Nothing: If you assume I didn’t just fire 5 rounds at it from 25 yards and completely miss the backboard.
Somebody had this Russian red dot screwed as far skyward as it could go, and it took a while for me to figure out how to unscrew it. Turns out that turning the adjustment bezel was only turning the adjustment bezel, not really adjusting anything. Got it figured out at last, got it zeroed at 25 yards but still rather high at 100, but then I was too overheated and losing the light. Only then, getting everything home and cleaning up, did I learn that there’s a special tool to easily accomplish what I had been painfully doing with a couple of optician’s screwdrivers. So I expect the final step to go more easily.
It really is a cool optic, but it sends me back to the issue that the scout scope had put off for a couple of years: I should really be learning to shoot a rifle left-handed. My left eye, thanks to kind and generous readers, is in very good shape after glaucoma meds, cataract removal and lens implant. My right eye has had all the same stuff done to it but the glaucoma damage is more severe. I can get by with a scoped rifle but not with iron sights. This red dot works well enough for me in full light, but it bounces a low-power laser off reflective, lightly-shaded glass and as soon as the ambient light falls I can’t see the target through the glass at much more than 50 yards. If I go left-handed, everything’s great again.
But in sixty-odd years of life I always ducked left-handed shooting and now I’m paying for that hole in my training. You can shoot a pistol right hand/left eye easy, and I’ve been doing it for nearly ten years while never seriously asking why my iron sight rifle skill was going to hell. You guys saved my left eye, which is unfortunately the wrong eye for Rifleman Joel, and now I have to make it count by finally dragging out the .22 and putting enough rounds downrange left-handed until it starts to feel normal.
ETA: I started doing this three years ago with a pellet gun when I was just flat out of .22 ammo. Unfortunately it was a really old pellet gun, and after less than a thousand rounds it gave up the ghost. I have acquired some .22 since then – again from the generosity of readers, it’s still not sold around here – but around then someone sent me the scout scope for my AK and I didn’t take up the training again. Now I really need to get serious about it.
Between Joel, Ian and the blog readers this is the best place I can think of to come for real time information and advice about a gun I’m thinking of buying – one of the Bond Arms derringers. It will be my only gun. You all have way more experience than I do. Thanks.
> Bond Arms derringers
Why?
I’m cross-dominant. Just hoping that optics will allow me to keep shooting right-handed. Like you, Joel, I know that this is something I should be practicing anyway, but damn it I don’t find it awkard as hell to do almost anything left-handed.
Blergh! … damn if I dont find it …
And why is my typing going to hell? 🙂
Zelda, seriously, I wouldn’t recommend a centerfire derringer to an enemy. Stop what you’re doing, go back and kick whoever made that suggestion right in the crotch.
Joel is correct. A derringer is not a firearm for the beginner. They are painful to shoot and difficult to aim, IMHO. A derringer is a last resort holdout weapon, not what you want as your only handgun.
There are a great variety of pistols because our hands come in all sizes and shapes. Find some way to try out some handguns (friend, rental at range) before you put down your money. Then you can make an informed decision, knowing what felt good in your hand and you were accurate with.
Cost probably is a consideration. I’d rather buy a used pistol than a new derringer, better value for money.
I am no gun expert (and don’t play one on the Internet) but small “personal defense” guns hardly ever get worn out, because they have few fun, target or sporting uses. The only reason to fire them is for familiarization/training and to ensure that they still function. I have a .25 auto that is some 40 years old and has had less than a box of ammo put through it.
Therefore, why would you buy a new one?
Glad someone made the pawnshop parallel as always happens in PL discussions; gives me the chance to say why there is no parallel. Oh, the average amounts advanced and the fees paid might be pretty similar but beyond that, nada. That Norm Franz quote on your sidebar says it pretty succinctly:
“Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.”
Status of the traders notwithstanding, the first three are all the same; trading stuff you don’t need for stuff you do, or for cash for stuff you need but can’t trade stuff for. And that’s all a pawnshop does. The last one, debt? That’s all a payday loan is, and it will indeed enslave you. Followed a link here from VFTP Joel, I like your place.
Shit, wrong post for this comment, it belongs on the gov payday loan thing. Oh well, old and confused, that’s me.
“Shit, wrong post for this comment,” Well yes it’s in the wrong place and it horribly confused me at first, but it’s a damn good post and I hope you repeat it in the correct place.
Welcome JTC, and thanks for commenting, wherever. 🙂
Thanks Joel and others who responded to my question about the Bond Arms derringer. Glad to have your information, I know I can trust what you say.