Red Dots Suitable for Shotguns | Optics Trade Debates

By Polona Kraner Aug 1, 2018

Welcome to Optics Trade debates. In each episode, we talk about a different topic and try to answer the most common questions we receive about it. Today, we are going to discuss shotgun red dot sights.

It’s a new concept for producers to be making red dots which are specifically made for shotguns. There were some products in the past that were made for tactical shotguns, but now most red dots that are made for shotguns, are being used for hunting.

When there were no dedicated shotgun red dots on the market, people started mounting normal centerfire red dots onto their shotguns. As this became a trend, manufacturers started producing red dots specifically meant to be used on shotguns. One of the first shotgun specific sights was Redring from Sweden.

The users always knew that having a red dot on a shotgun helps with efficiency and accuracy. But the main problem with conventional red dot sights was mounting. For a normal red dot to be mounted, a Picatinny rail needed to be mounted on top of the shotgun rib, then the red dot would be mounted with a normal mount. All that meant that the red dot would be positioned quite high and that resulted in a really high line of sight.

All shotgun dedicated red dots feature an integrated direct shotgun rib mount. They are all positioned really low.

These sights feature mostly 5 MOA and 6 MOA sized dots.

The mounting solution on the Aimpoint Micro S-1 is suitable for 6 mm to 15 mm shotgun rails. It has inserts that adjust the mounting solution so that it suits your rifle perfectly.

With Noblex, the sight is pushed to the right and screwed in.

Different manufacturers produce different types of mounting solutions.

A lot of shotgun sights don’t have windage and elevation adjustment. The only way they can be adjusted is with the mounting. This isn’t that big of a problem because high accuracy is not that important in shotguns. The only two red dots that have adjustable windage and elevation are the Aimpoint S-1 and the Redring.

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