People dont understand red dots

We understand them, we just don’t think it’s 400$ worth! Optics are for rifles

Listen here, highspeed. I didn't survive 12 tours at the Golden Corral Endless Buffet for you to flag me with your barrel through the screen like that.

One of the best things I heard in an older video of yours about “finding the red dot” was comparing it to a mouse on a computer. You don’t look for the cursor on the screen then move it, you look on the screen where you want to click and move the cursor to that point.

Some days I'm absolutely locked in and other days I wonder how I suck so bad while practicing so much.

As someone that has shot irons forever, I recently decided to go with an optic. And yes, some of that reason is because of my aging eyes. But mostly I just wanted to see what it was about. I always said that I target focused with my irons. And I did, but I would also shift my focus during a string of fire occasionally to the sights for realignment. After many many hours of practice and hundreds of draws I decided to take my new optic on my pistol to class. I had no problem “finding my dot” at all upon presentation, but if I lost it during a string of fire I would shift my focus to the optic to “find the dot”. My instructor who is a really cool older retired Marine was watching me knowing it was my first class with the optic. As soon as I “looked for the dot”, he would run right up beside me and in his best Gunny Sergeant Hartman impression screamed right at the side of my face. “I can see your damn eyes shifting focus! Look at the damn target!? Why are you looking at your damn gun!? You’re holding your gun! You know where the hell it is, so stop looking at it! Look at the threat that’s trying to kill you! You’re not holding the enemy. He might move on you and you need to know where he is! So look at the damn target and not your damn gun!!” I yelled “Sir! Yes sir!” Then we had a good laugh. The thing is, you think you’re target focused. But you’d be surprised at how much you’re really not. Especially with a dot.

Ben, you’re on a roll with these last several vids. Thank you, Sir! 🫡

I felt like I was nodding in agreement the whole video. Thank you for normalizing the struggle. I thought it was just me struggling not being 100% all the time. It’s good to know target focused is something that still has to be worked on/developed by high level shooters. It’s not a “place you arrive at”, it’s continuous development, or the progressive realization of the overall goal. Thanks Ben

Ben's comment on the referenced IG video/class, "occluding the dot doesn't force shit" hits like a hammer. Covering it can absolutely help, but eyes are still prone to 'focusing' at arms reach on the shiny thing. Definitely an ongoing awareness and accountability challenge, like all sorts of training disciplines.

Agreed - I see it all the time on other folks and sometimes see myself doing it when editing my reviews.

Ben’s last words “if you want to get good”, this is just as important if you want to stay good.

Thanks for these tips. I just got my first dot yesterday (2/25/24). I got a class next Saturday to start understanding how to use a dot. 👍

Wow. This makes so much sense and thanks for putting in this way and so it will always be an ongoing process...

This is probably the single best lesson I learned from taking your class that really opened my eyes. My target transitions got so much faster that day by leading with my eyes to the next target and allowing the dot to follow. My biggest struggle today is not letting the dot over run where it's supposed to go on the target I'm transitioning to.

As a long time sporting clay shooter, I think that trains you to look at the target instead of the gun.

Ben, you hit the red dot on the Bullseye. I have been shooting a dot for about 18 months. I first was moving with the pistol and dot in focus. Then after some practice I started using the eyes to transition. Thanks for the great video.

This is awesome. Just got my first red dot for my 43x and never shot one before. Hopefully this helps me not pick up any bad habits with being dot focused. Thanks for the info

Needed to hear this today. And actually answered some questions I've been asking myself

Thanks for the tips. Appreciate you Ben.

Excellent video. Truth.

Thank you for this video as you started explaining where people go wrong with the red dot, it clicked with me that my transitions were not as good as they could be because I wasn’t really target focused. Immediately I started shifting my gaze first and bringing the red dot into my view. This translated to faster and smoother transitions while on the move with only a few minutes of practice!