Within our modern shooting vernacular, the term “red dot” has become slang used to identify almost any weapon sight that provides an illuminated red dot as an aiming point. The term is used to describe true red-dot sights, reflex sights, holographic sights, prismatic sights … and even conventional riflescopes. However, just because shooters often describe all these sights as red-dot sights doesn’t mean all of these sights are red-dot sights.
A true red-dot sight is a non-magnifying optical sight that uses a reflector, and the unit is totally enclosed. Credit for the first electronic red-dot sight belongs to Aimpoint. The “Aimpoint Electronic” was introduced in 1975. Aimpoint is still a leader in the field of red-dot sights, but over the past almost half-century, the technology hasn’t only evolved, Aimpoint now has a lot of competition. There are now also a wide variety of other types of sights that use a red dot for an aiming point.
