Optic choices for shotgun

WhoCares

New member
I have a Benelli M4 shotgun I use to hunt with. As I've become older I find that I need reading glasses for close up work. With that being said, I can no longer see the ghost sights very well without reading glasses and I hate wearing them while hunting. On my rifle scope I can adjust the ocular and shoot without glasses. I've tried several Red Dot sights like the Aimpoint T-1, Vortex red dot, and Vadalia red dot. These I can see pretty well but the dot seems tiny and generally hard to spot when swinging a shotgun fast for a shot.

Before I spend another $500, has anyone used the Eotech type sights on a shotgun? I need an aiming point that is Big so I can visually pick it up fast. What other options do I have other than wearing reading glasses in the field?
 
aiming devices on shotguns are as worthless as a community leader trying to run this country.

master point and shoot, swing and shoot. you will be so much better off.
 
Actually IMO they work quite well. I've tried a red dot and a holo sight and don't care for them. I find a low mounte 1x3 or 1x4 scope to work very good. On 1x you have around a 90' FOV and you can shoot it like a red dot. I've even have taken flying game with them. Take it to the trap range and practice with it.

This one works well for the shotgun half of the gun.



The Leupold VX-1 Shotgun scope at $199 is a great value with about the best "eye box" of them all. Be sure and build up the stock so when your cheek hits the comb your eye is in perfect alignment with the scope. If you look close under the cartridge holder my stock is built up about 3/8" with some old neopreme.
 
Last edited:
Being an above average wing shot, with trophies from a couple of different countries in International Skeet and Trap, a lot of experience hunting upland birds, gunning for spaniel hunt tests and living walking distance from my duck blind. I'd never use a sighting devise for wing or small game shooting. But trying to push extended ranges with tight chokes and large shot makes a sighting devise very handy.

Coyotes aren't very fast but they need the charge centered on them, fringe hits that will take down a bird are worthless on a coyote.

You might want to look at a Burris FastFire.
 
Last edited:
I have an Eotech 512 on my shotgun that I use for turkeys and coyotes...and I love it. It's super solid with adjustable brightness.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
I have used a few different open style reflex red dot sights on my coyote shotguns with good success. I like the Burris FastFire III a lot, on a SpeedBead receiver mount. Very happy with this combination.

I've even started playing with this as a wing shooting option, and frankly, I'm very happy with it for that purpose as well. I have a bad habit of forgetting my cheekweld about half way through a round when sport shooting, and a few misses in the middle always seem to skew my scores. The dot on the red dot is just as fast to acquire as a bead, and it's a bit more forgiving of my cheekweld since the dot chases my eye when it moves and stays on target at the business end. I haven't committed to converting over, but I don't wingshoot nearly as much as I hunt coyotes, so it's an advantage to keep myself on a consistent platform.
 
i once tried a receiver mounted red dot. also tried a burris ff3 on a speed bead mount. dont care what anybody claims, they are not as handy or as fast as instinct point and shoot on close in fast moving animals such as coyotes. probably work great for turkey or slug shooting deer.
 
For my predator shotgun I really like the truglo front with the ring on the rear sight. For the longer shots it is very helpful for me. Up close I don't even "see" the sights as it is just point and shoot.
 
Hmmm. I've been using fastfire 2, 3 eotech xps2 on my shotguns for several years. They have dropped a pile of fur, never once have I said [beeep] if I would have been instruct shooting I would have killed that coyote. Also, if guys are wanting to shooting a particular load or choke and pattern is low, high, etc. the problem is solved with a reflex.
 
The problem you might have is dot size. Usually the better sights have a smaller dot. Go to the store and look through them before buying. I think bushnell and tasco have 5 moa dots. Check out different reticle designs as well. There are doughnut shaped ones as well.

I had a 1-4x scope on my shotgun. It was shooting high and right with buck so I needed to use it just to correct poi.
 
i have a Vortex Viper 2-7 currently loaned to a friend. When I get it back I'm going to send it in and have the parallax changed to 50 yards and mount it on my turkey shotgun.
 
Back
Top