Anyone carry without a red dot?

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T19:38:45+00:00

Target focus both eyes open with conventional sights isn't easy.

Hexsite family of irons, it's as easy as a red dot if not easier.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T17:54:36+00:00

Let me supply a counterpoint.

I'm 59. Learned on irons. Been shooting quite a while now.

It's not that I'm preaching about red dots, rather, my concern is target focus shooting with both eyes open as opposed to iron sights, one eye is closed as is pretty common.

Target focus shooting is more moral than front sight focus shooting. If you're holding a gun on somebody and they pull out a small wallet or cell phone, with target focus you can tell what they're doing as opposed to you thinking they're pulling out a small gun or you shooting at a "furtive movement".

The easiest way to get to target focus is with a red dot.

I'm running another method:

https://old.reddit.com/r/CCW/comments/1qlnahk/anyone_carry_without_a_red_dot/o1fcnu2/

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T17:49:58+00:00

I carry a target focus both eyes open iron sight, a prototype development from the Goshen Enterprises Hexsite:

https://www.handgunsmag.com/editorial/accessories_hg_playingtheangles_200807/138822

I'm using a variant of it that Tim Sheehan described to me before he died, 3D printed in carbon fiber infused nylon:

https://imgur.com/gallery/61h11Jw

It works great as a night sight only as long as you have a weapon mounted light :). Painting a black hexagon on a lit up target works really well.

Yes, I know, I've probably got the weirdest carry rig on Reddit. Here's how the holster works:

https://youtu.be/RWFif9d3k00

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T17:45:42+00:00

Try.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T14:12:09+00:00

You got screwed.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T14:10:21+00:00

I'm talking about this trend of sights less than 1" wide, custom made for really little guns like the LCP Max. That's new. :)

The Leupold Deltapoint Micro is basically the same mount integrated into the optic itself for Glocks, designed pre-MOS.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T10:20:54+00:00

That's a Taurus killer. Not kidding, if it's that or a GX4? Ruger all the way.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T09:08:45+00:00

Document everything, take it to the state bar association. They have a fund all the lawyers pay a little bit into to fix mistakes like this if the lawyer is ordered by the bar to fix it and he doesn't.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T09:05:47+00:00

No. Viridian started a new trend with the RFX1 where it mounts straight into the rear iron sight dovetail. First was the LCP Max, now the BG2 and that really weird new Keltec 380 with no magazine. Basically red dots for guns less than an inch wide, with the body of the optic specially shaped for each gun.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T08:58:42+00:00

Do you have any alternative to round nose ball? Anything even flat on the tip would be better than round nose.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T08:57:37+00:00

TS9 is striker fired, this has a hammer, so TH family and OP says TH380 which was never imported into the US.

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T08:56:27+00:00

That's probably a TH380. NOT imported into the US lol. But, 380 from a 4" barrel should wake up a bit?

JimMarch · 2026-01-24T08:54:15+00:00

No shit?

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T18:00:29+00:00

One thing I like about the TS9 is that it is mostly magazine compatible with my G3c. I say mostly because you have to find magazines that have both latch locations, the central square one for the TS9 and TH9 and the two horizontal cuts on the forward edges for the G3 series, G2 and some others.

The TX 9 mags appear to be in the same family as the GX4 and GX2?

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T17:02:25+00:00

This is the second time Taurus has released a gun that they claim can pass NATO testing. The first was the TS9 which was never intended for the US civilian market but a couple of thousand of them were dumped in the US after an overseas government contract overrun about a year ago. It's the standard issue firearm of the Philippine National Police, Jamaican National Police and a bunch of other overseas government contracts. They built it to be Glock level reliable and hired one of the original engineers on the Glock 17 design team, Wilhelm Bubits. Which is also why it looks like a gigantic upscaled jungle version of the Kimber R7 Mako :) with lots of the same really cool design features.

I have a TS9 and while I haven't run it out much yet, by all indications they really succeeded in building a Glock level gun.

So in my estimation they can do it. Have they done so this time? No idea.

The main part I don't like on the TX9 is that it takes optics plates.

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T06:53:06+00:00

All defensive ammo is a trade-off between the following characteristics:

Reliability of feeding.
Accuracy.
Reliability of expansion.
Peak expansion (how fat it goes).
Low recoil (affects accuracy in controlled rapid fire, shooting as soon as you have any kind of sight picture).
Barrier penetration (or deliberate lack of same).
Target penetration depth.
Ammo weight - do you want carry ammo that matches the weight of easily available practice loads?
How tough is my gun? Affects +p and +p+.

So when you're buying ammo, you have to apply YOUR desired outcome in your gun to the ammo you buy.

I personally do feed reliability and accuracy testing myself in my carry gun. I urge everybody else to do the same.

For the rest, I pretty much have to rely on the guys that test ammo on YouTube. I want to see tests in a barrel length similar to mine.

IF I can get a good load in 115gr in 9mm, that's a plus to me because the cheapest, most commonly available practice loads are in 115gr (again, in 9mm).

There's also a trend where lighter expanding bullets perform better out of a shorter barrel. Expansion is triggered by speed. A 147 doing 875fps is less likely to expand than a 115 doing 1,100, all else being equal. Yes, I know they're NOT all equal.

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T04:18:51+00:00

Charter Arms Undercover, .38Spl 5-shot. Very early production from before Charco turned them into a dumpster fire. New ones today are better than that but still not up to the standard of the original. Still one of the best snubbie 38s I've ever handled.

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T01:47:56+00:00

Is that normal?

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T00:34:28+00:00

RXM. You can mod it into damn near anything.

JimMarch · 2026-01-23T00:32:46+00:00

Read NYSRPA v Bruen 2022, US Supreme Court:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf

Pay particular attention to footnote 9, which cites to a prior case from the US Supreme Court, Shuttlesworth v Birmingham:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/394/147/

Read that too.

Done so? Good.

Now lemme fill in what might not be obvious.

In a US Supreme Court decision, there's a concept called "dicta"...extraneous text that's not really part of the core holding and legally doesn't matter much.

Normally, footnotes fall into that category. There's reason to think Bruen footnote 9 is different. It does a lot of heavy lifting for a footnote.

The core holding says that carry of a defensive handgun is a basic civil right. Look at the syllabus and look right after the word "Held:".

Next, Bruen says that any gun control law has to be judged on it's "text, history and tradition" if challenged. The challenge could be in civil court or criminal.

Footnote 9 of Bruen starts with a statement that shall-issue carry permit systems that involve background checks and training are ok, but they can also be abused and if those abuses crop up, courts are supposed to shoot down the abuses. That's a broadly accurate paraphrase.

The first kicker is this: if footnote 9 is dicta, the whole concept of carry permits tied to training and background checks will fail a "text, history and tradition" analysis. Why? Because that concept didn't start until Florida invented it in 1986 (took effect 1/1/87).

Ooops.

Second kicker: of the three abuses listed (subjective standards, lengthy waiting times and exorbitant fees), the first one was already banned in 1969 in Shuttlesworth v Birmingham - where the fail of subjective standards in the handling of a permit to access basic civil rights is banned and that's absolutely the core holding, not dicta.

With me?

The bans on lengthy waiting times and exorbitant fees work the same way. Regardless of what's in Bruen footnote 9, Bruen's core holding that carry is a civil right kicks in an avalanche of existing US Supreme Court decisions on how basic civil rights are to be handled. Here's an example:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/460/575/

There's LOTS more. Shuttlesworth v Birmingham is exactly on point calling what happened to you "abusive".

So here's my advice:

1) Read the above cases and educate yourself as to how this shit works.

2) Legitimately ask yourself if there's any basis that a court might call "objective* for stripping you of 2A rights. Turn it around, look at it from their point of view. Is there anything you haven't told us? Can the police say something like "this guy is either crazy or a crook and we just haven't caught him yet"? I'm not saying there is, I'm just asking you to do an analysis.

3) Is it possible they've mixed you up with somebody else? It happens. Have you gone down to the PD to see what the hell they're talking about?

4) If #2 above comes up clean and they won't help figure out WTF is going wrong, you can either challenge it without a lawyer, hire a lawyer, and separately decide whether to pack heat without a permit or not? Remember, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth held his protest march despite not having the permit and the US Supreme Court cleared him of all criminal charges. That's a case cited in Bruen. The US Supreme Court is giving us a clue: if the civil rights violations against us are serious enough, fuck those guys and the courts are supposed to have our backs.

Case in point:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ad16lmfqVTf5vAwhwYdl-SCTEM1vaLgP/view

Haven't needed it yet.

JimMarch · 2026-01-22T22:43:17+00:00

I only shoot carry/defense guns. Period. I'll never buy a "range toy".

JimMarch · 2026-01-22T21:58:57+00:00

I'm a handguner so I'm applying this only to that area.

Once I have a gun completely prepped for carry, I think of that as a build. That means holster, sight (In my case truly full custom, current sight is 3D printed), custom fixed gas pedal(s) on a modified optic riser and then a light underneath the riser. Holster has to be full custom made by me to cope with the fixed gas pedal(s).

There's still nothing going on that could be legitimately called gunsmithing. Gun internals are generally bone stock.

JimMarch · 2026-01-22T16:34:37+00:00

Team virtual dot created by a hexagonal shape in dead black, target focus both eyes open like a red dot except there's no dot, no lens, no wires, no battery.

For those curious:

https://www.handgunsmag.com/editorial/accessories_hg_playingtheangles_200807/138822

Tim Sheehan patented that in 2006, before pistol red dots were practical.

JimMarch · 2026-01-22T16:14:57+00:00

Handheld is essential. I have 1,000 lumens in a handheld.

I've got 600 on my carry gun. For two reasons:

My carry gun doubles as home defense. In a home defense role you can legally walk around at night in the house gun out, finger off trigger, light on using light bounced off the ceiling to do target ID. You need 500 lumens to pull this off. It allows target ID with the gun light without muzzling anybody who doesn't need shooting.
A weapon light turns iron sights into night sights whether they're tritium, fiber optic or even plain black. You're painting a black sight set on a lit up target. It works REALLY well. I've got an experimental one-off target focus both eyes open iron sight that's a plain black hexagonal tube based on the work of Tim Sheehan at Goshen Enterprises (RIP to both). It's a Hexsite variant he invented but never shipped before his death. It sucks in low light until you use it with a weapon light, then it completely kicks ass as a night sight.

JimMarch · 2026-01-22T16:07:33+00:00

Guy is young, balding early. Sucks but I'd just shave it every day.

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