What is better, red dot sight or Scope?

[hotshot409]

whats better, a Red dot sight, or a Scope? be specific in your answer, name of the sight or scope.. ect.

[JorynnRace]

in my opinion, neither. If its just for rec ball tho, and you really think that your gun is accurate enuf to use either of the two, then i recommend a scope. Nothing too expensive, mind you, just something mountable. For one thing, red dots can be annoying.

If yer talking laser scope (which is not the same as a red dot I'm sure u know) then I'd still go for the normal scope, because laser scopes can be even more annoying to your enemies and teammates. I've seen people who have been thrown off a field for using a laser scope. He almost blinded someone with it.

But yeah, a red dot is not very useful. And besides.. scoped just look cool.

[Magadeth]

Red dot al the way. A scope magnifys what you are looking at and limits your point of view. Also, you have to position your eye a certain distance from it in order to have it be in focus.

In paintball, the effective range of the guns eliminates the need for magnification. You also want as large a field of view as possible. Looking through a scope is like wearing blinders as you cannot see what is on each side of you. When snapshooting, you are not going to want to worry about the distance your eye is from the scope. It will just slow you down and eventually you will give up on trying to use it.

A red dot on the other hand has no magnification, unlimited eye relief and you can use it with both eyes open. You dont have to worry about where it is in relationship to your eye, you could have it at arms length and if you can see the dot, that is approximately where the paintball is going. the only drawback to the reddot is its power source. If you get one, MAKE SURE TO TURN IT OFF after use. Nothing is more annoying than getting ready to play and realizing that your battery is dead. I carry a couple of extras, just in case.

As for specific brands? That depends on your budget. The cheap $10 taso redots are probably fine for paintball, But the $100 bushnell etc. professional quality reddots are much nicer and have a larger vewing area, making it easier to see the dot if you are not holding directly in front of you.

[Magadeth]

I am double posting so that people can just skip over this part if they dont care.

A paintball as we all know does not fly on a flat trajectory. After about 30-40 ft, the ball will be affected by gravity and will start to drop, curving towards the ground. Most red dots are adjustable for elevation and windage. After mounting the dot on your gun, go to a safe location to shoot it and at a range of about 20 ft, adjust the windage until the paintballs do not hit the target to the right or the left of the dot.

Once you have it dialed in for windage, move back to about 40-50 ft and adjust the elevation so that the paintball hits where you see the red dot on the target. This should make it so that if you are shooting from closer, the paintball will hit above the dot, and if you are farther away, it will hit below the dot. The idea is to have the dot at the top of the arc formed by the trajectory of the paintball. If you play a more longball style of game, adjust it for a greater arc, or if you play more close in, adjust it for a less pronounced arc.

using the red dot in a game
You should consider your red dot more as a reference point than as an exact aiming device. (this is true for iron sights as well) If you have a target in a bunker take a quick shot with the dot and notice where the paintball hits in relation to the dot. You now have a reference point for your next shots.

If the wind is affecting the trajectory of the paintball or if you are shooting at extreme range, the position of the dot to where the paintball impacts your target should remain the same. Knowing this, you can duck behind cover at will and when you pop back up, you can re-aquire your target with precision without haveing to shoot off a bunch of shots to get your range back.

We've all used the technique of spraying a bunch of shots off and walking the stream of paint onto the target. Using a red dot scope as I have described here can save you from wasting paint and will make your follow up shots faster if you have to duck behind cover and re-aquire your target.

Hope this helps and sorry for the long (double) post.

[Jackel]

Depends. Scopes serve a double purpose in paintball (as well as in real life), especially when you are point or a scout. Scope are used both to aim and to scout out the area which is a pretty good solution compared to brining along binocularers. Red dot sights tend to be used more for aiming and I personally do not like them. If you want a laser sights, you should use it in short bursts. You see the other player and light him up, shoot it, and then turn it off.

[Incube]

Red dot.. i fing most accurate... and eazy to adjust. scops are too big ugly and take to long to adjust... i have a B.E RED DOT and a B. fiber optics... they both are very good... especaily for b.e

[FireViper]

Scopes in my opinion could only be useful at scenarios but not for the purpose they were intended. They could be used as a telescope to see things that are ahead of you. THe reason they wouldn't be affective because dead-on accuracy (at a constant rate) is a myth I seen pballs come out of the barrel go traight for 10 feet and then suddenly zip to a different direction.

[Archer99]

I have found scopes to be completely useless.
I love my red dot though. I have a shocker, and it does consistently hit the same spot, so a sight is useful. If your gun does not lay paint on top of paint, any sight is useless.
My setup is a cheap, variable brightness Daisy MAX View. I had to modify it to tighten up the adjustments a little, but it works great. Its extremely light. Best part is if you don't want to use, just don't look through it!
I don't use it all the time, just when I see someone that doesn't see me. Its nice to know that that first shot from 40-50 yards is gonna have a good chance of hitting your target.