Shotguns and red dot sights

In my gun and outdoor related readings over the past several months, I’ve seen several articles about using a red dot sight on shotguns. The main thrust of these articles involved turkey hunting – something we don’t have here. However, several passing mentions in these stories stated that the red dot sight also worked well for waterfowl and upland bird hunting. We do have these activities here in Alaska.

I’ve mentioned in one or two previous columns that I was interested in trying a red dot sight on a shotgun, primarily for waterfowl hunting, but also for grouse and ptarmigan hunting too. I have one open emitter sight which had been mounted on a hunting handgun I have. I upgraded that sight to a closed emitter green dot because that style of sight would better serve my intensions for hunting with the handgun.

I figured I could mount the open emitter sight on a shotgun I have, using a scope mount I had previously used on this gun when I had a scope mounted on it for use with rifled slugs. The sight mounted easily, but I found I had lost the cheek weld I needed to properly shoot the shotgun because the sight mounting system caused me to raise my head off the stock. I dug out the replacement stock and forearm I had on the gun when I was shooting slugs and replaced the standard height stock.

Now, when I shoulder the shotgun, I’m looking directly through the red dot, exactly what I want. This replacement stock is a thumbhole style with an elevated cheek piece. It worked fine with the scope because I was essentially shooting the shotgun as though it was a rifle. Because of the weather, I haven’t had a chance to try shooting clay pigeons with it yet. I hope it still works as well for sighting and swinging on aerial targets.

I have a couple of other shotguns with raised ventilated sighting ribs running down the barrels. I went looking for an alternate method of mounting a red dot without needing a special scope base and higher stock comb to allow using the sight with a proper cheek weld. One optics company makes a “kit” designed to mount a red dot on a mounting plate attached to the rib of the shotgun. This company happens to be the same manufacturer of the red dot sight I have, so there isn’t a problem mounting the sight on the base attached to the shotgun rib.

That is fortunate for me since each different red dot manufacturer uses a different mounting plate for their sight and you need the correct plate to mount the sight on the gun. I haven’t bought any of these kits yet, but I know where I can get them. I’m holding off until I get a chance to shoot the already set up shotgun and see if the red dot actually helps or makes sighting worse.

Another option for mounting a red dot on a shotgun involves buying a red dot specifically made to be mounted on a shotgun receiver. This sight is made by a different manufacturer than my previous reference, but it’s still a quality sight. The hang up for me would require getting the shotgun receiver drilled and tapped to fit the mounting base which is part of the sight itself. If your shotgun comes from the factory already drilled and tapped for sights on the top of the receiver, chances are this red dot can be mounted with no additional work on the shotgun required.

So far, I’ve been trying to avoid making any permanent physical changes to the shotguns until I know using a red dot sight would be advantageous. The removable scope mount I have set up can be easily changed back to a “normal” shotgun silhouette. The rib mounting kit doesn’t require any modification to the shotgun either. I don’t have any “newer” shotguns with predrilled factory holes, so that would require a permanent modification if I chose to go that route.

Regarding the two previously mentioned shotguns with sighting ribs, one would require the rib mounting kit because it’s an over-and-under style with no receiver on which to fit the specialized sight. The other could take the specialized red dot, but only if I get it drilled and tapped. This shotgun could be categorized as “sort of” collectable because it’s no longer made and is a “niche” gun (10-gauge semi-auto); not something you would use for upland birds.