I'm interested in trying a small optical sight on my short barreled revolvers. Something like a J-Point that KRal wrote about and I see others posting pics of, but I don't know what is available or who makes a quality device.

I like the compactness of them and where they sit on the gun (basically in place of the rear sight). When income tax time rolls around I'd like to be ready to pick one out.

I found the best way is to call the sight maker and ask if they will hold up on your caliber. Then search for prices.
I have been told NO from companies, my gun would destroy the sight.
Believe me, I have made a lot of scrap metal.

I'm not going to be putting them on anything large. I'd like one on my 4-5/8" RBH .357 Mag and a 5.5" RBH .45LC.

The .357 is a knock around woods gun that I carry when setting stands or cutting wood. The kids shoot it a lot also. The .45 is a hunting gun that I'd like to add a better aiming system to w/o going to a scope or larger red dot style optic.

That will be fine. But the sights are expensive. I went 100% to Ultra Dots. They have one too.

Spend the money once for the good stuff and it only hurts once!

Dan B.

I have both the J Point & Burris FastFires' currently mounted on revolvers. The largest calibers currently are 41 mag & 45 Colt.

While both sights are very similar in size & operation, I believe that I prefer the J Point. However, the Burris is a little less expensive and has worked fine for me.

With both sights --- no one (to my knowledge) has a dedicated mount for the Ruger single action revolvers. Thus, on my Rugers I have used a "weaver style" base. This is functional but less appealing than a dedicated mount.

Leupold makes a delta point that is pretty nice. Trijicon is probably the toughest one out there.

Gary,

Have you noticed the Leupold "dot" 3 or 3.5 moa alternative to the delta?

Aimpoint also makes a great red dot and like you said – the pain only hurts once for the good stuff.

Relative to the DeltaPoint – I prefer the delta, as it is much faster at short range on moving targets and for long range shooting it’s extremely accurate if you use the tip of the delta as your aiming point. I think the delta tip would be similar to a quarter minute dot, so the precision is there if you can hold it.

Dan,

Another potential issue with the dots sights is if you have corrective lenses and/or astigmatism's. At least that is what I have been able to gather. I have several different ones, and I do not see a sharp dot all the time, and the sights do vary. I generally recommmend to folks who may have this issue to try the sight if you can when you buy. Or try and find one with the smallest dot, or the ability to manually adjust brightness.

My Jpoint is the best visible for me, followed by the triangle on the Delta point that I returned. The Delta Point with the dot is my worst flaring dot in my collection, although the sight is still useable.

Craig

I've got a Burris Fast Fire that's been on .41's, .44's, and .45's for the last couple of years. It's held up well so far. As stated, if you wear glasses you might have a little touble with a 'fuzzy' dot. I do. I tried a Sitemark (?). Wasn't worth carrying home!!

I don't like the dots much for hunting they usually obscure too much of the target if it's very far away in relation to the dot size. The downside to a delta (triangle) is the holdover is harder if necessary.

That's my issue with iron sights. I can shoot them well enough but they block out half of the target. Was hoping to get away from that with a floating dot sight yet be a lot more compact than a scope.

A small dot is way better than a delta, IMO. I don't wanna have to be looking for the point on a point when I need a quick shot. Give me one single aiming point, as small as the situation allows. A 3 to 4 min dot is not going to cover up a deer, bear or hog. I have a 7MOA on my Bisley and it works quite well for its purpose, quick shots within 125 yards on deer. It took the head off a grouse at 25' this year, and had no problem seeing it.

Get my age and there are no open sights on guns!

Somebody swiped the things when I was sleeping on stand!

The delta works the same way as your 7MOA red dot - you just bring the delta up, center it on target and let her fly - the tip is used for load development or long range shooting using the tip at 6 O'clock on your target.

That delta is 7.5 MOA and comes on target fast - a big red dot would probably be the same relative to speed. For me, the delta tip works better than a 4 MOA dot when shooting for group.

Using 2 eyes usually makes holdover fairly easy - it's just a matter of knowing where to hold over

Dan,

I went with the 3.5 MOA dot with the DeltaPoint - to me, it doesn't have too much low light bloom and is everything I need for a quick shot for a hunting situation. I mounted it on a 4 3/4" 500WE and it has served well so far...

Easily MOD (minute-of-deer) out to 100 on the range.

I have used a no name Red Dot to take coyotes out to 75 yards and bear out to 80 yds and can group moa at 100yds. It's been on a SRH 454, SBH .44MAG HUNTER, and a Ruger Comp. .22 lr. It has 10 adjustments and just keeps on working.
Paid $99.oo for it about 13 years ago. It's found a home on my Hunter. I'll see if I can figurre out the name of it. OH and it's fairly small as well.