Reflex/Red Dot

If you have owned a red dot sight for any length of time, you’ve probably taken it to the range without checking the batteries, only to discover that they were dead. This is incredibly frustrating, so Meprolight developed the MEPRO PRO M22 to be self-illuminating and sent it my direction for testing and review.

I’ve been using red dots on my shotgun for years, and I recommend you look into it as well. I’m a big fan of gadgets and electro-optics, but there are a lot of benefits beyond the sheer interest in technology. It seems Vortex agrees, as their new Viper Shotgun Enclosed Micro Red Dot is designed for turkey hunters, offering a durable and straightforward optic. It mounts directly to various shotguns without the need for plates or adapters - just make sure your shotgun is compatible.

NEW Vortex Optics Crossfire Green Dot & Tan Crossfire Red Dot

Holosun took the opportunity to launch a plethora of new products at SHOT Show this year. They ran us through the variant optics and other lasers.

A red dot and magnifier is an increasingly popular option for both civilian and duty use offering some significant benefits and flexibility. 

Red dot optics are popular these days, and we see plenty of firearms that come pre-cut from the factory to accept RMR bases and other popular optics. But the Williams Gun Sight Company has their own take on this idea, which they showed off at SHOT this week—and it’s a very good take. Their LRS reflex sight, and its new adapters, solve a problem that many shooters have with modern red dots.

There is nothing better at SHOT Show than turning up to a booth and getting a great run down on a whole host of cool new products. Meprolight treated me to the low down on a whole range of optics ranging from small red dots all the way up to variable power scopes. Let's dive in.

SHOT Show is generally a time for new, new new: New guns, new ammo, new optics, new scopes. But for one company, it’s a birthday celebration; Sightmark celebrates its anniversary at SHOT Show, as that’s where it was born, at SHOT Show in 2007. But the company’s roots actually go back much further, as its parent company, Sellmark, is celebrating 25 years of business this year. Founder James Sellers says the company is successful today for the same reason they’ve managed to build what they’ve done so far: They sell products in a market they’re passionate about, while offering value to the customer.

Shield Sights have a couple of new micro compact red dot sights in their line up for SHOT Show 2025 - the RMSsc and the brand new OMSsc.

Burris Optics has a new affordable enclosed emitter red dot option for your pistol, carbine or shotgun - the new FastFire E.

As we reported earlier, Glock and Aimpoint teamed up to create a new pistol red dot sight called COA and a new pistol reflex sight mounting footprint called A-CUT. The COA is a very light and compact enclosed emitter red dot sight and the A-CUT is a pretty simple and unique mounting system that according to Aimpoint allows the COA to be mounted deeper and more firmly into the slide. At SHOT Show 2025, we had a chance to take a look at the new Aimpoint COA sight and shoot Glock pistols equipped with this sight.

New for 2025, Burris has released a fully enclosed version of the long-running FastFire red dot series. The new FastFire E will be available with a red or green reticle and fits the ACRO footprint. @Hoplopfheil stopped by to check it out at Beretta Range Day.

Glock has partnered with Aimpoint, the pioneer of red dot sights, to introduce the exclusive Glock x Aimpoint COA Combo. This package features select Glock 9mm pistols—G43X, G48, G19 Gen5, G45, and G47—pre-installed with the Aimpoint COA red dot sight using the innovative A-CUT interface. The Aimpoint COA optic is optimized for concealed carry, offering a compact, lightweight design with a fully enclosed emitter for protection against environmental elements. The A-CUT mounting system allows the sight to be mounted deeper into the slide, providing extreme stability and co-witnessing with standard Glock iron sights. This collaboration delivers an out-of-the-box solution for shooters seeking enhanced accuracy and reliability.

The Aimpoint ACRO P-2 is a durable, fully enclosed red dot sight designed for pistols like the Glock. It offers a clear 3.5 MOA dot for quick target acquisition, improved battery life, and robust construction to handle recoil and harsh conditions. Its compact design ensures compatibility with many Glock models, enhancing accuracy and performance without compromising reliability.

Primary Arms has announced the PLX HTX-1, an enclosed-emitter reflex sight that seeks to set a new standard for American-made optics. Yes, this is the first completely American-made Primary Arms optic produced in the company’s home base of Houston, Texas. While setting new standards is a tall order, Primary Arms has given me reason to believe for years, and the HTX-1 is looking really good on paper, with features I find particularly desirable.

Aimpoint and Glock have teamed up to release a pistol and red dot sight package, available starting January 20th. This collaboration features select Glock 9mm pistols equipped with the new Aimpoint COA™ red dot optic, mounted using Aimpoint’s proprietary A-CUT™ interface. Mankind can fly to the Moon, but we cannot mount a red dot to the slide of a pistol in a reliable way. Will Aimpoint’s new A-Cut be a cut above the rest?

Viridian Weapon Technologies has introduced the RFX11 green dot reflex sight, designed specifically for KelTec firearms. This lightweight sight combines advanced optics with a design that complements KelTec models. Featuring a 3-MOA green dot—chosen for its superior visibility to the human eye—it enables quick and accurate target acquisition. The RFX11 includes the INSTANT-ON® activation, auto shut-off, and an ambient light sensor for adaptability in varying conditions. With a battery life of over 30,000 hours and unlimited eye relief, the sight is said to offer both reliability and versatility. The price is $169, and I can only appreciate the existence of reflex sights that don’t cost a fortune to buy.

Red dots have been all the rage in the last 5 - 10 years both from an optics manufacturing standpoint as well as firearm manufacturers. More and more firearm and optic companies have joined the optics-equipped bandwagon to make shooting handguns that much more enjoyable - and easy to see - with a red dot. Within this renaissance, we have seen a burst of popularity for “enclosed emitter” red dots, too: optics that are fully housed in a box to protect the red dot from outside elements. While they can appear boxy to some with the endearing moniker of “mailboxes,” it is difficult to doubt the advantages that they can afford you. So, today we are going to look at 2 enclosed emitter red dots from Meprolight: the MPO Pro-S (Shield footprint) and their MPO Pro-F (RMR footprint) to see which one might be best for you. Let’s dive in!

Griffin Armament has announced its new GPS1X and GPS3X (Griffin Prism Sight 1x & 3x). As a fan of prisms, it’s great to see Griffin Armament throw their hat in the ring with these lightweight, compact, and versatile optics at a very affordable price point, especially in time for the holidays.

The micro red dot market has become increasingly crowded, with options at every price point promising various features and innovations. The Meprolight MPO-DS enters this space with a straightforward proposition - though whether straightforward is enough in today's market is what we're here to explore.

The Meprolight MPO-F is a closed-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It was designed to be a very durable optic, to meet the needs of military and law enforcement operations in any environment. Meprolight sent me one out for review, and I’m ready to give you my full and unbiased opinion and feedback on the optic.

We are living in a renaissance for red dots on handguns. It is a glorious thing. It was not that long ago that your only options were a Trijicon RMR (good, but insanely expensive), a Burris FastFire (unexciting, but OK), and a hoard of untested, foreign red dots that now don’t exist anymore. Flash-forward to today and the moment you walk through a gun shop’s door you are tripping over options. If you want to spend $1K on a handgun red dot, there is some manufacturer out there making one with thermal, a million hour battery life, and GPS plotting (I’m kidding, but what if). What about the other end of the spectrum? How low can we go on price and still get a “bulletproof” red dot?

The Meprolight MPO-F is an open-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It was designed for a full-sized handgun in the USA and is made in the Philippines.

The Meprolight Mepro MPO-DF is an affordable open-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It provides a good value proposition and includes many features and extras not included with other optics at this MSRP. Meprolight was nice enough to send one out for a review. I’ve been using the optic for the past week and will give you a full and unbiased write-up of my findings.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we took a look at the best cover garments. If you happened to miss that article be sure to click the link here to give it a read. This week, I want to talk about the benefits of having a red dot sight on your carry gun. I was recently in a local hardware store that also sells firearms. The store employee was talking the guy out of a Trijicon RMRcc and told him to just keep the iron sights. It was an interesting argument but if you start carrying with an optic, it will start to show just how fast it is to find your sight with a red dot optic. Let’s take a closer look at some of the good as well as bad aspects of carrying with a red dot in our red dot rundown.

A few weeks back I took my concealed carry pistol to the range for some much-needed practice. When I drew and acquired a sight picture, the only thing that went through my mind was “what the hell is that thing.” I had been shooting red dot sight-equipped pistols exclusively for months on end. In the time leading up to this practice trip, I had shot a few steel challenge matches, USPSA matches and took a course – all with red dot equipped pistols. The thing in my sight picture happened to be a steel sight post. Whether I liked it or not, the caveman tool sitting on the top deck of the slide turned out to be jarring.

Bottom-of-the-Barrel Price, High Tier Quality? New AT3 Tactical ARO-Mini Red Dot

Riton has released their new 1 Tactix ARD 2 (AR dot), a red dot packed with features for a price that may be more friendly to budget-minded shooters. Riton intends the 1 Tactix ARD 2 to be geared toward carbine, AR pistol, and shotgun applications where a simple and affordable aiming solution is needed without sacrificing adaptability. Let’s check out some of the specs and features.

Pistol red dots are a fairly common thing these days. We’ve come a long way since the early days of mounting gigantic optics like the early Aimpoint and Tasco red dots to the frames of 1911s. We can now mount some excellent optics, directly on our pistol slides, and the options at this point are virtually endless - it just depends on what you want to do with it. Vortex has been putting in a lot of work lately to expand its pistol and rifle optics line to be as comprehensive as possible. Standard RMR-type designs were some of their first ventures into the pistol-mounted optics category, but Vortex quickly upped the game by putting in their bid to the “large window” pistol red dot category. Primarily intended for competition shooters who value a large viewing window, the Vortex Defender XL is the company’s equivalent of Trijicon’s RMR HD, Holosuns 507COMP, or Shield’s RMSX. Today we’re going to check out what it offers, how it’s priced for its specific sector of the pistol optics market, and some of my thoughts on my experiences with it over the last 9 months.