Thread: Red dot for hunting

So following on from this, I pulled the 3-9 ultralight off my kimber .308, and decided to get a new red dot.
I had the aimpoint H1 in the past but never really liked it as I couldn’t shoot tight groups with it.
Ended up with a Trijicon RMR 3.25moa, tiny little thing. Got a rail from @Sarvo and put the three pieces together
Pulled the rifle up to the shoulder and the dot was bang on in terms of location in the lens. I thought the suppressor might take up a bit of the view but it’s not even visible when aiming.
The rail had obscured the top off the receiver a fair bit, and as the Montana is a blind mag this would be a pain in the ass.
So I pulled the rail off and got the grinder out to chop it up, milled the end true then painted it.
Now the action is nice and clear and it can be carried comfortably just behind the sight.
Changing the sight height in ‘shooter’ aswell as the zero range told me I needed to be .5” low at 25yards for a 200yard zero, so I bore sighted it and fired three shots to get it close enough.

Then I went out to 200yards and fired three shots, they all rung the gong so after walking over to have a look, I fired three more shots in quick succession. Fairly happy with that.
I adjusted the sight 1moa down and went to 300yards, which is the fourth shot high and left. So as it stands I’d happily line up on a deer inside 200yards, and with a bit of practice, maybe out to 300. But for now I reckon that’s not bad accuracy for having fired a total of ten rounds.

MMM, would be useful on a .404 Jeffery I think.

Nice work, that will be ideal for the roar

Originally Posted by stug

MMM, would be useful on a .404 Jeffery I think.

You mean it would be criminal on a Jeff?

Those trijicons are neat. I saw the first photo and thought, why does he not mount it to the rear of the rail? But I get your good reasons. I hate optics on my lee enfields because I lose the convenience of charger clip loading and single round loading from the top is just... well, so arcane. Also, the top scope rail interferes with reliable extraction/ejection when I want to pull them out gently to avoid gathering shells from nearby bushes.

The forward red dot is the only solution to the top loading requirement, apart from a left mount scope or a scout/pistol scope, both of which do work.

Red dot scopes are pretty parallax free, but some are not perfect towards the edges. Make sure your cheek weld is perfect for viewing the dot centred in the window, be it by padding the comb or sourcing a lower mount.

Here’s my setup

i bought a red dot (2moa) ranger with a dovetail to weaver mount for a 22 i bought, however having not even used it the missus prefers open sights.
was 250 for the sight, 50 for the adapter.
make me an offer ! a serious one (i even have the packaging)

The further back you mount the red dots the more you see the suppressor in them that’s another reason to sit 5he forward of the action,the A7 is nice to carry one handed between the red dot and the bolt.

Yeah I carried it for a couple of hours yesterday, nice to carry alright. Mine is 5lb 10oz with suppressor. The closer to your eye the wider the field of view, but yeah, more likely to see the suppressor which could be distracting.

I don’t worry about field of view as I shoot both eyes open.

As do I, that’s why I had no concern mounting it forward

Your groups look good ,I have only ever shot mine at 50m..that’s the average range I shoot at in the bush.

Was your H1 Aimpoint the 4 moa dot which would obscure around 4" of your target at 100 yards you now have 3.25 moa obscuring less of your target at the same range.

A 4 moa dot will obscure 8'' of your target at 200 yards.

I have a 2 moa T1 which shoots good groups at 100 yards but not as tight as even a 4 x scope for me at least.

I have the Aimpoint T1 on my 30/30 Marlin youth 336 model which I have used out to 200 yards on steel and closer in in the tight stuff on pigs and deer.

I also have a Elcan Specter 1 - 4 and I find I have it set on 4x most of the time I have found a wide field of view with low magnification seems to suit me better when I have the choice of a dot at 1 or 4 x magnification.

Another reason may be the Elcan dot is 6 moa at 1 x and 1.5 moa at 4 x magnification so I tend to shoot faster and more accurately with 4 x magnification and a very wide field of view and a smaller dot!

One of the best groups I shot from my AR 15 was when I reloaded with the Barnes 62 gr TSX and this scope https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Lis...?id=1942985225

I also have a Svarrofffiky (never could spell Swarovski) Z8i 1-8 again a great field of view scope.

I also personally imported all my scopes and when I have issues deal directly with the manufacturer.

The H1 was 2moa. When I used it I sighted it in on a small cross or dot which I found difficult for some reason. This time rather than aim for a small point of aim I am simply centering the dot over the target, hence the square for 25yards and large gong for 200. I found it pretty easy to centre the 3.25moa/6.5” dot at 200.

I use a black circle 1" thick 8" in diameter and a 2" centre dot with white surround at 100 yards I find I can centre the dot over the 2" centre dot and use the 8" circle a bit like a target aperture sight.

I cant see the centre 2" dot but I can use the outer circle to see if I am on the dot, hope this makes some sense.

Works for me I also loved open sights but find dots easier as I get older.

The older I get the better I was.

I purchased this sight in NZ for $600.00 without the mount https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Lis...?id=1942985225 then went back to importing again on the expensive stuff.