I recently had an opportunity to "start from the beginning" with RDS.
My wife wanted to take a 4 day handgun class which was structured for beginners. I wanted to take it with her, so took my Stacatto C2 equipped with a 2.5 MOA SRO.
I am quite proficient with open sights - 1911 guy - can operate a Glock/striker gun almost as fast as I can a 1911. No LE or mil background, longtime concealed carry guy and have taken a lot of classes and barely made Master in IDPA 20 years ago. Not as practiced now as I was back then.
My declining/ageing eyes have been an emergent problem for about a decade - I wear progressives and have astigmatism and getting hard focus on a front sight is impossible without corrective lenses/cranking my head around to be looking through the right part of the lens to see the front sight clearly.
Prior to the class I had spent some time with RDS equipped guns I own. Had concluded that I was much faster with open sights inside about 10-12 yards, but faster and more accurate past about 15 yards with RDS. This was with corrective lenses.
So I decided to do the entire class with no corrective lenses. I figure if something goes bump in the night, or a meth head gets up in my face, glasses will be a luxury.
Here were my takeaways after 4 days/800 rounds or so:
Had to modify my draw stroke to get the gun up into the line of sight faster and pick up the dot quicker
- with iron sights you bring the gun up a bit nose high, pick up the front sight, and drive it into the notch as you extend
- With RDS get the window between you and the target ASAP and get the dot acquired and on target as you extend
Got used to a blurry/astigmatism dot pretty fast. I see a crescent shaped string of 5 stars. But honestly when focusing on the target and letting the dot float it wasn't an issue for SD level accuracy.
The RDS is a total win on target transitions. No matter the distance, once I had the dot acquired I could drive from target to target very fast and the dot helped me stop fully on target before breaking the shot (whereas with irons I am more prone to fire while still moving over the target).
RDS is also a total win on follow up shots. Put the dot on there and break the shot. On recoil recovery the dot appears and when it's in the right place you break the shot. It's faster.
As noted above, the RDS helps with flinch control as you can see the dot move or not when you break the shot. The dip just before the shot is visual feedback that really helps you stay on top of "el snatcho".
We had one miserable morning with 38F and rain and wind. Yes water and dust got on the glass and maybe even a little in the emitter. It wasn't optimal but I was able to make my shots. More experimentation required here.
By the end of the class I was greatly improved with RDS from 10 yards in, but still can run iron sights a touch faster using a "flash" sight picture on close shots - say 5 yards and in.
On balance I think I can get to the same level of proficiency with RDS as iron sights from 10 yards in with a little more training. At that point I will be a better shot with RDS than I can presently achieve with iron sights.
One area I am not convinced of RDS effectiveness is if I get knocked on my butt in the dirt and have to shoot unconventionally on my side or back or weak handed or whatever. At that point can't depend on indexing/muscle memory as much. Yes I can still see my cowitness sights but in that circumstance a big open front sight still seems to be to be a better answer. Again, more work and experimentation required here.
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