Good vs. Bad Red Dot Sights

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Good vs. Bad Red Dot Sights

My friend and I made an observation regarding the quality of red dot sight today. He had sighted his a laser sight on a gun a while back. Just two days ago, he also gotten a red dot sight for the same gun. Using the laser sight at 30 meters, he zeroed in the red dot sight. After he's done, he noticed that at the center of the red dot sight lens, the two dots directly overlap each other. But when he moved his head so that they dots are no longer at the center of the sight, the two dots no longer overlap each other. When he swirled his gun around the red dot in the sight moved in a circle around the laser sight dot. He asked me whether I had that problem with my red dot sight.

I had a red dot sight on my airsoft gun for quite some time now. I had never mounted a laser sight on it. But for this test, I mounted a laser sight and zeroed the laser sight to the red dot sight so that the dots overlap. I swirled the gun around, but the two dots are always aligned (overlapping).

This comparison made us realize that one factor to determine whether a red dot sight is a good one is whether its collimating mirror (the lens that reflects the red dot to your eye) is curved correctly. Our guess is that my friend's red dot sight does not have the correct curvature on its collimating mirror.

Is there another factor that determines a good red dot sight from a bad one? Let us know.

Jake
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:28:46 +0400

Another one: a good red dot sight should not get washed out while aiming at targets under bright sunlight. Recently, we have came across a red dot sight where the red dot is not visible when it is pointed at sunlit object.

Jake
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 23:36:42 +0400

There is a way to test whether a red dot sight will get washed out in sunlight. A good red dot sight front lens will have a nice and shining reflective coating when looking at it from the front. The reflective coating acts as a red light filter. So in sunlight, the red wavelength is filtered out, allowing you to see the red dot clearly.

Using a red laser, point it at a wall. Your eyes should see it brightly. Then look at the laser dot through the red dot sight. If the laser dot is dimmed, then the red dot sight has a red wavelength filter. If you can see the red laser dot clearly through the red dot sight, then it doesn't have a reflective filter (or at least one that is good enough).

A good red dot sight will have this reflective filter. A bad red dot sight will not and its red dot will be washed out in sunlight.

Jake
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 00:37:33 +0300

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