Red Dot on Shotgun for hunting

[ZeSpectre]

I'm getting a new rifled barrel with an integral scope mount for my Maverick 88 shotgun. I have a (pretty cheap) red dot scope sitting around doing nothing. Is there really any point to putting that sight on there for hunting?

[rugerfreak]

Does your gun already have sights???

[armedandsafe]

I'm in the process of having my 12ga BP shotgun converted to rifled choke. I'm going to mount the same red dot I put on my 8X57 Mauser. I like it for fast acquisition and pretty good accuracy. You can't do precision Bench Rest competition with it, but that is not the idea on that gun, anyway.:p

Pops

[famine]

It kind of depends what you're hunting for. I have a red dot on my 870 and it works great for deer, I think it would also work well for turkey. As far as regular birds go I wouldn't use it, the dot doesn't seem to stand out very well against the sky and it seems to get in the way of the instictive point and shoot that is more common with birds.

[ZeSpectre]

The intent was/is deer hunting.

[Pahoo]

Absolutely; However, you have to be the judge on your hunting enviroment. I put one on my 1100 years ago when Tasco came out with their ProPoint-I and have taken my share of deer. I had to remind myself to shoot it as a rifle and not a shotgun. Even went so far as to buy and work a different trigger group and how sweet it is. Go for it !!!

[jheitertusa]

I am thinking about putting one on my 870 slug gun.

I wear glasses with a strong prescription, and am pretty bad with open sights on a rifle or shotgun. I think it's mainly a depth perception thing lining up the rear sights, front sights, and the target. I don't have the same problem with handguns, probably due to the shorter sight radius. I don't really need the magnification of a scope at the ranges I hunt, though. Also, it can be hard to find a scope that has good enough eye-relief when firing slugs. I had a bushnell trophy shotgun scope that was supposed to have long eye relief, but it tapped my glasses on every shot. Very annoying.

I am thinking about getting a Burris Speeddot 135 with the 3 MOA dot. Anyone use one? Will it handle the abuse of 12 gauge slugs? I tend to use the "managed recoil" variety.

[Mannlicher]

if your red dot can handle the recoil, go for it.