Lasers-Opinions Please

[daleamn]

Lasers---I am ignorant on the subject.
A friend asked me about them...

1. Would you recommend them for shotgun/rifle/handgun?
2. Red or Green?
3. What about lasers that also have lights?

I don't have any information on this. On doing some research there are a LOT of lasers/lights available even at $100 which at todays prices isn't that expensive.
Please weigh in on the subject.

[westhope]

Red dots. Not lasers.

If the is nothing behind your target for the laser to hit, you have no idea where you are pointing.

[Holland&Holland]

Red dots. Not lasers.

If the is nothing behind your target for the laser to hit, you have no idea where you are pointing.

Except the torso of your target.

[Shots-on-target]

Personally not a big fan of lasers on shotguns / rifles - but my old eyes appreciate them on pistols!

Red is great in low light - but you will not see it in sunlight. Green is much better in sunlight.

I don’t have lights on mine (because I wanted to keep them lighter / more compact). I know several people that do and like them. FWIW - I’ve been very happy with Crimson Trace lasers. I like the CMR206 for the nightstand gun - you can flick it on / off easily - may have tactical advantages walking down a hallway w/o announcing you are coming (by the bad guy being able to see the laser bouncing around on the walls.) Also, you can change the battery w/o removing the entire laser from firearm and possibly changing the point of impact. For carry, I really like their LG437 for my Kahr - it holsters well and is automatically “on” when you grip the pistol.

To westhope’s point - through practice, I use my iron sights (even though somewhat blurry) to get 95% on target and by then the laser shows up and you can be more precise. The worst part about lasers - EVERYONE at the range can tell how shaky you are LOL.

[Lumpy]

Obviously you should be practiced in using your fixed sights. But I put a red laser on my nightstand gun for the following reasons:

• If it's too dark for my old eyes to see my fixed sights, I'll need the laser.
• The intimidation factor if an intruder sees that dot right over their upper center of mass.
• If for any reason I couldn't line up my pistol properly and had to shoot while holding my gun at some weird-ass angle, I could use the laser

[Markemp]

I have a Lasermax installed in my Glock 19, and highly recommend it for a handgun. It replaces the guide rod so the gun maintains a nice clean look. The battery lasts a long time (5+ years).

The benefit of it that surprised me the most was how effective it was as a training tool. You can see where your sights line up with the laser dot on the target. You pull the trigger and when the gun fires, the light goes off, a hole appears in the paper in that spot, and the light comes back on. You can really tell if you're trigger pull is affecting the shot, because you can see the light scurry off to the side if you don't have a good pull. There is no question about why your shot went 4" to the left on that last shot. The laser doesn't lie.

Not sure the benefit would translate to shotguns or rifles as much, but for handguns, absolutely recommend a Lasermax.

[daleamn]

Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate the advice and am passing it on. I think I'll recommend they NOT get a laser unless they want to get it as a training aid or range toy and I do NOT want to denigrate range toys. I've got stuff that qualifies as a 'range toy' and I enjoy it and have a lot of fun with some stuff that really has very little 'real world' applications like for hunting or self-defense.

That said, the question got me looking at these things and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get one for myself and try it out as a range toy.
https://www.crimsontrace.com/products/t ... 730-1.html

It's a light and laser combination that fits on a rail so it could be used with a rifle, shotgun or pistol. The thing is I can get one for about half the price listed in the Crimson Trace ad so I'm pretty sure I'll get one. I'll update this post in the future one way or another.

Once again thanks for the advice.