13 replies to this topic

[Thom]

I'm currently modding a longshot, and I intend to go the whole nine yards (breech, double mags, paint, etc.). I'm considering putting a red dot sight on it for both cosmetic and practical reasons. I know I've seen them on boltsniper's guns, and I seem to recall other people using them on occasion. Since I know just about nothing about "real" or paintball guns and their accouterments, I thought that I would prevail upon the wisdom of The Internet rather than just paying 15 bucks on eBay for something labeled "SUPER loser RED DOT (works with) THOMPSON". (Word intentionally left filtered.) My questions:

• How practically useful would a red dot sight be? It seems to me that, unlike a longer-range scope, it might actually work decently with a medium-ranger like the LS. I don't expect firearm-like accuracy, of course, and I do know that Nerf is not paintball/airsoft/mil-sim.
• If the answer to the previous was something other than "No, it's useless", what should I look for in terms of brand or features? Obviously, I wouldn't be looking at the expensive models.
• I've seen two distinct shapes: one with only a front lens and one with front and back lenses in a cylinder. The latter seem to be more expensive. What's the difference?

Thanks for any help.

Edited by Thom, 04 December 2007 - 04:40 PM.

[Groove]

Well, my father and I collect firearms and I do my fair share of Nerfing, so I thought I'd chime in my two cents.

In my opinion, any sort of scope on a Nerf gun should only be for cosmetic purposes. The reason you see them on some of Boltsniper's weapons is, well -- just look at them. They aren't exactly your average Nerf gun. Even if they are simple fixed zoom sights, the average accuracy on any given blaster isn't really enough to muster up the need for any sort of aiming reticle.

Dart trajectory can be totally random sometimes, and a simple gust of wind could easily throw your aim off. Even for medium to long-range weapons it'll only be noticeably accurate up to a certain amount of feet, in which case you're probably better off aiming with the naked eye. Camouflage and scopes tend to allude to mil-sim, something that we try to avoid in public as we don't want entanglements from locals or law enforcement. It just isn't practical for a Nerf war, in my opinion.

The primary difference between the one lens (reflex) compared to the double lens (red dot) are the visibility factors, as far as I know. Parallax compensation is also something you need to take into account, as not all scopes compensate. Some scopes offer a variety of reticles to choose from, from a bullseye to the classic crosshair and many different dot sizes.


-Groove

[precisionnerfer]

With mine, [I think it was purchased today for my B-day] I plan to have a laser sight, and a scope. First make sure your gun is deadly accurate before adding a scope/red dot, [mine will have a 2 ft telescoping barrel] and then, I will bore out the gun and screw in the corner screws, then calibrate the Laser by putting it in perfect unison with the sight's aiming methods, and then glue on the laser where it is.

Then I will calibrate the scope by putting the cross-hairs directly on the red dot from the laser.

There you go! A great loser rifle!

Yes I did that on purpose.

[General Cole]

A red dot scope is perfectly acceptable because if it is centered you will be able to take fairly accurate shots with any close to semi-automatic weapon.

[keef]

Reflex looks really awesome on almost any gun. Except Ak's, Pistols, and Snipas. A reflex is a sight where you just look up and it maybe magnifies it 2x. Its just to get a bigger view, while seeing all of your surroundings. A redt dot would be better you nerf but reflex is sometimes hard to aim without a 2000 fps gun and up.

If you just want one for looks, get the UTG 12 doller Reflex sight. Its made for airsoft. I think you can buy it on airsoftgi

[Prometheus]

I would consider them not very effective in broad daylight, and especially summer. I've used one once, and on my .17 air pistol I use a 4X-15 scope on it, something I find much more functional, especially for short ranges. I'm not trying to compare the two, but I don't really like red-dots due to how they don't give you a real advantage.

[jwasko]

Note: Speaking about real firearms (and only shooting paper targets) here:

Personally, I think a good, old fashioned set of open iron sights is better than anything else -- especially scopes. I suppose scopes have their places (extremely long range, and all that), but for 100 yards and less I prefer iron sights.

I do like red dot sights, though. I used to have trouble seeing the crosshairs in a scope (especially ones with large magnification). A red dot, with no magnification is basically just a laser pointer...except, one that you can see much better, and the "enemy" can't see it. I find that it is much faster and easier to acquire a target with a red dot than with a scope, and slightly faster than with iron sights. '

Did you know that...you can actually use a red dot sight with both eyes open? Yep, you can...although your accuracy may decrease somewhat.

The bad thing about red dots is that they require a battery. Also, in bright and/or bad-angled light, you have to turn the brightness up. That not only drains your battery faster (though it should still last a few hours, at least), but increases the size of the dot...which in turn tends to decrease accuracy.

As far as using red dots in Nerf:

Well, it's not as silly as using a scope, that's for sure. As long as it isn't one that also magnifies the image (I'm not even sure they make those...), the red dot sight is basically just a fancy aperture sight. I've never nerfed in a large scale war, so I can't say whether or not a red dot would be practical. I will say that, whenever I'm using a blaster, I tend to feel like I need some sort of sight, but that may just because I'm used to that sort of thing.

I actually bought a cheap ($7) red dot sight at Dunham's to put on my longshot. It felt cool, but I never even got to try to sight it in...one battery was dead when I opened it, and the free replacement died by the time I got back around to trying to sight it in. Even if I had gotten to try it, I don't know that it's possible to "sight in" a nerf blaster for the same reason Groove said: nerf blasters are not very consistent.

So, in the end, I'd definitely listen to Groove: if he says they aren't practical then they aren't practical. It could be fun to mess around with (and that may be worth $15 to you), but it isn't practical for a real war.

That's my...440 (wow)...words.

Edited by jwasko, 06 December 2007 - 07:50 PM.

[Thom]

Thanks for all the input. I think I'll look to see if I can find a red dot that is cheap and takes a low multiple of 1.5V. I mostly nerf in large indoor environments and at night, so I might get some genuine use out of it, and if not, at least I'll maintain my local reputation as the Most Hardcore modder at UBCon. ^_^ Any sight recommendations would be appreciated.

I'm not worried about freaking people out, since I have a nice shade of bright orange picked out for the primary color. (It matches my bright orange nerfing vest. (I hope this assuages any impressions that I'm taking nerf too seriously or trying to turn it into mil-sim. :P))

[ultra920]

Ways to avoid milsim:

• shove gun down pants
• Funny tshirts
• Viking helmets
• costumes
• dance!
• sing

[penguin807]

Ways to avoid milsim:

• shove gun down pants
• Funny tshirts
• Viking helmets
• costumes
• dance!
• sing

The last four could be interpreted as a LARP musical, which are equally extremely erotic by most of us.

Edited by penguin807, 10 December 2007 - 05:21 PM.

[Thom]

The last four could be interpreted as LARP musical, which are equally extremely erotic by most of us.

Which, LARPing or musicals? Or just the combination?

[lionhead333]

Both, as in-
LARP! (The musical)

[Thom]

Both, as in-
LARP! (The musical)

That is a tremendously awesome idea. /Runs off to see if any of the local Vampire players can sing.