Red dot vs Pistol scope for 460 SW

[kit_man_duu]

Hello,

I will be getting a Smith & Wesson 460 XVR soon for hunting. I was told that this gun will be 1" low at 200 yards when zeroed at 100 yards. I was looking at various red dots and a pistol scope with 2.5-8x zoom. Is 2.5x too much for hunting at closer ranges (15-30 yards)? So between a pistol scope and a red dot, what do you guys recommend?

Thanks.

 

[n816kc]

I’ve got a 2x Burris on a S&W 686, works great 15 to 100 yards. Red dot on my 22 works well also. Thought about a red dot for the 686 but I like the extra magnification past 50 yards and in thick woods.

Oddly, I don’t think twice about shooting a 357 rifle at 200 yards with a red dot, but wouldn’t even consider shooting the pistol at that range with it. Maybe I need to shoot more

 

[Myronman3]

good luck holding steady with that much gun and magnification. unless you plan on shooting it off a rest each time.

red dot is much easier.

 

[B23]

What about a red dot with a magnifier?

 

[FLAK]

I'd go red dot.

 

[Kobuk]

A couple things I noticed when using a pistol for hunting was that with a scoped handgun I needed a super steady rest but shot it very accurate. It takes some time to get that kind of rest too. Without a rest, it was horible, especially when I had a grizzly do a false charge and I was trying to find him in my scope! haha With a reflex style red dot it was way easier to draw a bead and I never tried a long shot with it. The down fall I had was keeping the rain off of it. I have a cover that I can just pop off but when you get a little rain on that lense you get all kinds of red dots on the screen. I haven't tried the tube style red dot because I was trying to keep the profile down but that may solve the rain problem, just not sure if it is as easy to shoot offhand as the reflex style.

 

[kit_man_duu]

A couple things I noticed when using a pistol for hunting was that with a scoped handgun I needed a super steady rest but shot it very accurate. It takes some time to get that kind of rest too. Without a rest, it was horible, especially when I had a grizzly do a false charge and I was trying to find him in my scope! haha With a reflex style red dot it was way easier to draw a bead and I never tried a long shot with it. The down fall I had was keeping the rain off of it. I have a cover that I can just pop off but when you get a little rain on that lense you get all kinds of red dots on the screen. I haven't tried the tube style red dot because I was trying to keep the profile down but that may solve the rain problem, just not sure if it is as easy to shoot offhand as the reflex style.

So for the purposes of hunting whitetails from 20 yards to 100+ yards, do you think a 2-7x pistol scope would work better? Since the gun weighs 5+ lbs, I don't intend to carry it as sidearm; I would use it as my primary hunting weapon.

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I had bad luck with scopes and red dots on my gun, knocked the reticle loose on two different scopes and one red dot. Im back to iron sights. Go with quality scope not anything cheap. I blew up a burris and leupold scope then tried a buddies vortex red dot and shook the electronics loose on it. I was able to repair the red dot but didnt try anything else. dont remember the models of the scopes but they were not on the higher end

 

[Copen1822]

I have a RMR on my 5" 460. Really like it for out to 75yds or so. If your looking to push past 100 and use it as your primary weapon I'd go with a scope.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[Kobuk]

So for the purposes of hunting whitetails from 20 yards to 100+ yards, do you think a 2-7x pistol scope would work better? Since the gun weighs 5+ lbs, I don't intend to carry it as sidearm; I would use it as my primary hunting weapon.

It depends on your experience with shooting a scoped handgun. Not sure if you tried playing around with one yet, especially in field conditions. It will work great at your ranges if you are able to get a super stable rest. High magnification is very dificult with a handgun vs a rifle. I say to try someones if you haven't already. On the other side, it sure is fun hunting with a handgun. One of the draws for me was weight but if you are reaching 5lbs, holy crap! haha I'll also agree with using a quality scope and rings, lots of recoil with a handgun. That being said, I haven's experienced a failure up to a 454 casull.

 

[elkguide]

Went through Leupold, Refield, Weaver, and Vortex before going back to iron sights on a .460.

As has been said, if you're going to use a scope on your .460 at much over 50 yards, without a lot of practice, (and even then it's tough off hand) you will need a solid rest. If you're looking to still hunt and plan on shooting off hand, definitely go with a red dot. I'd still practice a lot with open sites and carry the tools to be able to take the scope off in the field when it fails. Something about the .460 recoil, combined with the gain twist, that scopes just don't like.

 

[MP43]

This is about as far from a 460 as you can go in a firearm, but doing a side by side with a scoped buckmark 22 and a red dot equipped ruger MkIII, it wasn't even a contest. The red dot was much easier to connect with, well beyond typical handgun ranges. The scoped pistol required a rest to get a fraction of the hits the red dot was capable of.

 

[Baddog]

Got a 460 smith awhile back. What red dots would you guys recommend?

 

[Wildwapiti]

Installed an Aimpoint H2 on a 460 and could not keep the mount from working loose even with locktite. I then move to a Leupold scope and secured it with three rings. Never have had a problem after that. The Aimpoint did not go to waste, as it is mounted on a S&W model 41. It has work perfectly on that gun.

 

[Under_Pressure]

When I looked into it, Ultradot red dots were highly recommend in some handgun forums for big revolvers with heavy recoil. I put one on my 454 Casull Super Redhawk and so far, so good.

 

[Kobuk]

I bought one of the Raptor mounts for my Freedom Arms 83 454 Casull. I am using just the Fastfire III and it works great! So much more accurate with the red dot for me. I also like how small it is on top of my revolver. I have a few handguns with this type of set up and they work well for me. I prefer the smaller dot size, I believe it is 3 mil but not exactly sure.