Are Irons outdated and how big of a Red Dot do you need?

The old phrase "focus on the front sight post" is riddled with confusion and myths.

Today's topic is to tear apart the sighting systems and provide an insightful view on both.

Purpose of red dots

Quite simply, red dots encourage you to be threat-focused, contrary to irons which is dependent on focusing on the front sight post.

By having a pre-aligned overlayed sighting system that doesn't need alignment before aiming eliminates half the work required to hit your target.

Red dot or Irons

The first thing always brought up in the argument of why you shouldn't get a red dot is durability, which we find to be quite a slim claim to be arguing on.

Most optics unless suffering a direct impact on glass will continue to work despite being racked off of steel plates, rocks, being dropped etc. and to provide a bit more info the only optic that gives any relative concern as to glass being the first to get hit is the Holosun hs507k comp (due to its glass sticking out further than the chassis), which was designed to be a competition optic and not a carry.

The point stands that durability isn't something to be majorly concerned about especially when you consider the average use of someone's CCW... staying inside a holster the majority of its life.

The 2nd rebuttal of most iron-cels is that "red dots require batteries and will die on you at the most inopportune time" to which we say:

1. Replace your battery on a schedule, not too dissimilar to the maintenance you already provide your pistol

2. Co-witness your irons if at all possible

3. Buy one of our Battery Cell Cartridges to always have a spare on your person

(Use code “First” for $3 off each Battery Cell Cartridge)

Importance of window size

Now that you're 100% red dot gang, you now have to decide which optic you want.

This decision can be a hard one because of the abundance and variance of optics on the market. you may be asking is it worth to get a larger windowed red dot?

Yes... it is very worth it.

As soon as your training passes standing still doing drills on the flat range you will realize that even just walking and shooting poses a challenge keeping the dot in view... easy fix, bigger window = bigger "eye box" your head can be in and still see the dot.

Call to action

As always, we encourage you to continue to make decisions based off of facts and not opinions of influencers, do your own research and make sure your optic is best for you and train as dedicatedly as you can.