Been pondering this one for a little while. Most red dots/holos have adjustable brightness settings that you would change with the light conditions. What is the proper way to deal with using your sight during low light where brightness would be low, and then having to turn on a white light to ID a possible threat? Your sight will likely be almost it completely drowned out depending on your light source.

 

Opinions?

I don't turn my red dot down too low anyway.  Around medium brightness.

laser light combo

Been pondering this one for a little while. Most red dots/holos have adjustable brightness settings that you would change with the light conditions. What is the proper way to deal with using your sight during low light where brightness would be low, and then having to turn on a white light to ID a possible threat? Your sight will likely be almost it completely drowned out depending on your light source. Opinions?

If you set the brightness correctly to begin with it is a non issue.

 

I turn it down so it is barely visible when zeroing as it makes the dot appear smaller (in reality it does not change the size of the dot). The rest of the time, I leave it on a middle setting. If I am doing a job, or training that will have me going from bright to dark with a white light, I will verify that the setting I have it on will work with both.

 

If it is so dark that you need the sight set to the lowest settings to avoid blooming and allow you to see past the dot then you will need your white light to positively ID your threat anyway. Just set the dot to work adequately with the white light you have.

That makes sense I guess. I was trying it last night with the eotech and on the white walls I have and the flashlight on I needed at least the setting the sight turns on with if not 1or 2 clicks up. If I turned the lights off it was blooming and not very crisp.

 

Could my eyes be affecting this? They don't seem to be working as well as they used to. Also will a higher lumen light have a more drastic effect?

That makes sense I guess. I was trying it last night with the eotech and on the white walls I have and the flashlight on I needed at least the setting the sight turns on with if not 1or 2 clicks up. If I turned the lights off it was blooming and not very crisp. Could my eyes be affecting this? They don't seem to be working as well as they used to. Also will a higher lumen light have a more drastic effect?

The brighter the light vs the darker the environment... Will create the most dramatic swing in red dot visibility...

 

Eotech reticle is more busy than a simple dot like on aimpoints so I assume it is worse on your gun...

 

My solution is similar to High exposure... My aimpoints are always on... And always about mid set...

 

Further at SD range in a worst case scenario... You can use the tube alone to be " on paper".... Sometimes I shoot my aimpoint with the dot off... And backup sights down... Using the tube as a reference... To make center mass hits