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Old guy open??


TANFARM

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Thoughts on going to an open pistol, Atlas Chaos in particular, my eyes are getting old with the rest of my body. I enjoy my Titan with irons but am tempted to try an open gun . Hope to be able that shoot and love the sport for a few more years anyway.

I guess my questions.......how hard is the transition to red dot, is it easier with near sighted vision, and getting worse. Can I just continue shooting 9 mm minor which I do now or need to re-tool.?

Your thoughts and experiences appreciated....as my dear old Mom said....gettin’ Old ain’t for sissy’s.........

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If your dot is set as low on the slide as possible, it wouldn’t take long to adjust to it. I sold my open gun because the other sports I shot required iron sights and I had a hard time switching back and forth. The situation with those sports have changed now and they’re allowing red dots for carry optics, I’m shooting a Glock MOS with a Leupold Delta Point Pro and having a really good time. Great for my near 70 eyes! Also on the positive side is that it was a lot cheaper than an open gun! 

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I started OPEN when I was 62 years old  (ten years ago)   :wacko:

 

Took a while to get used to it, but dry firing really helped (actually very little dry firing, but a LOT of wet firing).

 

I hesitated to reload 9mm Major (this was ten years ago), but started shooting 9mm minor loads in my TruBor

and then slowly and gradually worked up my reloads to PF 150 and then 160 and then 165+.   Ain't no big

deal reloading 9mm Major - was kind of new a decade ago, but new powders and lots of experience by

other people really made it easy.

 

Good luck with it -    :) 

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One thing you could try is a dovetail adapter for your Titan, and your choice of red dots.  That gets you started for under $400.  There is no rule that says you have to have a comp'd gun in Open.  I know several seniors and super seniors who shoot exactly that.  I shoot my CZ TS with a dovetail mounted reflex sight in Open for Steel Challenge.  I love the pistol and I don't own a gun that would be CO legal.

 

As far as adapting to reflex red dots, it really depends on how high above the bore the dot is.  Mounted to the slide in a rear scallop, you will have no trouble, and you won't have to think about very close or far shots.  Next best is dovetail mounting.  If you frame mount your dot, you are going to have to make adjustments, depending on where you are sighted in.  The worst case is a frame mounted Slideride.  The dot is almost 2" above the bore and you really have to watch where you aim on close and far shots.  For 5 yard head shots I have to hold almost at the top of the target to get an A hit.  Aim at the A zone and you risk hitting a no-shoot hiding the rest of the target.

 

With high mounted dots you have to aim over close targets and under distant ones.   It took me less than a week to get used to drawing a high mounted dot, but several matches before I mastered the high/low bit. 

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I switched to a J-Point a couple years ago. First optic I ever used on a race gun. Transition was pretty easy and I'm really liking it now. As for old eyes...   I'm 55 and wear tri-focals. I had one pair of shooting glasses made that are med distance in the right lens and long distance in the left. It did take a while to get used to those but my sight picture is SO much clearer and I'm no longer shifting my focus back and forth.

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When I switched I went with the 90 degree mount because I was worried about the transition. And it was easy. 

 

Since then I switched to a Deltapoint, the transition took maybe a week of dryfire before I was really consistent. After 3 months it was where I could draw with my eyes closed and put the dot right in front of my eyes. Just takes some repetition. 

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