If you’re new to modern gun sights, choosing gun optics for your favorite firearms can be confusing. A red dot sight that’s loved by one of your range buddies might not be the best optic for your shooting needs. With so many types of optics available, there’s a right choice for almost every gun, so let’s take a look at what goes into finding the right pick for your shooting needs and how to get the most out of it.
Modern Gun Optics
Choosing modern gun optics to upgrade your sight picture gives you improved accuracy and precision as well as faster target acquisition. Red dot sights, prism scopes, and LPVO scopes all offer a more intuitive aiming experience that helps reduce the number of visual planes you’re aligning to aim your shot. Where Iron sights require you to focus on the front blade through the notch of the rear sight and align the two with the target, the best optics simply require you to guide a projected reticle onto your aiming point.
Considerations when Choosing Gun Optics
Before putting your hard-earned money into a new sight for your pistol, rifle, carbine, or shotgun, you want to make sure you’re choosing a gun optic that will give you a better shooting experience. Since shooting is an individual pursuit relying on both your skill level and preferences, the best optic for someone else might not be the right choice for you. Instead, you have to take the time to understand what you want from an optic.
- Firearm Type – Start by considering the gun you’re putting the optic on. Its size, features, and cartridge power will play a role in which aftermarket sight will work best for your shooting requirements. While we’ll cover each of these during the selection process, considering your weapon as a whole can give you a broad idea of the optics you’re looking for even before you get into specifics.
- Mount Compatability – You’ll install your optics onto your weapon using a mounting system. While this used to entail a trip to a gunsmith for custom machining, modern firearms often come optics-ready, with either a mounting pattern pre-milled into the slide or upper receiver or a rail mount, like the 1913 Picatinny rail. You’ll want to make sure you’re choosing a gun optic that fits your weapon or purchase an adapter that makes the two compatible.
- Range – Think about the ranges of the targets you’ll be aiming at the most. Some optics are best for short-range targets, such as those encountered in a self-defense situation, while your ranch or hunting weapon may need accuracy much farther out.
- Carryability – Remember that anything you mount on your gun will have to be carried. You may not want a large, heavy, or bulky optic. This can be an even more important factor for concealed carry weapons, where an overly large optic could hamper your draw or increase the likelihood of your weapon printing (being visible) through your clothing.
- Eyesight – Those with poor eyesight may need larger magnification options or larger reticles to get the full benefit of bullet drop compensation or reference marks while aiming. Additionally, shooters with astigmatism may want to opt for a prism scope rather than a red dot sight, as the prismatic lenses better compensate for their eye issues, giving them a razor-sharp reticle and sight picture.
- Usability – Choose a gun optic with features that are easy to use under your expected field conditions. You shouldn’t need to break out a tool kit to adjust your brightness, windage, or elevation. Look for adjustable settings that hold true, even with rough handling in real-world environments.
- Reliability – The best optic will be ready for action when you need it. That means energy-saving features for a long battery service life, rugged constructions, and technology that resists bumps, fog, and water infiltration. Look for optics backed by a warranty that protects your investment.
- Purpose – Finally, some optics may only be a part-time sight on your firearm. For example, adding a short-range optic to a 45-degree off-set mount is popular on some tactical rifles for close-range rapid targeting. Meanwhile, the primary optic is a scope sighted for mid-range engagements.
Types of Optics
Now that you have a broad sense of what you’re looking for, you can choose the gun optic types most likely to meet your needs. Optics within the same family will often share similar traits. Narrowing your choice down to the right type of sight for your gun lets you focus on the finer details to pick your best option.
- Reflex Optics – These optics, also called red dot sights, use powerful LED emitters and a specially coated lens to project an illuminated reticle onto your sight picture. Meant for rapid target acquisition and accuracy at short ranges, they make aiming the weapon as easy as point-and-shoot. Just overlay the reticle on your aiming point, and you’re on target.
- Enclosed Emitter Red Dot Sights – What separates these red dots from other reflex sights is that the emitter is completely enclosed in a metal housing with a lens at each end. This helps protect the emitters and keep them from being disrupted by precipitation, dust, and other airborne particulate. It’s a go-anywhere red dot for the most challenging environments.
- Prism Scopes – Prism scopes use an LED emitter and a pair of specially ground prisms to produce a sharp image of your target and a crisp overlaying reticle that seems to project in front of the scope itself. This further reduces your aiming planes for pinpoint accuracy and creates an astigmatism-friendly sight picture.
- LPVO Scopes – These aren’t your grandpappy’s rifle scopes. LPVO optics give you an etched reticle supported by LED illumination to make aiming easier in any light conditions. The adjustable magnification is perfect for short-to-mid-range shooting, and both first and second focal plane versions are available, letting you find the right balance of accuracy and speed for your shooting needs.
Choosing the Best Gun Optic For Your Gun
After considering your weapon and shooting needs and reading through the types of optics above, you should have a good idea about your future gun optics. Now, it’s time to get into the details. Look at the optics that meet your needs, their mount patterns, and the availability of adapters, if necessary. Now consider the features you need that will be most helpful, and balance the optics that provide them against the cost. While we would all love to have the latest and greatest military-grade hardware to play with, the reality is that a more practical choice will give you the same benefits in your day-to-day shooting lifestyle at a fraction of the cost.
Getting the Most From Your Gun Optics
Make no mistake: you’ll need to put in some range time when transitioning from iron sights to modern optics. You’ll need to take the time to zero in your sight or scope, familiarize yourself with its features, and train your muscle memory to make the most of this new tool. That can mean dry-fire training, working on your draw with the added dimensions of your new optic, and putting in the rounds on a live range. Don’t worry. The learning curve is usually short, and the benefits are worth it.
Order Your First Optic Today
When you need practical gun optics that don’t compromise on performance, you can count on us to deliver. Our rights have the engineering and reliability you’re looking for without the big name price tag. Order your scopes and sights from Gideon Optics today.
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