Reflex Sights on Dangerous Game Rifles

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Elephant Hunting Zimbabwe

• wipartimer
• Mar 5, 2020

I hadn't noticed this thread, but durning our honeymoon safari with @KMG Hunting Safaris , I was talking with Marius about scope recommendations for my CZ 550, .416 Rigby. Marius turned me on to the idea of these. I has a Vortex Venom already mounted on one of the AR's so I swapped it to Fluffy, did a bunch of shooting with it and absolutely loved it for my elephant hunt with @Nyamazana Safaris safaris. I was nervous as I was afraid the battery might die at an inopportune time. @Just Gina did an amazing job videoing the tracking/stalk and you can see me raise the rifle and check to make sure the sight was still on. I need not have worried because it worked wonderfully!

Awesome Mike! I just added a Trijicon onto my double rifle as well. It took me a long time to convince myself, because there is no doubt that it takes away from the classical look of the Double, but the acquisition is so much faster. A good looking rifle wont help you anything when you're 6ft under.

 

[wipartimer]

Great looking and functional set up Marius. The only thing that rifle appears to need is to be sold to me!

 

[Roy Wilmeth]

Awesome Mike! I just added a Trijicon onto my double rifle as well. It took me a long time to convince myself, because there is no doubt that it takes away from the classical look of the Double, but the acquisition is so much faster. A good looking rifle wont help you anything when you're 6ft under.

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How do you like it so far? Can you see your iron sights through the lens? Which specific model did you get? Thinking about putting one of these on my 404 jeff. Thanks

 

[postoak]

Marius, what model is that? It's faster than the open sights?

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Great looking and functional set up Marius. The only thing that rifle appears to need is to be sold to me!

Haha, thanks Mike. I'm very happy with it.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

How do you like it so far? Can you see your iron sights through the lens? Which specific model did you get? Thinking about putting one of these on my 404 jeff. Thanks

Very impressed. You can see the iron sights, but once the RMR is sighted in, you only go on the red dot. They do t line up. This is the 1 MOA model. Going 1 MOA, allows me more versatility.
Many might say its too small, but as you brighten the dot, it appears larger, so by going with the 1MOA, I have the best of both worlds.
This is not the latest model, but the previous model, although both were going for the same deal. The newer model has a round profile, and with me already struggling to overcome my demons of fitting this to my double, I went with the RMR which is more square, which I thought fitted the profile of the rifle better.
I fitted one on my 416 Rigby. You will never look back.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Marius, what model is that? It's faster than the open sights?

Hi Rob,
That is the Trijicon RMR Type 2, with the 1 MOA recticle. Personally I think it is substantially faster. There is no parallax error, so even if you do not shoulder your rifle properly for whatever reason, where that red dot falls is where your bullet will go.

 

[Scrumbag]

Hi folks,

Bit of a late commer to this thread but I'm rapidly becoming a convert to red dots on rifles.

Below is my 9.3x62 so not strictly a dangerous game rifle but not exactly a pea shooter either:



It's a Leica Tempus red dot 2moa.

I've put ~130 Factory 285gr Norma Oryx through it, flew to Croatia and back for boar including falling down a hill and it held zero so seems to work.

I've got a Burris Fastfire III (3moa) on my pump action slug gun. Holds zero well. Only thing I would say is only has 3 brightness settings and usually the auto brightness detection picks the wrong one.

Co-Witness

Interestingly I had cowitness with the iron sights on my slug barrel and it drove me nuts. Focus flipped from dot to front sight at really inopportune moments. So I put a spacer in between the base of FastFire and mount so the dot is now in "Free space" above the frontsight.









Astigmatism

I have fairly bad Astigmatism and have found that the better the quality red dot, the sharper the dot. Also, be a little wary of looking at the red dot inside under artificial light at a close wall. Dot always looks a lot less defined then.

Quick Detach

As with all quick detach systems, you add height.
With the open reflex sights, it tends to be just 2 allen* head screws that hold the optic on and as a field expedient and be removed quickly to clear / show iron sights.

If you look at my 9,3, I have a cheek riser for shooting through the red dot as the stock fits me for the iron sights (Rigby style cocking piece sight)

(If you take into the field a little baggy with the right allen key, lens cloth and a spare battery will weigh virtually nothing and you'll have all the kit you need for maintenance).

Covers

The one area reflex sights can have issues is if they get mud, rain etc on the emitter (These sights work by projecting the dot onto the screen.

The best cover I have seen is on the Burris Fastfire 3 with is a housing that encloses the red dot and you can look through with perspex at either end which you can see through:

Next best is the Leica which you can look through but is an open ended tunnel so less "element proof"

(Can't see here but the back is open)

The Kahles for example has a cover which you can't see through which I like less.

Others tend to be similar to this type (Nifty battery compartment though)

Batteries

For preference, I'd rather have something I didn't have to take off the rifle to change battery myself. The FastFire III has a battey compartment under a screw and the Leica has a draw type arrangement

Sorry for the long winded post, hope this helps people.

Scrummy

 

[postoak]

No need for apologizing, that was an excellent post.

 

[Scrumbag]

@postoak , thanks very much. Always feel a little nervous preaching to such an experienced crowd as on AH.

@KMG Hunting Safaris I like the look of that very much!