The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

Poodleshooter · June 30, 2011, 12:29 PM

Two options for rails:
1. Regular rail that replaces your rear sight. This precludes use of sights. Cost is about $20-30 from several manufacturers such as B-Square.
2. Picatinny rail with imbedded rear sight. Only TacSolutions makes these currently. They run $65-75.

I recently stuck a huge old ATN red dot reflex sight on my Buckmark, after suppressing it. It's nice for late night trash can possums when irons would be invisible or too slow to use.
My chief problem with compact red dots is that most are made for shotguns or centerfire rifles, and use huge 3-8 MOA reticles that aren't suited for the tiny targets my Buckmark will be shooting. Finding adjustable sized "dot only" reticles cuts your choices down. Finding dot only and tiny size is rather tough.

The Primary Arms micro dot reflex sight, the Primary Arms regular microdot, the Vortex Sparc and the Burris Fastfire are all just barely in your price range. Those are all a step above the $30-$50 "BSA type" red dots that you find at Walmart and sporting goods box stores.

Don't expect $30-100 red dots to do that well. Sometimes you get lucky, but it's rare. Even $100-200 red dots, while ok, are not going to suffer being knocked around like $400+ Aimpoints and Eotechs.

June 30, 2011, 12:29 PM	#3
Poodleshooter Senior Member Join Date: August 7, 2000 Location: Floating down the James River in VA Posts: 2,599	Two options for rails: 1. Regular rail that replaces your rear sight. This precludes use of sights. Cost is about $20-30 from several manufacturers such as B-Square. 2. Picatinny rail with imbedded rear sight. Only TacSolutions makes these currently. They run $65-75. I recently stuck a huge old ATN red dot reflex sight on my Buckmark, after suppressing it. It's nice for late night trash can possums when irons would be invisible or too slow to use. My chief problem with compact red dots is that most are made for shotguns or centerfire rifles, and use huge 3-8 MOA reticles that aren't suited for the tiny targets my Buckmark will be shooting. Finding adjustable sized "dot only" reticles cuts your choices down. Finding dot only and tiny size is rather tough. The Primary Arms micro dot reflex sight, the Primary Arms regular microdot, the Vortex Sparc and the Burris Fastfire are all just barely in your price range. Those are all a step above the $30-$50 "BSA type" red dots that you find at Walmart and sporting goods box stores. Don't expect $30-100 red dots to do that well. Sometimes you get lucky, but it's rare. Even $100-200 red dots, while ok, are not going to suffer being knocked around like $400+ Aimpoints and Eotechs.