Leupold DeltaPoint Micro

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I've seen it advertised and was intrigued. I have a DPP already and like it just fine so I'll be waiting for your first impressions. My only concern is the size of the window in terms of picking up the dot quickly. Let us know.
 
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This is an unfair evaluation based on assumptions. I have not handled one. I have seen one YouTube review. The reviewer didn’t quite seem to know what to say about it, although he tried to stay positive. My opinion as a red dot sight shooter:

Realistically, this a large, heavy, ungainly, expensive ghost ring sight that just so happens to have glass and a red dot. The small window size severely limits its usefulness for self defense. If it is to be used just as an expensive range toy, then ignore the rest of this post.

However, it’s a ghost ring that doesn’t work because the middle is higher than the top of the former rear sight. Thus lining up the front sight in the middle of the rear ghost ring (as the eye will naturally want to do) will cause the gun to aim low and hit high. Because the window is so small, the front sight can actually obscure the sight picture. Ideally, with such a small window, the shooter would want to make that front sight disappear out the bottom of the little window and still have the dot centered. May as well remove the front sight too.

If you can line this up and find the red dot quickly, you could probably shoot just as well with irons. It appears it would be of little help for fast, threat-focused shooting, the biggest advantage of normally-sized red dot sights that allow hits without aligning the irons.

To detail strip the slide, the sight must be removed to access the back plate.

If carried, especially AIWB, the much extended back of the slide may be uncomfortable and add some difficulty to concealment.

This sight seems to strike out into new territory answering some questions that I haven’t heard anyone ask. I don’t even know what the questions are.

If there is any advantage, it’s the dove tail mounting that would allow the owner to remove it quickly and get his shoot’n iron back in fighting shape.

That’s right; I think it is a silly marketing gimmick.
 
CB3, thanks for your thoughts. I agree that it probably won't work as a true "ghost ring."

My only prior experience with red dots is on rifles. I just mount the gun, and a dot magically appears on my target. I don't have to think about it or look for it.

I hope to someday be good enough with a handgun that when I point at a target, the sights are already (nearly) aligned. But I'm not there yet. My presentation is often sloppy, and then I have to find the front sight so I can align it with the rear. I assume I might have the same problem with a red dot - if the gun is not aligned with my eye, I'll have to "fish" for the dot. A large screen would be more forgiving, but my slide is not milled for a full-size red dot.

I'm hoping that the "tunnel" shape of the Leupold Micro will make it intuitive to align the gun so that I'm looking through the sight. Then I can shift my focus to the target (with both eyes open) and just "see" the dot instead of tilting my head back and straining to focus on the front sight through the bottom of my progressive bifocals.

Anyway, I think it's worth a try, but I have not yet found a vendor that has the thing in stock...
 
rodspade—

I think your reasoning is sound. I’m just concerned that you will likely find this expensive experiment not to your liking.

A lot of people are interested in trying the regular size red dot sight on a pistol. Those of us who have them milled & mounted are almost all willing to let others try our setups with us. Ask at your local range to see if an RDS shooter can be found who would let you shoot with him (/her). For the cost of a few rounds of ammo you might see the advantages to which I referred.

However, be careful of trying a substandard mount. Co-witnessed with irons is a great advantage, and as low on the slide as possible is the best. The higher the RDS is above the slide, the less likely you are to adapt quickly to the concept and the less likely there will be rear iron co-witness.

Except for ammo (hopefully 9mm), your cost would be zero. You might even find two or three shooters willing to do this with you with slightly different equipment.

Good luck on your quest.
 

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Leupold Microdot

Certainly a range of opinions.

At 65 years of age with arthritic hands I'm finding iron sights a bit challenging.

I have a green dot on my S&W M&P 22 and I can burn out the bullseye at 15 yards. I have only irons on my 9mm Shield 9mm and don't do so well.

My 9 is my CC weapon and I really need to have confidence, which is a part of having skill, to hit where I'm aiming. If a microdot helps in any way -- I'm all for it.
 
Redbird1977 said:
Certainly a range of opinions.

At 65 years of age with arthritic hands I'm finding iron sights a bit challenging.

I have a green dot on my S&W M&P 22 and I can burn out the bullseye at 15 yards. I have only irons on my 9mm Shield 9mm and don't do so well.

My 9 is my CC weapon and I really need to have confidence, which is a part of having skill, to hit where I'm aiming. If a microdot helps in any way -- I'm all for it.
Click to expand...

I understand the desire to improve self defense accuracy and confidence.

I think the trade off with this Micro of increased size on a concealed carry Shield would give me pause. The sight picture and gun handling are going to change. For instance, since your rear sight is now higher than a regular Shield iron sight, your presentation of the pistol will have to change. The small size of the window will likely eliminate the option for target focused shooting, as with larger screens, so while slow fire accuracy may increase, rapid fire self defense shooting may be even harder.

Just points to consider before spending a lot of money on something new and not very well tested as yet by shooters like you.
 
I had marked up this product in an American Rifleman magazine for this Christmas. I was hoping the price would fall. It has not, even on Optics Planet, where I often get great deals. It's expensive.

Then I read this thread well and have to agree that it's not ready for my money yet. I'm holding off, hoping somebody else introduces a similar product with a larger sight area. It's just too small a picture. I'm over 65 now and although I beat arthritis back by quitting carbs and sugar, my eyes are still original equipment, as it were.

So I'll watch this market sector closely. Millions of us have perfectly good handguns with open sights, and could benefit from a good retrofit red dot that goes on the back sight dovetail. But the sight picture needs to be adequate.
 
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An acquaintance has one on his Glock 17 and I fired a few rounds thru it, for me it was easier to use than I expected. It is not as fast for me as the conventional style red dot sights mounted on handguns, but easier and quicker to pickup than the stock Glock sights.

Is it worth the cost ? Well personally I have not purchased one, yet.
 
In the video Aaron claims this is a good introduction product for red dot pistol shooting, and he recommends it (only) for that. Otherwise, it’s just too frustrating compared to using a normal size reflex RDS. It’s operational advantage is about 1/3 of what using a common RDS is. About the only advantage is that when you find you don’t like it, you can return your gun to an old fashioned sighted thing again without any gun expense.

At this price point it is expensive for what it does and hard to use. Neither of these attributes makes for a good introduction to red dots.

He opines that if you are done with it (for whatever reason) you should be able to sell it and not lose too much. Maybe.

When this “gateway” optic is expensive and much harder to use than what you might have tried instead, I believe the likelihood is that one will give up on the red dot concept entirely rather than progress to a more competent, easier to use and more expensive RDS system. That to me is a lose-lose proposition.

The initial learning curve on a red dot is fairly steep for most people. Beyond the gear, an experienced RDS shooter can shorten and flatten that curve for the new RDS shooter. So, when an experienced RDS maven like Sage Dynamics has to make up a “gateway” label for the only way to recommend it, after saying he didn’t like the concept, didn’t like the mechanics, and he thought it was difficult to sight in and use, well, I think he’s scraping the bottom of his recommendation barrel.
 
What do y'all think of using an adapter to mount a "real" red dot without milling the slide? I suppose it would sit up higher...
 
It’s like using a .22LR pistol for home defense.
 
rodspade said:
What do y'all think of using an adapter to mount a "real" red dot without milling the slide? I suppose it would sit up higher...
Click to expand...

I'm using the Trijicon dovetail plates for RMRcc's on my Hellcat and Shield Plus. Personally, I like the setup. Also have one on the Umarex pellet gun version of the M&P 45 with a cheap Pinty red dot that has the same foot print as a Vortex Venom which also works well, and I plan on using with an actual Venom when I pickup the fire arm version.
 
Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

I watched a video where the SageDynamics guy said a common problem with learning red dots is that people look at the sight when presenting the gun. Of course, our training with iron sights conditions us to do so. He said the proper way to use a red dot is to fix your eyes on the target and bring the gun into your line of sight without moving your head or eyes.

I decided that the best way to train myself to do that is to get a Holosun with ACSS Vulcan reticle (from Primary Arms). For now, I'll mount it with a EGW adapter instead of milling the slide. If I decide red dots are for me, I'll probably look for a new gun that's "optics ready."

I'm glad Leupold came out with the Micro. I think it's a neat idea, and it piqued my interest in red dots. Hopefully enough people buy it to encourage Leupold to continue innovating.
 
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The Holosun ACSS reticle sounds like the best idea to learn to use RDS yet.
 
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