Good budget red laser?

Oysterboy

New member
I want to get a red laser for my Hi-Point 4095ts carbine. It had a weaver/picatinny rail under the barrel. I've looked at lasers til it ran out of my ears. I've looked at reviews and ratings and I can't make up my mind what to get.

Wanna tell me about your favorites?

Budget? Up to $80. Maybe more if I have to.

My purpose is HD and I have my red dot sighted at 10-15 yards. The laser is for night time sighting.

And thanks for any info y'all can give me. :)
 
I bought a red laser at Walmart for less than ten bucks. lol I am a tightwad. It seems to work ok on my Archangel .22. Don't know how it would hold up with any larger caliber as it is sold for Airsoft guns. I intend to try it on my AR when I get a chance. gunslinger gary wilcox
 
Oysterboy said:
My purpose is HD and I have my red dot sighted at 10-15 yards. The laser is for night time sighting.
The red dot should work at night also. Using both a laser and a red dot seems a little redundant to me.
 
Oysterboy said:
I wasn't going to use the red dot at night.
I figured that. But my question is "why"? You already have a red dot that works during the day and at night. So why buy a laser also?

By the way, I'm not trying to be critical, it's an honest question.
 
I guess I should clarify. The red dot has a circle as well as a dot. It's blinding at night. Even at the lowest intensity the target is too dark for it. My scope is 1x so there's no light gathering ability even though the manual says it has.
 
OK, that makes sense. Because most red dot sights work fine at night; they do essentially the same thing as a laser. But if your red dot doesn't work at night then it makes sense to use something else. Though I'd caution against using two different sighting systems depending on how much ambient light there is.

The key to a good HD gun is simplicity. I already don't like anything you need to turn on (the Aimpoint PRO on my HD rifle is always on); that just adds one or two precious seconds if you need to defend your home quickly. And if you're flustered enough, that can easily turn into even more than just a few seconds if you fumble with the switch.

But having two different sights and needing to decide which one to turn on adds a whole other level of complexity. It's yet another thing to think about when you're grabbing your rifle to defend your family: Do you really want to have to think about whether to turn on the red dot or the laser? What if it's dusk? These decisions seem easy right now, but in the heat of the moment it's just going to add to your stress and potentially slow down your response.

Then comes the shooting aspect; you're going to be shooting your gun using two different techniques: With the red dot you're looking through the sight and seeing a reticle, and with the laser you're looking at the target and seeing a dot.

Your setup seems needlessly complicated for HD use. I highly recommend just going with one sighting system for your rifle, whether it's a laser you use during both the day and night, or a better red dot that works for the night time also.
 
What I can do is use the position in the scope (without the dot) to acquire the sight.

The dot doesn't move so I know pretty well where the dot would be. :p

Oh yeah, the laser will have an instant on switch on the forearm of my carbine. I have a laser/light rig but the laser can't be adjusted for sighting so that's why I'm looking for an adjustable laser.

The red dot can used for long range shooting so I'll just use the laser for SD both day and night and set for close range. Well in fact, at any range as I want to make it parallel to the bore.
 
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Oysterboy said:
Oh yeah, the laser will have an instant on switch on the forearm of my carbine.
That's definitely better than a switch on the unit itself.

Oysterboy said:
I'll just use the laser for SD both day and night and set for close range.
That's a good idea. Simplicity always a good thing in SD situations.

Oysterboy said:
What I can do is use the position in the scope (without the dot) to acquire the sight.
If that's the case, why not just get a better red dot? Lasers have several downsides compared to red dots, and their only real advantage is that you don't need to be looking through the optic to see the dot. But if you're going to always look through the optic anyway, then you have all the disadvantages of a laser without any advantages.
 
I guess I'll just take the red dot off and put my iron sights back on.

I paid $70 for the red dot and it's a cheap unit. Oh well, another life's lesson.
 
Yeah, the advantage of a red dot is that it's faster than iron sights. But unless you buy a higher-end red dot with a small, clear dot and no parallax issues, your iron sights will be more accurate.
 
Just an update. Ordered the suggested green laser. Shipping is free, but takes a month! These are apparently coming directly from China. gunslinger
 
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