Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Red dots on Bolt Actions

I have a few light weight iron sighted bolt actions that I was considering putting a Aimpoint 9000 on. Are there any other red dots that would work on a bolt action without having cheek weld/ height issues??

An Aimpoint Micro mounted to a Weaver-style front base usually works well.

I have Rugers! With the intergral bases. M77’s

Burris Fast Fire reflex sights.....have heard of guys liking them on 77/44s

No aimpoint reviews?

I've got an Ultradot that works wonderfully on a 45-70 levergun and a mini14.

Let us know what you figure out!

Have an Aimpoint H34S on a Ruger Ranch .223. It’s lives on my atv. Bit overkill, but i wanted something that could setup and forget it, and probably always work despite vibration and weather). Using factory rail and supplied rings, it’s just a hair higher than i usually prefer (which is low, or lower). Haven’t killed anything with it yet. Once get used to it, it certainly swing fast on target, which was the idea.

Tagged.

Thinking about an Ultradot on a 243 to let my cousins 9 year old boy shoot.

Just a thought. If you were to use say a 1-4x24mm, 1-6x24mm or 1.5-6x40mm scope with an Illuminated dot you can turn it down to 1x and shoot it just like a red dot but you would also have the option to turn the power up and have accurate long range capabilities.

Reflex sights, for the most part, seem to be the lowest of the red dots. Rugers with the dovetail require an adapter like the one Burris sells, which raises them a bit, and IMO, makes them look like they're hanging out there too much.

I had a Vortex Sparc 2 on a .270 FN for a while until I got a second hole drilled in the bridge. No problem getting good hunting accuracy with its 2moa dot. That sight has been rock-solid on several guns, but an identical one crapped after about ten rounds on a S&W .357. New one showed up in two weeks, door to door, but is unmounted as yet.

Aimpoint would always be my choice for use on a rifle, if I had the bucks. 9000s go for about $460 on Amazon last I looked.

Primary Arms makes a nifty 1x prism sight with diopter focus, but I have no idea how reliable they are. You also lose the unlimited eye relief red dots give you, but gain function without batteries if it ever comes to that.

One of my thoughts was that you do not have to stay perfectly square behind the red dot like you do a scope. As long as the dot is where you want it you are fine.

Not sure whether that is a good thing for a youngster or not.

I mounted a TRS-25 on my 660 the other night. May play w it some over the weekend.

Sits pretty much like a scope in dual dovetail mount with medium Signature rings.

I stuck a cheap Vortex Sparc II from Brownells on a beater 270. I haven't had a chance to shoot it due to dealing with hospice/funeral/estate stuff for my mother. The glass is clear and the dot is great. I can hit an 8" steel gong 9/10 times @ 200 yards with the same optic on my ARs. Should be perfect on a close range deer gun.

I've tried hard to like dot sights, but just can't. I currently have a Sig Romeo 5 on one of my AR's and have tried a couple of others in the past including a Vortex SPARC. I can mount a 1-4X or 1-6X scope with a 20 or 24 mm objective and get on target MUCH faster on 1X than I can with a dot or iron sights. And have the option to go up to 4X or 6X for more precision at longer ranges. I have one with the illuminated reticle and think it a much better option if you want to use batteries. And if the batteries die I still have a working scope.

I find the optics so poor that it is hard to find the target in low light. Yea, you can see the dot, but it does no good if you can't see the target. I can see a deer or other target much more clearly in low light with a scope. Plus the adjustments are so crude getting them zeroed is a challenge and beyond 50 ish yards the dots cover too much of the target.

Currently have four MRDS on rifles for hunting in The Swamp.

1. My second-hand (in 1988) Model 700 Mountain Rifle in 6.8 O'Connor has an Aimpoint T1 on the forward bridge using a Weaver base, a KRG Bolt Handle and a Timney Calvin Elite flat trigger set at 2.15 lbs.

2. A Traditions SS Ultra Lite .50 Muzzleloader with a silver Aimpoint R1. NOTE: this optic just moved off the Marlin .17 HMR that I've been practicing snapshooting with all summer.

3. Wife's Weatherby Vanguard Ute .223 with a SIG-Sauer Romeo5 2 MOA dot on front bridge

4. Ruger Frontier .358 Win with a Comp M2 on the front bridge in a Ruger 30mm ring

Every one of them zeroed at 50 yards. The CFs have varying MPBR secondary zeroes.

Here's a Burris FastFire III on a Model 77 .30-06. In height it's about halfway between a scope and a peep sight. One thing to note is that you can only mount it on the rear bridge on a long action 77, the short actions are just a bit too short so you have to put it over the receiver ring. In use it has the same advantages and the same limitations of most any red dot or reflex sight. Very fast to use and fine for game animals within the point blank range of your firearm but even with a 3 MOA dot it tends to cover a lot of the target for any kind of precision work at distance.





Couple more pics here

You drop that rifle or take a tumble down a hillside and that FastFire would be TOAST.

I put a Fastfire on the receiver ring of 77/22 and didn't care for the look, or the wacky adapter. Why they didn't just use a simple through-bolt is a mystery.

The running boar shooters seem to mount a lot of the new short Aimpoints on the front ring too, but their trips back and forth to the stands seem pretty easy. Many of them carry their rifles cased.

A rail and a reflex mounted in one of those protective cradles or a tube-type in sturdy rings should be pretty rugged; rugged as a scope anyway.

I run a FastFire on a Benelli M2 and really like it...can use it for turkey loads or turn it off and see through it to use the bead.

I've played around with cheap red red dots and they are usable but not my cup of tea.

The Nightforce NX8 1-8x24 is a better mouse trap for my preferences and use. Bright dot on 1x, the ability to up the x's and dial elevation, and tough enough to use rough. It's not cheap though.

Listen to these two. The reflex/red dot idea is not the way to go these days. A true 1-4x is what you want.