TargetTalk

I will be sighting in a new dot sight soon (my first dot sight). Should I just mount and fire away or center the clicks for W and E like I was taught to do with irons and scopes.

Mount the optic put a 1" bull on the back of a target, then at 10 yards make your initial zero then finalize it at either 25 or 50yd.
I do the 10 yd target because I can see the bullet strikes without a scope and you will get very close fast.
- Dave

dronning wrote:Mount the optic put a 1" bull on the back of a target, then at 10 yards make your initial zero then finalize it at either 25 or 50yd.
I do the 10 yd target because I can see the bullet strikes without a scope and you will get very close fast.
- Dave

Dave, I do not have the luxury of shooting at 10 yards, only 25 and 50 yards at my local range. So my question still stands. pre center the clicks for windage and elevation, mount the sight, shoot and then adjust. Or just mount, shoot and hope I am on the frame/paper.

Just mount and shoot. I might pick out a rock on the ground closer than 25 yards to see if the sight is somewhere in the ballpark, but probably not.

You didn't say which kind of red dot. One based on a scope with windage and elevation as usual or one of the micro-reflection types such as the Burris Fastfire or similar. These are sometimes called holographic sights but aren't. Just to be confusing, the method of zeroing is to move the dot to the holes as usual BUT the turns made on the turrets are sometimes the reverse direction that you would see in regular scopes. The dot sizes on most of these type of sights is 3 MOA or above. My favorite is an earlier one that has a 2MOA dot but they don't make that kind anymore! I also try to mount the sight so the dot is as close as possible to the center of the bore so their is less variation at unknown distance shooting. About the closest I can get is 3/4" above the bore while some of the tall ones are 1.5" or more.

I have Fastfires on about 10 pistols that I shoot indoors at 50' and occasionally outdoors. They work well and hold zero very well. They are very light and small. On pistols, I try to put them as close to the back of action as possible. That puts the weight in your hand rather than making the gun unbalanced forward. I don't have any on rifles though as my bad vision requires me to use magnifying scopes for any serious shooting.

My experience with the bigger red-dot scopes and reflex sights has been not so good. This is particularly true if they sit high above the bore axis and add significant weight. They can make the gun unbalanced forward and because of their height make the gun more sensitive to canting. Also, some have different reticles accessed by turning a knob on the sight. I have found they aren't real good at returning to zero. My friends who use them find that the high-end ones do well while the cheapies don't.

These are not like scopes that can benefit from being optically centered with adjustments being made to mounts to keep the crosshairs in the clearest part of the optics.

TO YOUR QUESTION:

Take the advice given. Put up a target at the shortest distance and shoot. When zeroing any kind of sight on a new rifle or pistol with no estimates of where it will go, I use 1 or 2" sighters mounted in the center of a strip of white butcher paper that covers the target frame. I usually put 5 dots arranged like the dots on a gambling die. First shots to center bull. If I can find the hole, I proceed as usual. If it is off the target. I shoot the lower right, hunt the hole, lower left, upper right, lower right until I find a hole that I can use.

Good luck

It will either be a tasco or a truglo. Economics force me to go to the lower end of the products at this time.

Take a look at Opticsplanet. They have a huge variety of sights from very cheap to very expensive. I have used TASCO scopes for over 50 years with good success. Their open-style reflex didn't work out for me though. Bulky and sensitive to zero shifts as I note below.

My suggestion: Avoid the open style reflex sights that don't shade the spot. I find them hard to use and see the spot in bright light.

The "scope" looking ones re probably the best for that.

The micro reflex are small, light, shaded as work pretty well. As noted above I use them almost exclusively.

Suggestion, if your choice has a selection of reticles (dots, circles, + sign, etc) choose one lock it in and stick to it. I have found they don't generally zero to the same place. So a change in reticle equals re-zeroing your gun.

Have fun