Off duty carry...

[Citadelgrad87]

For me as a 59 year old CCW holder, NOT leo, it's a vision thing.

I NEED reading glasses to see my front sight. AT that point, the target is out of focus badly because of the readers.

With a red (actually, green) dot, I am now free to focus on the TARGET and I can just put the dot where I need it. My distant vision is fine.

For older shooters, I would think this would get more press.

[WOODY2]

As you just posted, the key is practice. Nothing (no technology) will replace muscle memory when point shooting. Practice at 7 yards and closer.

I concur, the round pretty much is going where your 2 thumbs are pointing.

[kofbattle]

As it pertains to RDS not making “poor shooters into good shooters” I would basically agree but may I relate an anecdote…..

on Friday I went to my departments training facility to qualify with my off duty but didn’t have an appointment. So I had to hang around, shoot the ****, and hope someone was a no show or bailed out so that range staff could hopefully work me into a firing line.
What I noticed was that a lot of newer deputies, on the suggestion from the range staff, had recently switched to the Sig Sauer p365x-macro with a RDS’s. It seemed to be the “in” gun amongst the 5 groups I watched qualify. Having elevated my interest, I paid more attention than usual to shooters targets and their groupings from the session. What I saw was people who had in the recent past difficulty in keeping all rounds in the black at 15 yards now putting most inside the 8 and 9 rings. In talking to one gal,who almost always had to come back to remediate when using irons,she told me no doubt that RDS made all the difference in her shooting. She said iputting her shot on target accurately was now “easy” compared to “hoping” she made good hits and had no flyers.
I don’t know personally from experience on a handgun(just long guns) but I know what I seemed to observe. I saw people who previously had trouble qualifying , now pass with good groupings, and very importantly have confidence going in that they would shoot well. After talking to the Range Master and hearing of rising successful qual rates, I am sort of persuaded.

Loopsb, great information.

I am a fed with over 13 years on. Mil before that. The first 9 years of my LEO career, I shot with irons and was a decent shot. I went to FLETC last year for the Firearms Instructor Training Program (FITP). What I think we need to explicitly state is that you don't take away the fundamentals before switching to RDS. You add to it.

Another individual here posted that their eyes have worsened over time and that RDS's help with target acquisition. I have been nearsighted all my life and in 2008 got eye surgery through the Army. Then in 2014 or 2015 my vision need deteriorated and I now wear glasses again full time. The one factor, taking away all other shooting variables, is what happens when you line up your sights (both irons and RDS). For irons, you first look at the target, then line up your front sight, then ensure that the front sight is properly spaced in contrast to your rear sights, then you focus on the front sight making the target blurry, and this is considered the correct sight picture.

With RDS, you focus on the target, bring up the dot on the target where you want to hit, but keep focusing on the target, and then fire when ready. Especially at further ranges, this eye focus transition is faster for everyone with an RDS if you train with it properly. It took me several thousand rounds and hours of dryfire to deprogram my brain from the way I was taught to use irons.

Now, going back to the original posters issue with RDS on an off-duty gun, I will say that my duty gun is a Glock 19 with Holosun 507k and TLR-7. I am able to carry this IWB with my JM Custom Kydex holster. Before, I would carry a stock G19 in a MiltSparks VM2. Trying to compare apples to apples, I did not find that the addition of my RDS and light significantly impact how much I print, weight, bulk, or other factors when off-duty carrying. That being said, when I do not want that size pistol on me, I pocket carry a Ruger LCP Max and that definitely does not have an RDS.

There definitely isn't an all-or-nothing rule and each person is different with their body type, size, eyes, training, funds available, and other variables that each person has to consider. I think the reason we have 4 pages of discussion on this topic is, that we are not providing all that info to each other and, therefore, cannot get a complete enough picture of each other's opinions.

My 2 cents.