Optics on handguns have been the newest phenomenon to hit the firearms industry in the last few years. It used to be that having a pistol optic was something way outside of the norm, partially due to the prohibitive cost of entry and partially due to lack of awareness in the industry. Fast forward a few years and retailers sell handguns with optics not just included, but mounted and zeroed and ready to go.
Most pistol optics work by putting a dot in the shooter’s line of sight, allowing them to aim without having to line up traditional iron sights. The shooter just needs to put the dot on their target and squeeze the trigger. This helps the shooter to get on target faster, and helps them keep their focus on the target while they aim. After the shot, it also helps the shooter to get back on target faster.
Most pistol optics are reflex-style red dot sights, meaning that they use a small light source (usually an LED) to project a reticle on a piece of glass. The simplicity of this design makes it easy to pack all the electronics needed into the small footprint that is necessary to mount them onto a pistol slide. Most pistol optics use a simple dot for a reticle, and the size of this dot is measured in MOA, or minutes of angle. The larger the MOA number, the larger the dot. 2 or 3 MOA is a common dot size for pistol optics, but there are some that use a larger dot, such as the 6MOA dot that is used in the Holosun HS407k. Modern pistol optics offer many features that optimize them for use on pistols. Some of these features include adjustable brightness, extended battery life, automatic power-off and power-on, and even solar backup power.
The surge of popularity of pistol optics also brought a shift in the industry to accommodate them. It was not that long ago that mounting an optic on a semiautomatic handgun required permanently altering the slide of the pistol by machining a pocket into the slide for the optic to sit in. This process was very costly and time-consuming, as it usually involved finding a machine shop that was willing to do the work as well as the refinishing of the resulting bare metal. Now that pistol-mounted optics have become very popular, firearm manufacturers have begun to offer more and more models as “optics ready”, meaning pre-cut with the necessary pocket to mount an optic. This makes it much easier and more accessible for the average shooter to add an optic to a pistol. Some manufacturers even sell handguns with optics already mounted and zeroed, ready to shoot.
A pistol-mounted optic is a great way to increase the usability and utility of basically any semiautomatic handgun. Evolving technology has made it easier for optic companies to add more and more features while simultaneously making the end product more affordable to the average consumer. Coinciding with this, the growing acceptance by the industry at large has resulted in an increasingly wide selection of handguns that are available in optics-ready versions. Now more than ever, getting into a pistol-mounted optic is easy and accessible. As always, you can find everything I've touched on (and much more) at Brownells.
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