Offset Red Dot for Hunting?

[jcfowler93]

I've seen folks in the PRS community put offset red dots on their rifles for faster target acquisition. Curious to see if there are any hunters put there that have used this for hunting? Is this a useful tool for hunting?

 

[TaperPin]

I’ve used a red dot mounted on a spotting scope and it was much easier to get to a specific point. On a rifle, I would think it helps inexperienced shooters that don’t have a good target acquisition technique when shouldering the rifle. I’m guessing the biggest downside, other than weight and bulk, is it trains someone to line up based on an offset optic, complicating what should be rather instinctual and simple.

Shooting prairie dogs, it’s easy to see which shooters have good acquisition skills with high magnification and which hunt side to side in the scope - the longer you do something like this the better you get, but good technique from day one greatly shortens the learning curve.

 

[Mark.c]

If you use a variable optic with a low minimum power setting like 2.5x or 3x it’s probably unnecessary. Maybe 4x or greater it may be helpful

 

[2Stamp]

I use one on an AR I use for coyotes. It's offset at a 45degree to the primary optic. It's primarily for those occasions something pops up close where the mag on a scope can be problematic (think those targets that if you had a shotgun it would be perfect). It's pretty quick and accurate.

 

[fwafwow]

Thanks for this thread. I've got an AR that is set up for home defense, but I am also thinking about using it for hunting (and I have a few SWFA scopes laying around - 3-9, 3-15, 6x and 10x). I would prefer to not completely remove the red dot on there, and an offset might permit me to keep it set up for HD and take it hunting.

 

[GiantGreg]

Got one on a fixed 6x swfa. Great in heavy woods where a 2or 3 is too much


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[fwafwow]

Got one on a fixed 6x swfa. Great in heavy woods where a 2or 3 is too much


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Thank you. If you have a side view picture of how it’s mounted, that would be most appreciated.

 

[TaperPin]

Who knew the guys holding their Glocks sideways to pop caps in some asses were just practicing for an offset reddot.

It honestly does sound interesting - after watching an AR match and how fast they were transitioning between the red dot and primary scope I’ve been looking forward to trying it for timber hunting.

 

[Sadler]

Seems unnecessary to me. Keep your zoom at the low end while you’re walking and you’ll be good. You’ll be able to accurately see and acquire your target faster in your scope rather than trying to find it inside a 3/4” window attached to the front end of your scope. Reason I say that is because if you aren’t lined up behind it right (assuming this shot needs to happen now) you may have to hunt for that red dot for a half second and by then the shot opportunity is gone. Canting the rifle may hit your shoulder strap which throws the alignment off or whatever. Don’t get me wrong, it looks cool but I think it may lead to more missed opportunities than successful ones. But if you train with it a lot, maybe it’s a good option.

 

[lefthandedasian]

This was the first year I tried running my hunting rifle with a fixed SWFA 10x. We planned to hunt some open country this year, but after some discussion with my buddies we decided elsewhere and that area happen to have a lot more forest and a good amount of clear cuts as well. So instead of pulling the 10x off and exchanging it with one of my other variables I just added an offset red dot for the hell of it just in case I had a deer come within 100 yards since we planned to mostly hunt the clear cuts.

Long story short, I was able to fill both my tags using both sights. The first deer popped out at less than 10 yards and the other was out at 380. They were filled on separate outings, but still it was nice to not have the extra fiddle factor of zooming in or out on top of dialing my drops.

Can't argue with the results, but still not sure if this is how I will run the rifle forever.