Neophyte with a red dot sight. Scary idea, eh?
I just acquired one of these due to an auction on GunBroker, at well under MSRP (and a fair bit less than one of the local gun shops was asking for it). It arrived a few days ago, and I had opportunity to verify that it's zeroed for my Stag AR-platform today.
Happily, it only needed a couple clicks of the elevation adjustment to be close enough that any inaccuracies are user error. I don't expect to burn through enough ammunition to do half-dollar ten-shot groups any time soon, but using a bench rest, I'm getting holes in the target within a half-inch of my aiming spot at twenty-five yards.
I had no idea that the red dot sight would be so forgiving, though. I tried to find the cheek weld I was using with the iron sights (A2 carry handle rear, the usual post at the front), but discovered that I'm missing the reference of having that rear sight. I tried to use the front post sight as a partial co-witness, and realized that I don't even need to do that. If I hold the rifle so that my view through the RDS shows the dot and circle to the left of the front post, the hole in the paper is where the red dot was when I pulled the trigger.
If the dot and circle were to the right of the front post in my view, same thing.
I asked the RSO about it, and he told me that the thing is made so that if the sight glass is damaged, one can use the remaining areas of sight glass to aim the rifle. Since the dot and circle are projected onto the glass, I guess that may have some validity, but I'm not going to bet the ranch on it.
What I do think, however, is that the RDS will allow more rapid target acquisition if I'm ever in a hurry to put rounds down range, especially for my "well-used" eyes that are feeling the effects of age-related presbyopia.
Holosun HS510C Rifle red dot sight--neophyte learning moment
1Eventually I'll figure out this signature thing and decide what I want to put here.