CZ Shadow 1 with red dot

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Sharps '74

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I mounted a Leupold red dot on my wife's CZ shadow and shot it today in IPSC practice after sighting it in for her. She's visiting her grand kids and gave me permission ...... ;>)

Shooting a group after '0', I believe that I could have shot a tighter group with irons.

Shot a difficult stage (2 pepper poppers and several small steel plates) clean twice with it (!!!) but slower than I would have with iron sights.

I'm told there is a learning curve (about 1000 rds!) to become comfortable with a red dot. Is this normal or am I just too set in my ways?

Not sure I'd want one on any of my guns, but it was fun. I feel confident about hitting a small target with it but would have to work to get my speed up.
 
I had a red dot on my CZ shadow 1, took it out once, got home and took it off. On the other hand, my browning buckmark has a red dot and it shoots like a laser.

Difference one is reciprocating while the other is fixed.
 
I have one on a 1911 45, had a 9mm as well that I sold, I like them, But it takes a while and I don't shoot that much these days.
After I got my eyes done a few years back, I can see GOOD open sights again, For bulls eye , I can shoot better with the steel sights, but if the light is not good ,Red dot, Mine is a 6m, a smaller would be better for target work, I think for the little bit of steel I have used it , My score would be higher, faster???????
I find you have to break your wrist more to find the dot, but my sights sit high .
 
I shot a Shadow for 4 years in Production before adding a dot and going to Production Optics. It took me two seasons and I still swear I would be faster from 10 yards and in with irons and don't get me started on odd shooting positions and strong hand/weak hand and finding the dot. Outside 15 yards the dot is significantly faster. If I was more committed to the process and did some regular dry fire my issues of finding the dot would have been a faster curve but you get what you put in for effort.

Also as a previous poster mentioned you need to commit to going 100% target focused. The best practice is to tape over the back side of the optic so you can't see through it, if the dot doesn't appear on the target you are looking through the optic instead of looking at the target and super imposing the dot.
 
Sharps '74 said:
I mounted a Leupold red dot on my wife's CZ shadow and shot it today in IPSC practice after sighting it in for her. She's visiting her grand kids and gave me permission ...... ;>)

Shooting a group after '0', I believe that I could have shot a tighter group with irons.

Shot a difficult stage (2 pepper poppers and several small steel plates) clean twice with it (!!!) but slower than I would have with iron sights.

I'm told there is a learning curve (about 1000 rds!) to become comfortable with a red dot. Is this normal or am I just too set in my ways?

Not sure I'd want one on any of my guns, but it was fun. I feel confident about hitting a small target with it but would have to work to get my speed up.
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I had a similar experience yesterday shooting an IDPA match with about 3 mags worth of " red dot practice " beforehand lol. I shot my G34 with a 3moa Burris FF3 on it. I enjoyed it but I have no doubt I'm faster with irons at this point, although I can see the possibility of improving greatly with the red dot, I liked it a lot. I probably would have done a bit better with a 6moa dot, a lot less movement in the dot compared to the 3moa from what I'm told. All in all it was a good experience, I did take more down points than usual, but I can certainly see that tightening up as I get used to a red dot on a pistol :)
 
I had a red dot on a Ruger .22 years ago and I really liked it for deliberate shooting.

Two of the AR15s in this household wear red dots with none of the above problems associated with pistols.

I put this red dot on my wife's gun as she has a vision problem (astigmatism). We'll see how she fares with it later this week.

In the meantime, it's still iron sights for me! I don't want to put the time and ammo into adapting to the red dot.
 
I shot a match last weekend at my club here in Victoria with a Shadow 1 with the bouncing dot in Production Optics.I am a dyed in the wool 1911 Standard Major shooter for the last thirty years so this will take some getting use to.The last dot on a hand gun I had was in Quesnel many years ago when my eyes were much quicker to adapt.If I stay in this division it will take practice and get away from iron sights so the old brain can adjust.Good clean fun though.
Dave G
 
Chilidip said:
I shot a Shadow for 4 years in Production before adding a dot and going to Production Optics. It took me two seasons and I still swear I would be faster from 10 yards and in with irons and don't get me started on odd shooting positions and strong hand/weak hand and finding the dot. Outside 15 yards the dot is significantly faster. If I was more committed to the process and did some regular dry fire my issues of finding the dot would have been a faster curve but you get what you put in for effort.

Also as a previous poster mentioned you need to commit to going 100% target focused. The best practice is to tape over the back side of the optic so you can't see through it, if the dot doesn't appear on the target you are looking through the optic instead of looking at the target and super imposing the dot.
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I am afraid you lost me there, I don't understand what you mean by taping over the sight, You would not see the dot or target, guess I am missing you meaning.
 
marshall said:
I am afraid you lost me there, I don't understand what you mean by taping over the sight, You would not see the dot or target, guess I am missing you meaning.
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The dot does not actually go on the target like a laser, your brain is super imposing the dot onto the target as you are target focused. If you put tape over the backside of the dot and your eyes are correctly focused on the target and not looking through the actual optic window the dot will appear on the target, if you are looking through the optic window there will be no dot on target. The biggest hurdle I found was after so many years of iron sights and front sight focus that my focal depth would shift back to the front of the gun from the target, usually after I changed positions or reloaded.
 
Chilidip said:
The dot does not actually go on the target like a laser, your brain is super imposing the dot onto the target as you are target focused. If you put tape over the backside of the dot and your eyes are correctly focused on the target and not looking through the actual optic window the dot will appear on the target, if you are looking through the optic window there will be no dot on target. The biggest hurdle I found was after so many years of iron sights and front sight focus that my focal depth would shift back to the front of the gun from the target, usually after I changed positions or reloaded.[/

I still don't get it, if you have the gun up in proper position you will not see the target as the taped over sight will block it, to see the target you have to see through the sight, red dot or no red dot. I can just turn it off.
If you had high sights and low mount so you irons showed up in the window, which I don't have , than I could see that helping as you would still hold as you did before the RMR
You will see it with your other eye , but my other eye ( left ) is no damn good , so I can't shoot left hand, unless I move my head, but that is a different issue. Mine is not enough practice.
I shot informal BE for years, so I know sights , steel is a new thing to me since I moved to town, and I do know what a laser is, sold a few in the trade.
With my model 19 I can look at a bulls eye, close my eyes bring the gun up, open my eyes and usally I will be in the black, but that is with that one 4 inch gun.
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Ahhhh..... I get it now. He means both eyes open so you’ll see the target no matter what. Covering up the optic shouldn’t affect seeing the target in that case.

My eyes are screwed, so I need to close one eye, so this wouldn’t work for me.
 
Your dominant eye will be looking through the optic window and the non-dominant eye will be looking past it to the target surface. Use black tape or card on the back side of the optic window. This creates basically a reflex sight, and trains the eye to remain in target focus. You never want to be focusing on the dot.
 
The whole goal of using a Red Dot Optic and shooting quickly like the OP asked about is to train your eyes to focus on the target and you can't do that if you are focusing on the dot. The goal is to train to keep your eyes on the target and your brain will superimpose the dot on the target. relliot basically explained it as well. Put some tape over the back of your optic and setup a target at a decent distance, then bring the gun up while keeping your eyes focused on the target, the dot will appear even with the optic backside covered.
 
Chilidip said:
I shot a Shadow for 4 years in Production before adding a dot and going to Production Optics. It took me two seasons and I still swear I would be faster from 10 yards and in with irons and don't get me started on odd shooting positions and strong hand/weak hand and finding the dot. Outside 15 yards the dot is significantly faster. If I was more committed to the process and did some regular dry fire my issues of finding the dot would have been a faster curve but you get what you put in for effort.

Also as a previous poster mentioned you need to commit to going 100% target focused. The best practice is to tape over the back side of the optic so you can't see through it, if the dot doesn't appear on the target you are looking through the optic instead of looking at the target and super imposing the dot.
Click to expand...
I've had 3 years of IPSC, (about 8 matches/yr), and some IDPA, and shoot well with irons. Just put a dot on my Shadow and don't have much through it and no matches. In playing around, I'm finding my slow fire precision is insane with the dot, but fast target transitions are slower because I'm getting so much information from the dot moving around, and that delays my shooting. My brain doesn't register that precision with irons, so I'll lob off shots that are "good enough", and they usually are.

Does that description make sense? Was your experience similar?
 
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