've broken down in this video. Load up 8 mags, slide them in, and forget the burden. The guys who sell them like proving how low profile/comfortable it is by doing jumping jacks and hugging other people. Great for legitimate patrols/recon or uh... making large withdrawals from banks using illicit tactics. >_>
I don't think it's fair to include the native cost of the brass in your calculations unless you're only loading them once. And maybe you are, I don't know. But your brass input cost is going to basically halve every time you load it. If you reload it 7 times it's basically $0.002 per case, which might as well be free. I think if you don't count the brass you're at more like 72 cents per round. I know it's not absolutely free, but I think realistically it's closer to 10 cents a case than 30 cents. Also you don't have to even buy it, brass is essentially free and .556 is plentiful if you can pick it up where people shoot. But I know not everyone can do that. Failing that you can always buy the cheapest .556 range ammo you can find and use that brass. I made the mistake of buying empty brass once or twice, but then I realized that it makes zero sense to buy empties unless you are going for utter consistency and trying to minimize every single variable (which admittedly some guys do). I'll buy the cheapest range ammo before I buy empty cases ever again. But the point is, if you already have on hand, say, 100 rounds of .556, and you get out and shoot regularly, then why are you buying brass? Just shoot those and reload them. Therefore they shouldn't count towards your cost. Or at least you shouldn't count them as much, but I think I've made an adequate argument that the cost of brass is negligible if not way less that what you have it at.
One of my curses is liking something then it is discontinued very quickly. Remember when Walmart sold _real_ ammunition forever ago? I bought so much Tul Ammo for my prized Taurus PT92. To spoil myself I'd get Magtech which was also my go-to for feeding my Desert Eagle (.44Mag). Fiocchi was a plan 'B' if that wasn't in stock. Lowest I've paid was from an Amish guy who sold me 200 rounds of that for a flat $100. It was back at a time when a thousand 9mm rounds was roughly $169 before tax online. Now even after all this time past the pandemic, no one's letting it go for less than $220 even thought they're sitting on pallets of it. We could all stop buying now and let their warehouses fill up and the prices still might remain stagnant. I miss those days when Walmart was open 24/7 so we third shift workers could go in, load up, then scram before the hoards come piling in. Every Friday or Saturday morning I'd be there after work (5 or 6AM) for burritos and bullets. Didn't take long for them to stop carding me for the ammo ($8 of 9mm). If similar prices came around again in the far future then you bet we'd all be stocked like our local FFLs or better.
I done a lot of defensive pistol training and competition over the past 15 years and was a late adopter of dots. All the points Uncle Freedom makes in the video are spot on. You’re not going to see the benefits of dots standing flat footed on the range and essentially bullseye shooting at 7 yards which is what most pistol shooters do for “practice”.
I love the Holosun SCS MOS. It sits directly on the slide so I can cowitness with my stock Glock plastic sights. the fact that I will never have to switch out batteries is a plus.
This is a sad video. Everyone can't use a red dot. Just because you can't shoot irons. A for isn't for everyone. Manny people like myself have a astigmatism. Making dots a no go.
I have an astigmatism so do a lot of my friends including one with a severe astigmatism. All of us run dots in fact there are dots out there that specifically combat the effects. Everyone can i personally hate the word or phrase "can't" you can it just takes work and figuring out how it works for you.
There is no real justification for not running a red dot besides you not training enough and lack the skills to use 1. Reliably is nonsense. The optic getting snagged is nonsense. You being faster with irons is nonsense.
Another caveat with dots, if only one of your eyes works, they may not work well for you. I have amblyopia and tried to make a dot work over 6 months, 1500 rounds live fire and who knows how much dry fire. The issue is that my right eye doesn't work, so i have to look "through" my dot like a scope, rather than shoot with both eyes open. After embarrassing myself at a comp, I ditched my dot and haven't looked back. Shooting with a red dot definitely helped improve my shooting overall, so I'm glad i went down that rabbit hole, but overall it's just not for me. Irons FTW!
Having taken my LTC course when I wasn’t exactly proficient (though not completely terrible) on iron sights (texas law states you can’t use a dot to test, because it makes it too easy lol), having had a dot and a shitload of dry fire time on it; my iron sight skills have improved, but dots will always be superior. I still need to send my gen 3 19 to get its slide milled though… been running the gen 5, I miss the gen 3….
6 years in the Marines and over 15 years as a cop. I’m not opposed to red dots on my pistol. I see it as the natural progression of things, just like when i enlisted we shot iron sights and by the time I got out were running ACOGs. My thing is this: I have tens of thousands of rounds and reps doing this. I’m very comfortable and good with my iron sights. I don’t want to change. Same reason I like carrying a 45 on duty. Not because i dislike 9, or think a 45 is so much better; but I have been shooting a 45 well for years and it got me through some rough situations and I don’t see a need to change. I know it probably makes me uncool, but I’m ok with that. I think it’s great for the younger kids coming into the academy though.
Aging eyes and cheaper 2011 dot ready platforms is what won me over. Added bonus, shooting under nods.😁 Like the RMR, Merica, right. Got a few, but I prefer easy battery replacement so, got a HD on the duty XC and a SRO on the Platypus. I'm lazy.😅 Delta Point pro on my wife's Staccato P. Battery life on the 2019 model wasnt good enough for daily carry. I only got about 3 or so months before it needed changing. I hear the newer models are better in that regard.
Nice video. I'm looking for a more comfy one for my xmacro over the Tuxton tactical. Great quality holster but i just can't find that sweet spot at 330-400. I'll be checking them out. Also, just subscribed. Thanks again. ☦️☦️☦️
Nope RDs get in the way good for comp/hunt 🔫but definitely don’t need them on .40/10mm some fast irons ameriglo cap sights or diy just paint the entire FRt sight all white/black dot, layer matte white then glow black dot finish with matte sealer leave the rears white dot,the same for irons can color to preference but white/glow best at night like a constant eotech |_*_| 🎯🧐🤭
Something I struggle with a lot is priorities of purchases. Yes, red dots are great! But one of my rifles didn’t have a light yet. Do I upgrade my G19x or get that light? Always a balancing act and right now that dot doesn’t supersede a lot of other things I need. I guess what I’m saying is, there are not CONS to a lot of things, but what makes it a PRIORITY?
I’m now a civilian that carries 100% concealed, so an open emitter is suitable to me. All of my carry red dots are Holosun with ACSS / Vulcan reticles so I can more quickly find the damn reticle in any unconventional shooting position.
I've got an SFX Rival that I want to slap a dot on. I've been training adjustable iron sight only for now, but been looking at a 507C for a few weeks now. I like the MRS and solar failsafe. Don't have a reason for not having one other than I've been kitting out my AR and building a war belt/budgeting a PC for later. The irons have done me well
Started carrying earlier this year, put a bit of time into shooting my P365 with irons so I'd be familiar with them, but I knew I wanted a dot and I feel so much more confident now that I have one.
Red dots break, irons break, everything breaks given enough time and\or abuse. You can break an anvil, a literal hunk of solid cast iron, with enough time and abuse...
As a guy wearing contacts /glasses and having a stigmatism i belive in red dots and the star burst is an easy fix 3moa dot or less yeah it is still fuzzy but it ain't as bad as a bigger dot
Would have been good to see the tests done so viewers can judge for themselves. Paul Harrell and others have tested some of these in gel blocks and meat targets with differing results
The fudd rage over red dots on a pistol is real and pretty wild at times. Keyboard operators are especially quick to get nasty about someone doing anything any differently from the way they do it. "YOU CAN'T HAVE A PORT JOB ON A CCW!!! YEW TUBER XY AND Z SAID STOCK ONLY!!! HOW DARE YOU NOT HAVE BUIS!!! ARE YOU F'ING STUPID OR SOMETHING??? NO BUIS MEANS YER GONNA DIE WHEN THAT ELECTRO CRAP FAILS BOY!!!!!!" And on and on and on....get some quality gear that works for you and your budget, run it, inspect and maintain it....99.999999% chance you'll survive your next HomeDepot or Wal Mart trip. Let the haters hate.
Former infantry and 20 year urban ghetto cop here. I can see value in the dot for law enforcement. Even then, most of my contact with armed suspects was no more than 20 feet. Usually, it was around 5 feet. Hard to see value in a dot at 5 feet.
It took me over a year to stop looking at the dot. It’s not that I didn’t know to be target focused, it was just so hard to break the habit. Funny enough, in all sim trainings, I was target focused with iron sights (long before I used a red dot for the first time).
Big red dot guy! The Trijicon, holosun are mega. Just picked up a new Vortex seems super good. Want to get one of the new sig enclosed or a steiner/acro next be well.
My first was a 508T. Second was some crappy one I needed to put on a pistol to sell it. Third was a Steiner MPS. Fourth was a Cyelee Wolf Pro. The only carry pistol I have without a dot at this point is a Reflex, which will get one sooner or later, but right now I have a course coming up and ammo to buy for it so other expenses have to wait. The 508 and MPS are both rock solid. So far the Wolf Pro is good, but time and two days of training will give me some more data on that. The way I think of the transition challenge is this - when we shoot irons we have that reference throughout the draw, so we become dependent on that visual cue. With a dot, that visual cue is gone and our brain starts to panic trying to find the dot as we present. The shift in thinking that worked for me was looking at how horseback archers shoot with zero visual reference to their bow or arrow. We have other feedback systems in our bodies that we can train to give us the information we need, and when we train those systems to present a pistol (in any position...) that dot just appears when it's needed. I use point shooting drills to do this. Maybe there are other, better ways to do it. If so, I'd love to hear about them.
It seems from your comments that you put an enormous amount of time and energy on handguns. I am sure you know that no pistol caliber will stop an opponent, so why so much effort on a limited option? Please excuse me if I have misunderstood your situation.
@@robertgoodrich8953 OMG I never thought of that. You're right. I'm going to sell my pistols right away. What's your recommendation for a replacement? Shotgun? AR? AK?
Uhhuh. So, if 9 mm is as potent a stopper as .45, explain me why, when I shoot my Glock 19 at small steel targets, they hardly make a sound and barely move. But when I shoot the same target with .45 they ring loud and spin around. No statistical bs! Common sense shows the difference.
Low mass high velocity vs high mass low velocity. Do what you want but I will still take 17 in a mag of 135+p over any 45 acp you can conceal. And ye it's true there is little to no difference between the wound characteristics of the rounds
Love your videos, I’m new to dots just getting into them this year, end of 2023 beginning of 2024. I currently have 2 now. Both are the SCS320 green dots enclosed emitter. I am definitely a dot fan boy now, much faster and more accurate when I shoot now. All of my handguns I purchase from here on out will be equipped with a dot. Again thanks for the great video content. Always look forward to your new videos.
Red dots are better in every way possible, except cost. Most people are running a $400-$500 gun, and it's hard for people to justify dropping that same amount on an optic when they could go buy 2,000 rounds.
That's true but I've noticed the folks that come from a more precision background have no issues we're all used to dropping more than the cost of the gun on a scope lol.
@@unclefreedom213 I feel like that's a rabbit hole that once you go down, you're never coming out. You'll always be spending big bucks on quality optics. Sadly, many will never realize how amazing some of these optics are.
I wasn't sure that I'd like using a red dot on a pistol when I bought my first optics-ready pistol, a Walther PDP. However, in a very short time, I was shooting better, and more accurately with the dot than with irons. I have since put dots on my Sig P365XL and Sig P320 XTEN. And, like you mentioned, once you've got that presentation locked into muscle memory, you can shoot almost as accurately by point shooting by using the optic window as a frame for the target.
One other thing to consider is making sure either you know what you are doing mounting your dot, or whomever is mounting it for you knows what they are doing. Mounting a dot isn't just throwing the plate on, then screwing down the dot... there's a lot more you have to do to make it reliable and repeatable! Plus you have to maintain the device.
New to dots. Just mounted my first last week. Is there more to it than proper torque with the appropriate thread pitch and screw length. Thread locker and witness marks?
@@matthewbeaver5026 that's most of it. What temperature of the environment did you mount? Not a huge issue, but if there is a large change in temperature shortly after mounting, it could theoretically cause issues. Also realize that the screws are basically single use. Buy spares.
Putting a red dot on my pistol was game changing. It allows me to do essentially what I can do with a rifle in up close shooting which in my opinion is massively critical to response times and situational awareness which more times than not is the thing that can get you killed.
It's almost cheating. I had a cop friend who didn't believe in the dot life. I was standing with him at the 50 and I handed him my gun and asked him to shoot the q target. Shot 5 times went down to check and all 5 in. He now runs dot on and off duty
I will say that people that haven't shot should learn with iron sights first. If you try to learn from nothing with a dot it will be extremely discouraging and difficult. If you train with iron sights enough you are presenting the gun to the same point every time and when you transition to a red dot (which is better) you won't have a problem finding/losing the dot
I'm sorry but I completely disagree with this statement. As UF stated, you have to invest the time and effort, just like we all had to do with irons, it's just a different version of the same skill set. It's easier for people to keep track of a single point of focus... think the reason we have first focal plane scopes... same kind of concept.
Strongly disagree I teach a ton of student that have never shot. I keep a bunch of pistols at class as loaners. Put them on a dot and they get real good real quick. It also helps them understand iron sight aiming as well.
