I came across this video by Ken Hackathorn from Wilson Combat on his thoughts about red dots. The video is from October 2022 and I don’t know if his thoughts have changed.
I have a lot of respect for Ken Hackathorn, but he’s just wrong on this.
Perhaps not everything, but most of what he had to say is objectively wrong. Let’s go through some of the points he made:
- It was the “nippleheads” on the internet who disagreed with him. Hardly. Jerry Miculek, Scott Jedlinksi, and Aaron Cowan are all far more qualified to have an opinion on red dot shooting than he is. All three of them are all in on red dots.
- He claims to have put 20K rounds through his red dot equipped pistols and it took him a long time to get proficient. You’ll notice that he said he first started to learn red dot shooting by mounting one on a Glock 17 and shooting it a lot. My guess is that he figured that he’s such an expert he didn’t need training. If he had taken a two day red dot class such as the Modern Samurai Project Red Dot class he’d have saved himself a lot of consternation. It’s not something you can just pick up and teach yourself. You need to take a red dot training class. BTW, Hackathorn has come out against mounting a light on your pistol. Take a look at that Glock 17 he’s showing off.
- New shooters will pick up a red dot faster than shooters who have been using iron sights from the beginning. He’s right about this. We’d be better off as a group if we just told new shooters to start with a dot. A lot of what he complains about is having to unlearn the muscle memory from shooting iron sights. But that’s true of every new technique. In my shooting career I’ve had to unlearn Weaver, thumbs forward tactical turtle, L shaped draw, etc. Yes, it’s hard for old dogs to learn new tricks, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the new tricks.
- You have to shoot more rounds with a dot than you have to with iron sites to overcome the “automaticity” of front sight focus. He’s flat out wrong on the science. He’s making this up. Here’s what Servant, Cassey, Woodman, and Logan (actual neuroscientists) found in a study: “The ERP data showed the expected tradeoff between working memory and long-term memory potentials as a function of learning. However, high stakes triggered an increase in CDA amplitude, and the magnitude of this modulation predicted the reward-based speed-up of RT. This result suggests that subjects recruited additional representations of the target in working memory to supplement long-term memory and maximize reward rate. Similar modulations of behavioral and ERP data have been observed when participants are put under speed pressure when automatization has occurred.” In lay person’s language, they’re saying that we can become unconsciously competent at a task much more quickly if the perceived payoff is higher. I’ll wager that in Hackathorn’s case he didn’t actually want to become good at red dot shooting; he was doing it to prove that the red dot wasn’t any better than what he had spent his life doing. I’ll also bet that he interspersed iron sight shooting with his red dot shooting, so he never had the chance to make that skill automatic. He wanted to fail (or at a minimum wasn’t interested in succeeding), and therefore he did fail.
- Target focus and front sight focus are very different and the transition is hard. Yes, it’s hard, but not anywhere near as hard as he’s making it out to be. You just have to decide that’s what you want to do. You can’t go into it thinking “this won’t work and my way is better.”
- You can’t learn a dot from dry fire because as soon as the gun recoils you lose the dot. If you’re losing the dot due to recoil on a 9mm full size, your grip needs work. Part of red dot shooting is that you learn much better grip techniques. The dot dances up and down on the target, but never out of view when you’re doing it right. His little tirade against dry fire is just pointing out that his grip is not nearly as good as it should be. He’s also falling victim to an illusion. The MOA of iron sights on a pistol is around 18-28. The MOA of a red dot is 2. As a result, he just thinks he can keep the iron sight on target more easily, but the dot shows where he is truly pointing. He’s looking at the iron sight with his peripheral vision, not keeping the front sight on target.
- It took 5,000 rounds to get comfortable. My guess is he was shooting both iron and red dot interchangeably, so of course it took him much longer.
- He says he shoots red dot as well as he shoots iron sights. He hasn’t mastered red dot; he’s merely gotten “comfortable.” Once you’re shooting red dot well, you won’t go back. It’s playing the game on easy mode. Your iron sight shooting will improve as well.
- At distance, red dot is better. But the distances you really use a handgun are at 0 to 10 yards….There’s no advantage. There’s a lot wrong with his thinking. First, we train at longer distances because it’s less forgiving. If you’re good at 40 yards, you’re awesome at three yards. Long distances are hard to do when your iron sights completely cover the A zone. Second, target acquisition with a red dot is much faster than iron sights when you’re close up. If you’re target focused, you can see the target much more quickly than you can see a target and then switch focus to your front sight. With the dot, you’re just waiting for that bit of red to show up and then if it fits it ships. Lots of good red dot shooters have sub-second draws. You don’t see that with iron sight shooters. He’s got a drill where two rounds in the A zone from 5 yards from a slick holster draw has a par of 1.5 seconds. His “good shooter” in that video did it in 1.65. Third, a string of shots is faster with a dot. You’re watching the dot dance, while with iron sites you’re not really even able to get a good look at the target. Red dot shooters can tell you where they’ve hit immediately after the shot.
- You want to buy a quality red dot and the good ones are not cheap. Yes, he’s correct. You don’t want to cheap out when you’re buying gear upon which your life may depend. Saving a few hundred bucks won’t seem worth it if you lose a gunfight or hit a bystander. BTW, prices are coming down as evidenced by his reference to a Holosun costing $400. A Holosun 407k can be had from Amazon for $224 today.
- You’ll never learn to use a red dot if you don’t shoot a lot of rounds. His logic is broken. First, he tells use that the learning curve is huge because you have to overcome being unconsciously competent at using the front site. And then he tells us that someone without much to overcome will also have a hard time overcoming that “old dog new tricks” problem. If you don’t shoot much, there’s not much to overcome. People “can’t find their dot” because their muscle memory is to present the gun where they’d be looking down iron sights. But if you haven’t developed that muscle memory, you don’t have to overcome it. Take a first time shooter out and start them on a dot. They’ll start off shooting much better.
- When you align the gun with the target your dot is always higher than the iron sights. He’s just pointing out that he indeed is not comfortable with a dot. For a shooter who started with a dot, they’d find iron sights extremely difficult.
- Red dots are not working out for law enforcement. He made that up. There are no studies that support his assertion. In fact, everything so far points to much better performance for law enforcement using red dots. Law enforcement has many reasons for why red dots are superior.
- Only the 1% will benefit from a red dot. We’ve already discussed how he’s wrong about the learning curve. If you’re the kind of person who only visits the range a few times a year to shoot perhaps 200 rounds, let me tell you a secret: You won’t shoot very well with either a dot or iron sights. But without the front sight focus to overcome, you’ll probably do better with a red dot, especially in a low light situation.
- Durability is an issue. I agree, you shouldn’t go cheap on gear upon which your life may depend. You should check your dot before using your gun every time. Holstering your EDC? Check your dot. Is your dot rated for a 2 year battery? Replace it at 18 months. Can’t remember to do that? Do you change the batteries on your smoke detectors? Make sure your fire extinguishers haven’t expired? Keep your gas tank filled about half? If not, consider adding an auto reminder on your phone or computer calendar, just as if it were an important appointment. How many other “appointments” does your life depend on?
- It takes time to adjust from no dot to iron sights in a dot failure. That’s true. It’s something you should practice, just like you should be practicing how to clear malfunctions, until it becomes unconscious muscle memory. And make sure your dot isn’t going to fail by checking it every time before you holster your EDC.
- Dust/Snow/Ice/Temperature differences. Concealed is concealed. Getting your dot dirty isn’t an issue unless it’s open carry. Temperature differences aren’t a big deal when the gun is on your body. We shoot in all types of weather in Montana without a problem. For EDC, consider a closed emitter if you’re going to open carry. As he says, Cat Crap works quite well. It’s available at Ace Hardware.
- Red dot is just driven by the gun industry for the cool factor. He said that two years ago and red dot use has exploded even since then.
- Red dots take more maintenance, like a 1911. It takes 10 seconds to check a dot. I love 1911’s, but they’ll start to misfeed with just a bit of gunk in them and it takes a while to break them down and clean them up. With a red dot, every 18 months you change the battery. It’s not at all like running a 1911.
- It’s just a fad, like adjustable sights, grips, and lasers, and won’t last a decade. Funny, because he made that video 15 years after Aimpoint came out with their first red dot. Lasers have lost favor because the red dot is better.
- You won’t be effective if you don’t use your gun for two years and suddenly need it. The red dot is irrelevant to that. That person will be completely ineffective with iron sights as well. There is no such thing as a gun that will work well if you don’t practice. Even shotguns have to be aimed.
- There’s no need to be able to shoot effectively at greater than 10 yards for personal defense. Then he gives the Eli example and says it’s not a probability. He’s completely wrong, again. If you find yourself engaging a mass shooter with an AR-15, you want to be able to make hits quickly from long distance. The rifle has all of the advantage otherwise and you’ll find yourself with having to close the gap in order to engage. Yes, mass shootings are extremely rare, but frankly there would be fewer of them if more people could effectively engage with the shooters. The farther away you can engage an active shooter, the more quickly you can end the encounter. 45% of mass shootings occur in commerce areas (malls). I don’t know about Hackathorn, but I don’t ever want to be in the position of having to run towards an active shooter to close the distance in order to make effective hits while he’s mag dumping his AR-15. If you need to stop an active shooter quickly, you want to be able to make hits from the eyes to the mustache, not center mass.
- You’re far better off to have a couple of chest seals in your pocket than a tourniquet. Actually, you’re better off if your EDC kit includes both. His analysis is crazy. The probability of having to kill someone in self defense is also extremely low. By his analysis, none of us would carry.
- He doesn’t think red dots are the future. That didn’t age well, since Wilson Combat now sells red dots.
He also leaves out a lot of advantages of red dots.
- Red dots require target focus. He treats this as a disadvantage, but in reality it’s extremely important. If you’re pointing a gun in self defense and giving instructions to the threat while you’re focused on your front sight, you can’t see what is going on at the target nearly as well as you would with a red dot. Did the perp just reach into his pants to pull out a cell phone, his badge, or a gun? The wrong decision could either cost you your life or earn you a prison sentence.
- Red dots are much better for old eyes. Dots have a lot more clarity for older eyes than iron sights.
- Red dots are “both eyes open” shooting. For most shooters, iron sights require you to focus with your dominant eye. You’ve got a lot more peripheral vision with a red dot.
- Many new shooters have already fired a few hundred thousand rounds with a dot. Huh? Yes, most people learning to shoot in their 20s have already been exposed to the dot — in video games. The optic is usually the first upgrade you add to your weapon in these games. It’s much more natural for them. There are many reasons we have to teach students how to line up the sight picture with iron sights, but the red dot makes perfect sense immediately.
- Aiming is faster with a dot because you’re removing sight alignment from the equation. Most people who are really fast with iron sights up close are just point shooting, With the red dot, we teach “see the dot every time.”
- The dot doesn’t lie. You’re seeing exactly where your gun is pointing, not the illusion you get from iron sights. You no longer need to be concerned with making a “bad shot,” only a bad trigger press.
- A red dot allows you to carry a smaller pistol. The distance between the front and rear sights is larger on a full sized pistol, which makes it easier to aim. That distance doesn’t matter with a red dot. Most people will be more likely to carry if the smaller pistol is just as accurate as a full size gun.
All of Hackathorn’s arguments assume someone with many years of experience switching from iron sights to a red dot. If you’re going to switch, don’t just “try it out and see” as he recommends; instead, get some training from a red dot instructor. Learn how to do it correctly.