Red Dot Vs Iron Sights On Pistols: A Complete Guide + My Favorites 

getw.in/honestoutlaw Deadline is TONIGHT Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 11:59 PM PST Not associated with RU-vid

outlaw is the most laid back and realistic guntoober around

When your age exceeds 50 and those iron sights start becoming blurry, that's when you become a fan of red dots.

The amount of information in this video is insane!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!!

Shoot what you like. I enjoy irons on pistols. My buddy loves his dots. I like dots on my long guns. 🎉

Following Ben Stoeger, you don't need to have a hard front-sight focus to shoot iron sights. In fact, he recommends adopting a target focused view when shooting with iron sights! Ben also points out how easy it is to look at the red-dot (or front iron sight) and that this is NOT target focused shooting. So more careful practice is required to master either sighting system then most people think.

Ameriglo sights are decent replacement sights for Glocks. Glad you mentioned them. Not too expensive, work well.

I appreciate the diverse content you put out. You keep me coming back every new video.

Excellent subject for today’s educational and informational matter. You’re the Gun Sesame Street.

Another awesome video. Best gun educator alive!

Perfect example of why Red Dots. Are not always the Best option. Great Video Sir!

Didn’t quite get that edited out Chris, “America MFer” lol 😂 You rock!

Dude, never change!

I'm not an anti-RDS old-timer. I'm a rural Alaskan, an outdoorsman, and LE. Here's what an RDS means to me, maybe different for you. It IS one more piece of gear to maintain. It IS one more piece of gear to malfunction. Every single RDS I've owned and own has failed in at least one way that a front sight post never has. I'm not saying they're a bad idea, but as I try to figure out a way to back out a sheared locking out of a 10mm slide I am again reminded that simpler is ALWAYS better. Sorry folks, but for most of you it's better to spend that $600 Trijicon or the PLA (Holosun) wants from you on training instead.

Awesome video! I recently switched back to a G19 with XS big dots instead of a dot gun. Here's some things I noticed: Red dots are faster in that once you aquire the dot, you have already lined up wind age and elevation. So once you trust the dot, you can be faster with accuracy. However, with dots I always set the brightness high enough so it can be in sun, which is usually like setting 10 on holosuns so you don't get that long of battery life and the dot is bloomed more often than not. You are constantly wiping stuff off/out of them, which you do on irons as well, but just way more annoying on dots. I've ran out of MOA adjustment while trying to zero a dot before which sucked. The batteries used by pistol dots were designed to be in things like watches so they aren't necessarily up to all of the shock a pistol slide can make. But the last thing that I think goes unsaid a bit too often is that in order to even start talking about the performance variance between irons and dots is that you have to isolate for shooter grip and trigger manipulation. So in order to even care about this you have to have a rock solid grip and trigger discipline which most don't and are much harder to master. Grip and trigger control are the causes for almost all misses assuming the sights are zeroed. Shooting irons vs dot I don't notice much in performance. So TLDR, get whatever you want but focus on grip and trigger control to get good. A dot won't make you into a grand master overnight. BTW I think this is what Ken hackethorne meant about dots and got roasted for cause no one thought of anything besides " gEt A dOt BoOmEr"

Love SRO’s. Nice big window and easy to pick up that dot. I don’t even use iron sights, I’m too old. First time I used a red dot on a handgun I couldn’t believe how easy it was to be very accurate. Thanks for the insight on that Trijicon box sight. I’m gonna check that out. Great video!

I’ve watched a ton of videos on this subject. Yours is by far the best. You answered all of my questions and concerns. Great content.

Shoutout to Mitch Hedberg 😂 "When it comes to stop lights, green means 'go right ahead' and yellow means 'wait, slow down' but with bananas, it's the exact opposite"

You always give honest valuable information ..keep up great channel

Been waiting on this 🙌

HO always banging out the best gun related content. Really appreciate your efforts. Made some really good points and made me rethink my outlook on the topic. Would love the Artemis but living in Australia probably not eligible. Cheers Chris .

Nice breakdown of the pros and cons. I've always shot target focused with my iron sights. Makes it easy to switch between red dots and irons.

Best comparison I have seen. Thanks

Outstanding video!!! Greetings from Brazil!!

As usual, GREAT stuff. Thank you Chris!

Awesome video. I have both Red Dot and irons. KEEP ON ROCKING!

PewView and Honest Outlaw are the best teachers on the tube. Hats off to them trying to improve gun culture and turn people into better shooters with all the tips and tricks they've learned shooting professionally

Great video , I learned a bunch . TY .

Good morning my Honest one, another great review... Thanks!

I’ve never been this early. It’s about to be my range time thanks for a great one!

I end up blacking out the white three dot set ups. I’ve become a big fan of the Hellcat sights, which Springfield also uses on the Emissary.

My close up vision has gone to shit over the years from staring at screens. I can’t see iron sites anymore without reader glasses, but a red dot is clear because they are 1X magnification. It took a bit of adjustment when I first started using a dot, but they’re better in every way over irons.

Great review, very comprehensive.👍👍

Another good video your knowledge is amazing

Astigmatisms in both eyes means red dots on firearms don’t work for me but I’m still glad they’re becoming more common on pistols

Great video

Red dot for the range irons for self defense

Really Useful Video!!! Thanks!!!

Another great video once again champ.

This is so helpful. Thank you!

Great video, thank you!

I was talking to a competition shooter that took on an iron sight class and says that he target focuses instead of front post focus 🤷🏼‍♂️ He did really well also

Definitely one of my favorite Guntoobers.

Well done, man

Debate is always a good thing. Mr Outlaw always has great information and I always learn a lot from these videos. In my situation, the first 35 years of my life was shooting iron sights and usually with a really long sight radius, think 12 gauge with a 32" barrel. I did a lot of trapshooting and minimal pistol. I got very interested in pistol shooting and continued to shoot iron sights. I've tried red dots and I see the appeal, especially for new shooters. I just have the iron sight fever. I suppose as my sight gets worse, red dots may come into more play.

I like it Chris and would like to see more

Night Fision U notch night sights on all my hand guns. Best night sights in the game.

I find that I can't locate the dot quickly. And I am not alone! It takes a pile of practice to get to the point where your "muscle memory" presents the pistol to the same point where your eye can quickly pick up the dot. I think this is one place where the Honest Outlaw's "50K rounds per year" benefit him greatly.

I am an iron sights guy. For me it works well. It is just like choosing between automatic and manual transmission in cars.

Excellent content

Steel sights on a Glock is a must......best upgrade for the money anyone can make.

Regarding your comment of 50-100,000 rounds per year, what do you do or plan to do to manage lead on your range. I’m not sure if any good videos are out there, but would be interested. Love your channel… thanks for all you do!

What a great video!! My preference is that a conceal carry gun should have iron sights. It’s about concealment long term. Dots are fabulous on the range.

Because of my poor eyesight I actually bought a pair of shooting glasses I had to take my gun to the opticians hold a firing position and had the machine to test different lenses over my eyes to test different lenses so 1) I could see the iron sights 2) that I could also see at distance ie to the target, so two different lenses for near and far sight simultaneously (also worked out great for riding my motorcycle, as I can read the tft screen and what's ahead of me down the road).

Just started running Dawson irons, .100 wide front .125 rear. So far so good 👍

Well done

Great video.

Keep up the good work

Check out speed sights. They are a 3 dot iron sights but the dots are diamonds. They make for really fast sight alignment because you just align the left and right tips of the front sight diamond to the tips on the rear.

For me personally I like irons on a conceal carry pistol. For a service or duty pistol I like a red dot. That’s just what works best for me. If possible I’d like night sights for my carry pistol.

Bought my first pistol today! (I cannot pick it up until the 15th but it's paid for)

I practice a lot, but when shooting my qualification course at short range I still have a lot of trouble picking up the dot quickly when timed. The red dots are fantastic at distance though. Once again, GREAT video with a ton of information.

Great Video! Thanks.

The iron sights on my 365 Spectre Comp are my favorite irons. They are great and I shoot that gun very well with them.

Great vid - good points. I have irons on my EDC and my competition gun (Defensive Pistol Matches). Yes, the red-dot can be useful at distance....but self-defense shootings rarely happen at distance. And the other side of that is that I have seen red-dots (and fiber optics) fail in SO many ways in matches that there is no way I'd trust one for EDC (I also hate the bulk). It is also possible to shoot with a target focus inside of 10 yards (about three times the distance of the average self-defense encounter). Especially with the HD sights. I have Trijicons on my Sigs and AmeriGlo on my Wilsons. Both are excellent...in daylight or the dark.

I'd be interested in seeing a video of you describing what you do as far as aiming with iron sights. You're a really good shot, sure other people would agree.

I’m here. Awesome video

I have pistols with both setups and definitely prefer iron sights most of the time due to the size profile, weight, dealing with batteries, and adding another possible failure point (from the electrics to the screws), but red dots a very fun to use and definitely make distance shots easier.

Great video. I have a dot on one pistol to play with, but I have a number of handguns with iron sights, and have been shooting irons for 65+ years. I have no desire to "train" to be able to use dot sights in a self defense situation. I use shooting glasses with a top focal cheater lense for the range. However with my usual glasses or without glasses the front sight is a blur. I place the blur on the target and get good hits out to 12-15 yards (not trying to shoot for groups). In fact I once did a test with using no sight picture with various handguns at 12 yards, just looking down the barrel/slide at the target and got good hits. I came to the conclusion that sights are over-rated for self defense out to 10-12 yards if your grip, trigger control, ect are correct. Just look at the target while looking down the barrel/slide and beware the blur front sight is on the target. Similar to using a dot sight.

Reminds me of a vehicle. Younger crowd can’t deal with a stick shift/iron sight they have to have the automatic/red dot lol.

Hope you will review the metal 40 s&w that they released! Would love to hear your take on it.

I prefer irons over dots, but I do run dots on a lot of my pistols. I also run suppressor height irons and co-witness all to my dots because of the failure issues you mentioned and because sometimes the dots don’t turn on like they should in a high stress situation, I give myself a quick fallback plan by doing so.

Hey Outlaw! Thanks for the great, reliable, and Honest content! What about a video on 1911 makers substituting with polymer parts? I want a metal 1911, not a hybrid one! Thanks!

Love the vid....would love to get the "merica" dot for my mc9 that is ordered and on the way...but having trouble wrapping my head around buying a dot that may be more money than the gun itself..🤣 (but I might still do it!)

I use vortex viper optic it is a great carry optic.

Use purple (ONLY) Permatex Purple , Loctite 222. or Bondtech Purple low-strength threadlocker to keep the screws from backing out. The threadlock is easily broken by hand with a screwdriver while keeping the screws from backing out even under heavy use. I use this on all the guitars I fix for keeping cable jacks and some other screws that typically tend to work loose on guitars, and use it on my guns without issue. I have a Marlin 39A with a thumbscrew that regardless of how dry the threads are still wants to back out and the purple threadlocker solved it. I know some people are probably thinking that a guitar doesn't take the punishment a gun does but I assure you they take a lot of use and are under constant vibration.

This was excellent video. My concern is blood causing red dot sights failure vs iron sights.

just had to drop a comment to say how amazing this video was.

Love your videos! I could watch you shoot all day. After watching your top P365 video, I am looking at getting a P365 Legion for carry. I am curious which, if any, would you recommend for that application? I actually wanted to go with the Spectre comp, but they don’t seem to be available anymore. Again, great video and keep up the amazing content!

Well said

Excellent overview. My preference was a fiber optic front sight until I found those Ameriglo sights with the U-notch in back and big dot in front. I love red dots on long guns; however, I don’t want to get used to one on a pistol. It’s a hard “no” for carrying a red dot IMHO.

I just got back from valor ridge and planning on recording a similar video. See you at guncon man!

I really like my XS Big Dot on my EDC. Not very precise at distance but inside 20 yards they are the fastest iron sights i have used, YMMV.

Still iron sights for me as just about all my pistols are not milled for a red dot. I have one newer pistol that has plates/adapters or whatever they're called but I shoot it fine with the irons. At age 56, I'm still doing alright in the vision department.

I use both, I like to practice with both regularly so that it is natural and not forced.

Fair & balanced!

Love the eps, only issue I dropped the firearm on the table from a few inches an it lost zero. Other than that is awesome

As far as irons go, for me the best is a blacked out rear and a high visibility front sight like Ameriglo or Trijicon(fiber optics arent bad just learn how to change the rods which is easy). Red dots are dots, take alittle time to get used to but awesome

I'm mostly a red dot guy. But my prefered irons are the XS F8.

Red dots on pistols seem to help me personally by showing with utmost sensitivity exactly where my muzzle is migrating during the trigger pull. Alot easier to clean up your shot before it breaks

No perfect answer for all of us,,, I stick to irons with a bigger bright front sight for my self defense carry pistol 7 yards or less for self defense non cover distance. Very fast on a body sized target. Farther distance more likely to have cover and more likely not as urgent as a close up encounter, probably have more time to aim your shot, so Im good with irons. Additionally I shoot better with irons from off balance and uncomfortable positions,. Dots are fast and very good from a perfect shooting stance, Training and thinking about this stuff is fun, get out there and try them out! thanks for another great video!

I run Trijicon night sights on my pistols. Can't read squat without reading glasses, but my eyes still pick up the irons very well.

From my experience, which isn’t a lot but I’ll give my 2 cents anyway, if it’s bright enough wherever you’re at, you can be threat focused with fiber optic or high visibility from sights by training to see the threat and then seeing the color of the “dot” in your peripheral vision. You might see 2 dots but the more you train the more you’ll trust your instincts and on with dot to use in the stressful situation.

I choose both!

Great video as always however I've been super interested in the holosun SCS and would love to hear your thoughts/opinions on it

Sending my g45 slide off for milling for a Halosun eps

I’m almost 60. I was raised in the country on a farm where firearms were part of life and got my first gun at age 8 and carrying handguns since around age 15. 25 yrs of LE including high stress SWAT and tactical training and I’ve never used any kind of optics except scopes on rifles and flashlights for tactical weapons. All the red dot optics came after my tenure in LE. When I was in the academy, an old Vietnam veteran sniper/weapons expert was one of my instructors. He stressed the importance of selecting a handgun that fit with your bodies natural point of aim. Everybody was checked for their natural point of aim. If your weapon didn’t point naturally, it was modified by grip replacement or modification to help align it when presenting your weapon down range. This was the era of when revolvers were standard issue. SW Mod 10, 13, 65, 66, 686 etc. Some people are built where they have terrible natural point of aim due to joint issues, body structure, impairments etc. These people have to really practice to perfect their presentation stance, but the majority of people have a decent natural point of aim. I was blessed with an extremely natural point of aim and he stressed this to me and taught me to recognize it. He too had the extreme ability and it makes it where your weapon is just like an extension of your body like pointing your finger at something. He carried a Colt 45 govt and Combat Commander and could literally just look at something and hit it without even trying. Once it clicked with me, handguns became a whole new world because I didn’t hardly focus on my weapon anymore. This became evident when our night fire training started. Long story short, I took the high shooter award for my academy, as I was shooting scores of 100% during night fire out to 50 yards with 38 spl and 357 magnum loads out of a 4 inch revolver. I carried that revolver for awhile, replacing it with a Colt King Cobra, SW Mod 25-5 and a Mod 29 over a few years. Our dept then transitioned to Glock 17s when they came out. The grip angle was horrid at first for me but I adjusted but never felt completely comfortable with it. I didn’t like the 9mm caliber as well so I went to a SW Mod 645 and then a Colt Government once I was approved for a single action carry. I had an Sig 225 and a SW 39 for off duty carry and a little Rossi 38 and a SW Chief for backup. All these had good natural point of aim when qualifying with them. I went on and tried a Glock 21 at one point but always went back to my 645 or Govt model, with the Govt model in my holster most of the years, even a Double Eagle model for quite awhile. At the end of my career I carried a Beretta 96D for the last couple of years as the dept I was working for had different rules for allowed firearms. Today I have an array of handguns (Sig P250c in 45, my daily, Glock 42, when I want minimal, Walther P99 in 40sw, SW 915, Stoeger STR 9c, and of course a Govt Model. Also a couple of single action revolvers in .22/.22 mag and .357. All of them I can pick up and have a natural point of of with except with the Glock 42 I have to remind myself to push the front of the weapon down and bit when I bring it up to present. The moral to my story is, regardless of what weapon you WANT, make sure you use a weapon that is suited to you. YOU don’t choose the weapon, the weapon chooses you. After that, the caliber determines what you can handle effectively. For most a 9mm is sufficient and for some, we love and can handle a little more punch with bigger lead. When you combine these things above, MOST will be fine with iron sights, because you’re not focused on your weapon or its additions, just your target/threat. Learn to shoot with both eyes open as well, focused on your target/threat, not your weapon. Your weapon is basically just a blur in the picture. If you accomplish all this with optics, and that feels for natural to you, or you need for diminished eyesight purposes that’s fine too, just make sure you’re weapon has selected you to be natural. I’ll never use optics but that’s just me. Love this channel and the people here too. Stay safe out there everybody. Keep your head on a swivel when you’re out there and always expect the unexpected.

It's like you read my mind for this video. However, I still want to see you try out XS Big Dots as I find them the best for reacquisition, even over my red dots.

Nice job on this topic. #1: I am old, that said, I learned on irons because that's all there was. #2: I used irons until this year when I bought an optic for my rifle. Why? My eyes aren't like they used to be, my glasses wouldn't allow me to see the front sight clearly to set between the really fuzzy rear, AND couldn't focus on my target. That said, I still prefer irons to a red dot for accuracy.in pistols An optic for faster target acquisition.

I like irons for carry simplicity, but if I had to engage multiple baddies, I think dots let me get to multiple targets easier. I have a dot on my hd setup