Well, dot sights are great for fast target acquisition.
I'd shy away from using one in a social setting unless I knew that the sight was sufficiently durable enough to handle combat stress (e.g., Trijicon ACOG, Aimpoint Comp M-XD).
The ACOG is a particularly nice combat sight. Very durable and no batteries to worry about. But a bit pricey ($750 or more!). The Aimpoint uses batteries but it's tough as nails and has been adopted by the Army as the M68 CCO sight. The batteries are rated at 100-1,000 hours (no joke). The Aimpoint is a bit more economical ($300-350) than the ACOG.
For competition, if you want to shoot in IPSC Three Gun Open class, you might as well put a dot scope on all your guns -- after all, the rules say that if you've got one gun in Open class, all your guns shoot in Open class.
The Benelli M1 Practical has a built-in rail. I have not seen another gun (except for the M4 which isn't out yet) that has a built-in rail.
Good competition sights include the Bushnell HOLOsight (or EOTech, whoever makes them) and the C-More Railway. These are both HUD type sights which make for lightning fast target acquisition. Both sell for around $250-300. The HUD type display is not very durable in combat, however ....
Justin
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Justin T. Huang, Esq.
late of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
[This message has been edited by jthuang (edited May 19, 2000).]
