Speedbead mount or Picatinny rail?

COREY

COREY

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
263   0   0
Location
Ottawa, Ontario
I ended up with a respectable price on a used Versamax tactical. The only thing it was missing was the scope rail it would have came with when new (lost somewhere).

I have a Vortex Venom I was about to take off an 870 and order a Picatinny rail to mount it on when I saw the Speedbead mounts that this would fit. Does anyone have any experience with this mount on a tactical shotgun? I was thinking it would be cool to be able to still depend on the bead if the optic gave up.

I have heard of the Versamax stripping threads on the receiver for the rail with scopes and heavy recouping turkey loads; what are some thoughts for a low mass optic like this?
 
Thank you for the link. That is an interesting mount.

Has anyone used these? Can you cowitness with the rail on a Versamax or is it too high?
 
Last edited:
I checked with SFRC and the mount above does not cowitness, nor do they think the bead would even be visible in the red dot screen. It would give a lower sight picture than most rails, but still not as low as the Speedbead.
 
Speedbead is probably the only one that will allow the use of both a dot and the bead. There is no way to get the bead lower than by going off the back of the receiver.
 
The problem with traditional red dots on shotguns is that your field of view is limited to the size of the viewing area. That works fine if aiming at static targets, but goes south very quickly once targets get moving like for example... skeet.

Now I very much surprised a squad of traditional skeet shooters one day when I showed up with a 590A1 with an Armson OEG sight on it.

http://www.armsonusa.com/armsonoeg.html

I was the last one to walk up, and the guys were all complaining to eachother about the upcoming disaster walking over... AKA me.

They took one look at this tactical config and assumed it would do badly.

I got to the 4th position before I missed my first bird.... (I shoot skeet maybe 3-4 times a year BTW) that peeked their interest. Anyway, we had a good laugh about it.

The difference with this sight that makes it so unique is twofold.

1) It takes no batteries... It's fiber optic and has a tritium option for no light situations.

2) Most importantly, it must be used with both eyes open, so there is no predetermined field of view.

It feels like I'm using a red dot, because I see everything with my left eye and only the dot with my right. The two images are combined in your brain so it feels like a laser sight.

This makes it real easy to lead 4 feet or 10 feet if you want and provides a very precise aiming point.

For some reason it also does not cause me to see comets or multiple dot clusters like people get from astigmatism when using laser generated dots.

Another advantage of this sight I think is for people with eye dominance issues and I think it may even provide them with an advantage with this sight. People who are right handed but left eye dominant can use their dominant eye to find the target and non dominant eye for the red dot... I suspect that's better for them.

Here's a video using the sight on a 22LR



Last time I checked, you can order direct from Armson and they will ship to Canada out of Africa or something so there's no USA export issues, so that's a bonus.
 
Last edited:
I picked up a speed bead a few weeks ago while my gun was away at S&J. I just got it back yesterday and mounted the speed bead, I found that I required both of the included risers to cowitness the bead. Doesn't completely ruin the streamline, but definitely not as slick as that low sitting red dot I had pictured.

I've had tube red dots mounted on rails, it worked, but as has been said before, not an effective way of acquiring moving targets.

I'll continue to play with the speed bead, and assess its place on my shotguns. If I like it, I'm likely to suit up other guns. If I don't like it, I'm not the type to commit to a mistake just because I spent a lot of time (or money) making it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom