High-Tech Sights

For situations where quick aiming is at a premium, today's new crop of electronic and low/non-magnifying optical sights provide the best of both worlds. They are generally much smaller and shorter than traditional scope sights, and block much less of the hunter's peripheral vision. They allow fast, heads-up both-eyes-open aiming, and become subjectively invisible to the shooter in use except for the floating aiming point or reticle. Due to the optical qualities of their projected or holographic internal aiming points, they are effectively parallax-free; meaning so long as you can see the dot or reticle against the target through the sight, it does not matter whether it is off-center up/down/right/left in the field of view, you're on-target.

They also have near-infinite eye-relief, and there is no black-out as happens with a traditional scope when the aiming eye is not precisely aligned with optical axis of the lens system. This translates into much greater flexibility and speed in aiming because you don't need to always repeat an exactly perfect head position and eye-alignment when bringing up your gun. They also provide perfect focus on the sight and target whether your eye is age 18 or 80.

The only thing they don't provide, in fact, is high magnification. Which is pretty much irrelevant anyway in any situation where instant sight-alignment is really needed. Whenever a target is so far away that great magnification is a true benefit, you'll have all the time you need to find and steady on its image through a conventional scope sight--even with one eye closed.

There are three general types of modern non-conventional optical sights, generally categorized as Electronic Dot Sights, Reflex Sights and Holographic Sights. All are widely available from a variety of manufacturers, and today seen on a rapidly-expanding number of hunting firearms in the field (as well as on a huge range of military and tactical weapons). In configuration they range from the size of a small frozen orange juice can to units scarcely bigger than the first joint of your thumb. Here's a brief explanation of the basic types, and some of the more popular and notable examples appropriate for hunters.

Electronic "Dot" Sights
Electronic dot sights are typically tubular in design, from tiny 3/4-inch units to the diameter of a beer can, and feature conventional small windage/elevation adjustment knobs. Dot brightness can be adjusted by a dial (typically 10 or 11 different settings). The most technologically advanced current dot sights from companies like TruGlo feature selectable reticle configurations for different types of targets, and even switchable reticle colors (red or green) to accommodate different ambient light conditions and target backgrounds. Some versions even feature low-level magnification for additional target image precision. Battery life in the best quality units currently produced by AimPoint (which remains an industry leader) now reach 50,000 hours on a setting of seven or below out of 10.

On the small-to-tiny side, there are electronic dot units like the five-ounce Zeiss Z-Point, which extends battery life with a solar cell in daytime use and automatically adjusts brightness for light conditions, and the 3.7-ounce AimPoint Micro H-1, both specifically designed for hunting. I use small dot sights regularly on hunting handguns, and personally favor the bigger "beer can" units for wingshooting shotguns for maximum heads-up peripheral-vision awareness. Regardless of size, it is important to understand that dot sights utlize an LED to project an aiming point internally. They do not project a laser external of the sight.