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Hello everyone – I am Charlotte and this is my first Winchester firearm so I decided to ask advice from experienced Winchester owners. I am waterfowl enthusiast and want to enhance my SX4 with a good optics. Can anyone suggest what to choose: scope or red dot sight? Which manufacturer?
I really have not seen shotguns for waterfowl that use scopes or red dots?? Turkey yes. I may be not be up on the latest setups??
November 7, 2015
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I don’t hunt waterfowl or have optics on any shotguns at this time but have used optics on pistols from time to time on moving targets. That said I believe the choice is yours depending on your shooting style. I personally feel the holographic sights are a natural choice for a “two-eye” shooter but if you close one eye a low-powered scope may be as good or better. OTOH I think you would want both eyes open when hunting waterfowl but some of us simply can’t or won’t shoot with both eyes open. That said, I wasn’t aware there were optics suitable for waterfowl hunting even though turkey hunters have used them for years.
I wish I could give you a better answer but the question is a bit outside of our stated area of interest.
Mike
I bought a Benelli M1 Super 90 32 years ago with a slug barrel and a ribbed barrel. I hunted deer in a shotgun only area so I installed a Ultra Dot non-magnified red dot sight. It worked good on standing and running game but when it came to jump shooting ducks or pheasant a beaded rib worked the best. The Benelli has been hunted hard but it hits what I shoot at and requires little cleaning.
Last winter I won a SX4 at a sportsman dinner. It seems barrel end heavy, balance and swing feels clumsy. More parts inside to clean. The Benelli is still my bird gun. If you find a sight that works better than a rib on flushed birds I’m all ears. T/R
Charlotte and all, I recall in my youth of the 1950’s maybe, maybe early 1960’s, an article in one of the hunting mags touting a low power scope to compensate for the author’s eye disease of some sort. Subsequently, some red dot manufacturer made a special dot sight that fit between the stock and the rear of the receiver. I’ve never known any wing shooter to use any sights like this though. I teach and coach high school trap shooting, and advocate proper fit of the gun so it shoots where the person looks, IF they keep their head down and in contact with the stock. I can only hope that folks do not mistake the game camera pictures from the cameras mounted on shotguns as being the view through some sort of sight as they are definitely not. As stated, this is not a good forum to find out any such answer if you really need an optic for compensating for some eye problem, or just think you need an optic for ducks and geese. My take. Tim
Why do you think I am joking?
When hunting geese and ducks, shooting is carried out at medium-short distances, in extremely low light.
For work in such conditions, a collimator-type sight is the best thing that has been invented, except for night vision sights.
But the red dot of the collimator is perfectly visible at dusk: I only need to consider the outlines of the target and ensure that the mark is located inside. No need to focus, squint and waste time preparing for the shot. The field of view of the collimator is limited only by the lens frame, that is, it is practically unlimited. I can follow the target and the surroundings with two eyes. This is very important when assessing the distance to a moving target – especially when there are several of them and they are barely distinguishable against the graying sky.
I stopped at these 2 options https://tacticsfaq.com/vortex-sparc-ar-vs-aimpoint-aco/ – I should go to the shop and try them live and them make final decision.
Here is one authors view……..
The Best Sights for Turkey Shotguns: Scopes vs. Red Dots vs. Open Sights vs. Beads (msn.com)
Erin
November 7, 2015
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Erin Grivicich said
Here is one authors view……..The Best Sights for Turkey Shotguns: Scopes vs. Red Dots vs. Open Sights vs. Beads (msn.com)
Erin
Erin-
I would possibly use optics for a turkey shotgun and can see the benefits but I think flying waterfowl present a different situation. With turkey I’m using the shotgun like a rifle, with waterfowl I want to swing with the target and have as much field of view as possible. One point the author made that rang true was the tendency of shooters to lose (or never establish) cheek weld and I think a holo sight may actually help mitigate that tendency….but of course I NEVER do that. 😉 Right about now I think it might be fun to put a holo sight on my skeet gun. Never pass up a chance to stir things up at the gun club!
Mike
Mike
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