Red Dot for Waterfowl?

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

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Does anyone out there use red dot or holo sights for waterfowl hunting? I have never used a red dot, and I am unsure if the bright sky will allow for it. I have fluorecent fiber optics on the 870 but am curious if the concept of red dot sights can be applied to waterfowl hunting.

daniel.
 
Don't know if it would work for you. For me it would be disaster. I can't recall ever using the bead on my shotgun other than for smacking cripples and picking the heads off grouse. I tend to concentrate on the bird and let the shotgun do what it does on flying game. I think the red dot would just be a distraction that would eat up valuable seconds in my shooting.
 
I would try it on clay birds first, trap, skeet, or sporting clays, if it doesn't work there it won't work in the duck blind.
 
Reddots are awesome on shotguns... Holosights are even better.
Mounted properly and patterned for distance on a shotgun that fits they are fast and allow for accurate shots even when your gun is shouldered improperly. A good one will only glare out or lose the reddot when pointed almost directly at the sun and it doesn't matter what your sighting with at that point!
They can allow you to judge distance and lead by providing instant perspective on your target. The circle dot retical holosights can take an average or below average shooter and make that shooter deadly in most cases.
They are not for everybody.... but unless you have hunted with or shot one extensively you should not judge.

And yes I have holosights and reddots on several shotguns.....
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I would think one would have a hard time, finding a duck doing 40 mph across the decoys in a red dot type sight.

Holo sights are made more for wingshooting I think.
 
Wouldnt be hard at all to acquire the duck at 40mph as you shoot with both eyes open.I tried one on my buddies gun for trap shooting an it worked pretty good so I cant see it not working on ducks.
 
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ben hunchak said:
Have you tried them on flying targets like skeet or waterfowl?
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I have. A Bushnell Holosite mounted on a Beretta 390. It worked very well on skeet targets, not as well on trap but acceptably. I think the Holosite works better than a red-dot because it doesn't disrupt your peripheral vision as much.

It was a different experience, more like a video game than typical shotgunning. See the target, put the reticle ahead of the clay and fire when it felt right. It was very good for sorting out sustained leads.
 
Reddots and holosights generally have zero magnification therefore they are made to be used with both eyes open. The body of the sight becomes a non-issue when sighting... you just don't notice it anymore.
Wingshooting ducks with these sights is extremely fast, faster than sighting down a barrel and far more accurate than instinctive shooting. Sustained lead and swing through shotgunning are both very easy with these sights.
Shooting clays with a holosight is almost like cheating... I rarely miss a clay bird with mine and it is just no fun after a while.
I just picked up a second generation holosight for my Benelli... and I will put one on the Extrema II when it arrives.
 
I guided a group one day and one of the guys had a red dot on his benelli . I thought he was nuts. You guys have educated me that it was a viable option. It turns out that he just couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bucket :dancingbanana: .
 
Just my 2 cents, but I think that would make a hell of a bad shotgunning habit. (And by no means am I an exceptional shotgunner...)

You might find yourself constantly skunked on upland birds if you got used to an optical sight...

YMMV, but I'll stick to point and shoot myself.
 
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