(Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington)
April 24, 2025
By Craig Boddington
Okay, I admit it. Diminishing visual acuity drove me to the reflex or red-dot sight. There’s little wrong and almost everything right about the magnifying riflescope—except it is always a big appendage on a rifle. While the larger image is a benefit at distance, magnification isn’t needed up close, and too much can be counterproductive.
The reflex sight doesn’t replace the magnifying scope. It’s also an appendage but, in the worst case, it’s 50 percent smaller and lighter. At best case, it has 75 percent less weight and bulk with lots of capability.
Open sights ask the eye to focus back and forth on three planes: rear sight, front sight, target. The aperture or “peep” sight is a major improvement, reducing the eye’s workload to two focal planes. By contrast, the red-dot sight requires the eye to focus in only one plane, just like a riflescope. Simply look through the lens and focus only on the target. It’s the same as a riflescope, but in this case, instead of superimposing a crosshair on the target, it’s an illuminated dot.
When you look through the glass you see the dot, but it isn’t actually there. It is projected or reflected onto the glass. Red-dot sights are thus properly called reflex sights. “Red dot” remains a common term, but it’s not always accurate because the dot doesn’t have to be red. Reflex sights are available with dots that are green and yellow and other colors. I’m good with red. I find it bright and clear in hunting applications, which is my primary use for the reflex sight.
Advertisement
Reflex The reflex sight allows the shooter to shoot with both eyes open, which is faster and provides more awareness of the environment around you. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) The Swedish Aimpoint was the first reflex sight, introduced in 1975. Today most major optics manufacturers offer reflex sights. The reflex is parallax-free and, with normal or corrected vision, requires no focusing.
I’m sure you know that reflex sights are more popular on handguns than on rifles, but there’s little difference between reflex sights for long guns and handguns. There are two primary types: enclosed emitter and open emitter. Enclosed-emitter reflexes are generally rectangular or round, incorporating a hood or cover, usually with an additional internal lens. The inner works are better protected.
Most, but not all, reflex sights specifically intended for rifles are enclosed-emitter designs. The small, upright wafer-shape open-emitter reflex sights are more common on handguns, mostly because they are more compact.
Advertisement
In pure form, the red dot has no magnification, but with an additional extender it can magnify. However, the extender adds weight and bulk, somewhat negating a primary advantage to using a reflex.
Introduction to Red Dots When game animals like buffaloes are on the menu, shooting can be fast and close, so a red-dot sight like the Aimpoint S1 with its six m.o.a. dot can be a real benefit. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) My first introduction to red dots on rifles was when friends Dr. Joe Greenfield and African PH Joey O’Bannon put open-emitter reflex sights on their big-bore doubles. Both were reaching the point where they couldn’t resolve express sights well enough to use them effectively, and they needed something for fast shooting at close range with their .500 Nitro Express doubles.
I thought optical sights looked weird on classic doubles. So I scoffed and teased them, but I was younger then. With practice, the non-magnifying reflex sight is more versatile than you might think, and the Greenfield/O’Bannon team loved their red-dot sights and used them on several safaris .
With red-dot sights, what you see is pretty much what you get. You are looking through glass, so the quality of the glass matters. I prefer top-quality enclosed-emitter sights that, like riflescopes, incorporate coated lenses that reduce reflection and enhance light transmission. As with a good riflescope, you can see better through top-quality coated glass than with your naked eye, especially in low light.
Night vision also deteriorates with age. Young or old, light is a primary limitation for iron sights, and it can cost you a shot, but a good red-dot sight offers pre-dawn to deep dusk visibility, which is just what hunters want.
Both Eyes Open Sometimes it’s necessary to take a running shot, as Boddington did on this feral hog. It was taken on a dead run with a .30-30 and a sight with a two m.o.a. dot. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) Left-handed and left-eye-dominant, I’ve always shot all firearms with both eyes open. This is generally considered better, regardless of platform or discipline. Especially in field shooting, the binocular vision advantages of peripheral vision and depth perception cannot be overestimated. However, lots of good shooters who lack strong eye dominance or are cross-eye-dominant must close one eye, especially with a magnifying scope.
The reflex sight drives us to shoot with both eyes open. This is critical when hunting dangerous game, where the greatest danger is often from the buffalo or elephant you don’t see until it’s too late.
I’m not going to explain how the reflex sight works, but I can suggest how to best use it. Like scopes, most reflex sights require specific sight-to-platform mounts. Today we’re seeing all manner of bolt-action and lever-action rifles shipping with optics rails on their receivers, and these make it simple to install a red-dot sight. However, said sight needs to have a rail-mount interface, and you need to be sure the sight you’re considering is designed specifically for a rail or includes a rail adapter.
Current doubles are usually optics compatible, and I had an Aimpoint installed on my Sabatti .450-31⁄4 double courtesy of a Contessa detachable mount. But older doubles are not compatible. I helped a friend set up a .470 double by having JJ Perodeau mill small, nearly invisible dovetails into the rib just behind the front sight. Onto that was installed a Trijicon RMR reflex.
Bulletproof Build Quality With practice—and an accurate rifle—groups fired with reflex sights are often smaller than the area subtended by the dot. This group was fired with an Aimpoint Hunter with a two m.o.a. dot. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) As with scopes, the quality and ruggedness of the sight and mount are important. That said, my experience is that good reflex sights are almost bulletproof. I’ve had trouble with inexpensive reflex sights going out of zero, but I’ve yet to have this issue with a good-quality unit.
Zeroing is much the same as with scopes. While you might suspect that a dot is bass-ackwards because it’s projected, not mechanical like a scope’s crosshair, don’t overthink it. Just do what we human males have so much trouble with: Read the directions. “Up” moves the strike of the bullet up; “right” moves it right, and so forth. Since the reflex is not intended as a precise long-range sight, adjustments are coarse, often one m.o.a.
The lighted dot is fixed in size, although today some red dots offer the ability to select a different reticle type: dot, circle or circle/dot. Regardless, the “reticle” is adjustable for brightness, and some sights provide a setting that automatically accounts for ambient light.
You need to play with this and see what you like. In bright light, you need higher intensity; turn it down in dimmer light. Me, I want it bright because, whether a reflex or a riflescope’s illuminated reticle, the whole point is a bold, fast aiming point—but not so bright that it shocks the eye.
Dot Size The actual size of the dot varies among manufacturers, with some offering choices, generally from two to four m.o.a. for sights designed for long guns. A three m.o.a. dot subtends, or covers, three inches at 100 yards. That’s big enough to be bold and visible.
In concept, the dot is much like the front sight with iron sights. The smaller the dot or front sight, the less of the target is subtended and the finer the aiming point. The larger the dot or front sight, the more of the target is obscured and the less precise the aim but the faster the target acquisition.
It seems to me the eye naturally centers the circular dot on the aiming point. So with an accurate rifle actual groups are often smaller than the target area theoretically covered by the dot.
On single-barrel rifles I’ve usually used reflexes with two-minute dots. They’re bold enough and fast enough for hunting. However, I think a larger dot is worth considering for larger vital zones and many hunting applications.
Close Range For most of us, a three, 3.5 or four m.o.a. dot will do. When we were working on my friend’s double, Aimpoint had just come out with its S1 shotgun sight with a big six m.o.a. dot. That sounds huge, and it is. We only use that rifle for big stuff and are unlikely to take it deer hunting.
It doesn’t matter that the dot covers six inches at 100 yards. It’s still within the vital zone of anything we’ll hunt with the rifle. So far we’ve shot several buffaloes with it. It’s bold and fast, and groups on paper are smaller than the dot.
Anything new and unfamiliar takes practice. However, since the reflex sight requires the eye to do less work, I’m convinced that, once you get the hang of it, you’ll find target acquisition is faster than with any iron sight. Whether it’s faster than a magnifying scope depends on distance and size of target.
If you need magnification to properly identify your target and find the aiming point, then you are beyond the range where the reflex is superior to a magnifying scope. But that depends on what and where—and you.
No Limit? Provided you can resolve the target and aiming point, the red dot has no real limit. Several years ago, colleague Colorado Buck used a reflex sight to take a magnificent Stone ram. I’m not sure why he chose that sight, but he made an awesome shot. I have to say I’m unlikely to take a reflex sight on a serious mountain hunt.
Kansas friend Bobby Dierks bought a big Henry lever-action .45-70. He mounted a Leupold reflex sight. On opening day, he started in a tree stand overlooking a thick creek bottom, a perfect spot for a big lever-action and a reflex sight. After dawn, the wind turned wrong, so he moved to another stand overlooking an open canyon.
It was no longer a good place for either a .45-70 or a red-dot sight, but when a buck gave him a 200-yard shot, he put the red dot on top of the back line and dumped the buck with a single 325-grain Hornady FTX. It turned out to be the buck of a lifetime—it made Boone & Crockett’s records—and the shot of a lifetime.
I’m happy I haven’t had to make a shot like that with a reflex sight, but it’s clearly not impossible. Most of my shots with reflex sights have been on larger game and almost always at close range. On dark animals like boars and buffaloes, the bright red dot is fast and bold. It was equally so on my one and only polar bear, like a beacon on the white hide.
Running Shots In the U.S., we tend to avoid running shots. In Europe, where driven hunts are popular, animals are always moving. European hunters love the reflex sight because the bold red dot is so easy to swing with the animal. Mind you, they practice running shots, which we rarely do.
I don’t claim European-level skill, but I’ve made numerous running shots with red dots here in the States, in Europe and in Africa. I’m not advocating shooting moving animals but, if you must, at close ranges there’s nothing better than a reflex sight.
One worry we have is battery life. It’s almost the same with a scope with a battery-powered illuminated reticle except that when a scope battery goes dead the scope is still functional. Forget to replace the battery on your reflex, and you’re done.
Aimpoint suggests 50,000 hours run time on its sights that use the nickel-shaped CR2032 battery. That’s more than 2,000 days or 5.5 years. Other reflexes are rated at even longer run times. You don’t have to remember very often.
Battery Life Although battery life is a valid concern with any device that uses batteries, reflexes use little power, with run time often measured in years. Still, it’s a good idea to turn off your sight when you’re not using it and replace batteries periodically. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) It’s important to turn off your reflex when it’s not in use. I often forget to do this, but I have yet to run one dry. However, instead of tempting fate and finding out just how long a battery lasts, I change batteries periodically—just like I do with rangefinders, flashlights and all other battery-dependent devices.
While I’ve found reflex sights fast and effective for hunting a variety of game under a variety of conditions, I use them only if I’m confident I can get a close shot. Several years ago, PH Mark Haldane and I were out on a Mozambique floodplain on a white-hot midday. We got into a nice herd of buffaloes and crawled as close as we could, but we ran out of cover—and bovine patience—just beyond 100 yards.
The buffaloes were packed together, nervous and jockeying positions. I had my Sabatti .450 NE with the Aimpoint, and there was an awesome bull in the press, but without magnification I couldn’t be certain I was on the correct bull. I had to take the rifle off the sticks, place it between my knees, lift the binoculars to verify, then switch back to the rifle. I never got a shot.
In that moment, 100 yards was too far for the red-dot sight. This wasn’t the sight’s problem. It was altogether mine, because I needed to visually isolate the correct animal. In that situation, I needed magnification. It was a good lesson, with no harm done. The herd eventually broke up, and I got a clear shot at the bull at about 75 yards and pasted him.
Practice and Practicality This is not to suggest the red dot is limited to 100 yards. Hardly. With practice, longer shooting is practical and, over time, you will find that your range envelope expands and your groups shrink. However, the reflex is not like a riflescope with variable magnification. The sight can stretch out, but you can only hit what you can see clearly. This depends on your visual acuity as well as the light conditions, the size of the target and the type of background.
I love red dots, and I find myself hunting with them more all the time, but I keep my shots close.
