Being in the Corps before red dots were fashionable, I never paid them much mind. I believe if you can't use irons you should not shoot. Unless you need magnification due to poor or aging eyes, but you probably still learned on Irons.

 

That being said I picked up an Aimpoint clone from THR after reading many user reviews on it. Wow did it make a difference on my bushmaster. I am not a bad shot by any stretchbut I can see why they are so fashionable. I still don't think you shoud use one if you cant use irons, but once you do put one of these on. I am sold to their value on a firearm.

I agree with you about learning on irons. When I first got my M1A I had heard all about how impressive the accuracy was right out of the box with iron sights, and I was blown away. With no experience I was shooting .5" groups at 50 yards, standing offhand. However it wasn't long until I ventured into the wide world of optics. I picked up an Aimpoint CompM3 and co-witnessed it with an Aimpoint 3xMag. Now I have a very clear picture of everything around my target and the thing is deadly accurate with a good zero.