Red dots

Red dot optics are getting more and more popular, especially for pistol shooting. Why? Well because it is much easier to achieve great shooting results, if you shoot simply where the red dot is,  comapred to alligning classic pistol sights. 

To make sense of the red dots, you need to know two things:

1. There are different red dots for pistols and for rifles

You can often use pistol red dot on a rifle if you get a Picatinny adapter mount for that red dot. However, you will have very difficult time attaching rifle optic on a pistol. Why? Because of few things. First - rifle red dots are usually from factory equipped with Picatinny mounting. And you will not attach Picatinny to a pistol, there is no way how to do ti. And second, the rifle red dots are usually much larger, making it very impractical to use them on small pistol. 

2. Different red dots use different footprints

That applies foremostly to pistol red dots, but you will find also many rifle red dots using different mounting platforms (most of them have Picatinny mount in the package though). 

What is a red dot footprint? 

In short - it is a unique set of pin holes and screw holes. And in order to install a red dot, you need to have an adpater with matching position of pins and screw holes. If you dont have matching adapter, it will simply not fit and you will not be able to install it to your gun. 

What red dot adapters exist?

We separete it into three:

• Optics Ready plates - those are made for Optics Ready pistols. You can recognize them that the adapter does not have any part that would fit into dovetail cut of the rear sight
• Red dot mounts - those are made for classic pistols that are not Optics Ready. These mounts always have a part on the bottom that is supposed to fit into the dovetail cut of a rear sight of the model for which it was designed. 
• Picatinny red dot mounts - those are simply mounts that will allow you to install that red dot to a Picatinny rail (Picatinny base).

You can install the very same red dot on all these types of mounts, as long as the mount uses compatible footprint. In another words, you can use the same red dot for your "optics ready" pistol, for your classic "old school" pistol for dovetail mounting, and for your rifle with Picatinny rail on the top of it.

Types of red dot footprints

There is 7 most common red dot footprints. It may be named differently based on the manufacturer, but if you inspect it little bit, you will find it is most probably one of those seven footprints listed below: 

• Trijicon RMR footprint - most popular footprint for full size red dots
• Vortex Venom (Docter) footprint - over time less and less commonly used footprint for full size red dots
• C-More RTS footprint - footprint used for top competition red dots
• Aimpoint Acro footprint - most rugged footprint for full size red dots
• Shield RMSc footprint - most popular footprint for compact and subcompact red dots
• Leupold DPP footprint - lately more and more popular footprint for compact red dots
• Holosun K-series footprint - footprint used so far only by Holosun for some of its red dots, given the popularity of those red dots its quite popular as well

Dont confuse the name of footprint with compatible red dots

Just because Trijicon RMR footprint has in it the "Trijicon RMR" does not mean it will only work on Trijicon RMR. It is that that red dot popularized that footprint. 

Similarly, it does not mean that all red dots from the same manufacturer - for example Holosun - will fit all its red dots to the footprint that bears his name (e.g. Holosun K-series footprint). 

How to choose the right red dot & adapter setup

First its important to set a budget for the whole setup. 

Second, check what adapters (whether mounts or optics ready plates) will work with your gun. It is possible that there is only one mount existing for your gun, and it only accomodates one footprint. Then you know you have to be choosing from red dots that use that footprint. 

Third, consider for what you want to use the red dot. Is it for every day carry, or for competitive shooting? Or is it just for hobby shooting on a range time from time? Because for everyday carry you may consider compact or subcompact red dot, while for competitive shooting you may prefer larger red dot window with clearer picture.  

Consider all these points, and your list of options will often reduce to few pieces. Then it boils down to your final choice of what you like the most. Some manufacturers fight with price, some with ruggedness, some with reliability, some with lifetime warranty. 

Search for red dot by compatible footprints, by brand, etc

To make the selection easier, for the second step you can use the categories by footprint on our website. Then you can search for only those red dots, that use the footprint you need:

• Red dots with Trijicon RMR footprint
• Red dots with Shield RMSc footprint
• Red dots with Holosun K-series footprint
• Red dots with Leupold DPP footprint
• Red dots with Vortex Venom footprint
• Red dots with C-More RTS footprint
• Red dots with Aimpoint Acro footprint
• Red dots that fit directly to the slide cut