Popular Red Dot Pistol Sights

Now that we’ve listed our top picks, let’s look at how other red dots on the market compare. We’ve compiled a list of popular red dots to help make your shopping easier.

Why Choose Red Dot Sights?

Just like with red dots sights for rifles, every pistol shooter can benefit from mounting a red dot sight to their gun. Some shooters will see immediate benefits, like people with aging eyes. Everyone will benefit from mounting a red dot sight for one important reason: staying target focused.

To elaborate on this idea, guns are the only weapon in human history that requires us to NOT look at the target. Melee and contact weapons? Look at the threat. Thrown weapons? Look at the threat. Slings and arrows? LOOK AT THE THREAT. And then guns came along, and we said “these are weird look at the bumpy thing on the front of the gun.” With red dot sights on pistols (and lasers as well but that’s a different post) we can go back to doing what millions of years of evolution have taught us: look at the threat.

There are tons of other benefits to mounting a red dot sight. The other immediate benefit is greater accuracy when shooting at hard to hit targets. If a shooter has solid fundamentals, they’ll be more accurate right out of the gate with a red dot equipped pistol. A red dot provides finer feedback during aiming, which leads to better accuracy.

Best Pistol Red Dot Sights – What to Look For

The number 1 requirement for a red dot pistol sight is that it must stay mounted! In the early days of red dots on handguns, the optic would often come loose from the slide due to the high g-forces. Or they would lose zero, or simply have their internals shaken to death. Regardless, it must stay on the gun first and foremost. This is a function of both the dot and its mounting system. This is why I personally prefer the Aimpoint ACRO for my handguns.

Secondly, it must be durable enough to hold zero for extended range sessions. It also must be strong enough to withstand the battering of every day carry in a concealed or duty holster. Carry guns and duty guns get banged into car doors, counter-tops, and all sorts of things. If your optic won’t keep zero after getting whacked around a bit, it’s not strong enough. 

A lot of other stuff comes down to personal preference. For example, I like that my red dot sights have manually adjustable brightness. Some people like automatic brightness. I prefer that my red dot is constantly on, even when the gun is holstered, and some people prefer “shake awake” red dots. I much much prefer closed emitter dots like the Aimpoint ACRO, other people prefer an RMR-style open emitter.

What is MOA and What MOA Do You Need?

How big your dot should be is a topic of much internet debate. MOA refers to the dot’s size in minutes of angle, which means how much of the target it covers at various distances. Most people, myself included, prefer dots with smaller visual dot size (in MOA).

A smaller dot provides more refined feedback for aiming, which allows for greater accuracy. But if you go too small, the dot can provide excess feedback. Very small dots under 2 MOA can make a shooter try to correct for too much natural movement. Personally, I like a dot around 3.5 MOA.

However, there’s an argument to be made for bigger dots, like the triangle reticle in early Deltapoint sights, or the red ring of death in the Holosun. A larger aiming area in MOA will show less wiggle, which means you’re less likely to try and overcompensate for the dot’s movement. They can still be used for precise aiming by using the top edge of the red dot/ring. In the case of the Holosun optics, you can set it to have the large MOA ring with a small dot in the center, to get the best of both worlds.