Enclosed vs. open red dot sights continues to be a hot topic on firearms blogs and forums. Choosing the best red dot sights for your guns gives you faster target acquisition, improved accuracy, and greater precision. Part of the decision when choosing your optic is which style–open or closed–offers the right balance of benefits and performance for your shooting needs.
Before we look at the benefits of open vs. enclosed red dots, let’s look at why red dot sights have become increasingly popular with shooters. There are red dots for competitive shooters, concealed carry, general marksmanship, and just about any other shooting style you can think of. At the core of these versatile tools is a straightforward, intuitive aiming system.
Red dot sights (also referred to as reflex sights) use powerful LED emitters to project a bright, illuminated reticle onto a specially coated glass lens. The lens reflects this reticle back toward the shooter’s eye, giving the appearance of a floating circle, dot, crosshair, or other aiming point in the center of the lens. When properly zeroed in, aiming through the lens is as easy as lining the floating reticle over your aiming point on the target and pulling the trigger.
The reticle provides a sure aiming point within its parallax limit, and keeping the reticle in the middle of the lens provides for accuracy even further out. Shooters can leave both eyes open for better situational awareness due to a wider field of view. It also gives shooters a greater visual contrast for rapid-response aiming when compared to traditional iron sights, which can become lost in darker backgrounds or when aligning multiple focal planes.
When it comes to choosing between enclosed vs. open emitter red dots, the primary difference is that enclosed emitter sights, as the name implies, completely enclose the LED emitter inside the housing and lenses. Open emitter red dots, on the other hand, usually feature an exposed LED emitter that projects onto a single lens. As for choosing the best red dot sight style for your needs, it comes down to the unique benefits each offers.
Open-emitter red dots, like the Alpha, Omega, Judge, Rock, and Granite MOS, are lighter when comparing open vs. enclosed emitter red dots of a similar lens size and mounting footprint. This is because, instead of two lenses and a full-length housing completely enclosing the space between them, there’s only a single lens inside a shorter support frame. While the best red dot sights use a strong and lightweight aircraft aluminum composition for the housing, the difference in size creates a substantially lighter optic.
The combination of a smaller overall size and lighter weight makes this optic a favorite for concealed carry and time at the range. For carrying, less bulk means there’s less weapon to hide and a minimized risk of imprinting, while the lower weight reduces carry fatigue. At the range, where you can easily put several hundred rounds downrange, less weight to hold up and stabilize equates to less strain on your arms and shoulders. The smaller chassis also cuts off less of your field of view, giving it a slight edge for comparative situational awareness.
Enclosed-emitter red dot sights, like the original Mediator or Mediator II, may be heavier and bulkier, but that’s because the strong housing and twin lenses completely enclose the LED emitter. That means enclosed-emitter vs. open red dot sights offer more protection to the emitter, the lenses, and the complex interaction that creates the illusion of a floating reticle. Enclosed red dots give you greater environmental flexibility.
Dust, rain, snow, and more can interfere with the LED reticle on open-emitter red dots by blocking the image. This could render your optic useless and leave you without a way to accurately aim your gun when you need it the most. While the outside lenses of an enclosed-emitter red dot can still become coated or occluded, the emitter system and its projection remain clear. Clearing your lens clears your aim without the risk of pushing the foreign material further into your optic.
There’s no universal rule for what makes the best red dot sights when deciding between enclosed vs. open-emitter red dots. In the end, you should choose the optic style you’re most comfortable with in the majority of situations where you’ll need to rely on your weapon. If possible, talk to other shooters and ask if you can take a look at their sight picture so you can get a feel for your comfort level with the different types of red dot optics. Here are a few guidelines to get you started:
Enclosed-emitter red dots are usually best for situations where environmental conditions are likely to become an issue. This can be frequent practice or competitive shooting events at an outdoor range, a duty weapon that needs all-weather aiming, or use as a hiking/hunting/ranch gun, where you will frequently be exposed to the elements, mud, and other emitter-fouling factors. Enclosed-emitter optics are also more comfortable on rifles, carbines, and shotguns, where their larger bulk and weight are less noticeable.
Open-emitter red dots work great for indoor ranges and excel at concealed carry unless excessive pocket lint is a problem. Under these circumstances, the optic is rarely exposed to the elements for an extended length of time, and the lower weight and bulk can pay dividends in helping the gun meet your shooting needs.
We’re proud to offer a range of the best practical red dot sights for your firearms. They’re fully featured and priced to save you money over the big-name brands. Don’t choose between enclosed vs. open emitter red dots–get the optics you need for all your go-to guns. Order your sights and scopes from Gideon Optics today.
