With the number of people shooting today and the many different styles there is an optic for every one, for every situation. Because of this fact, there are a lot of new options for optics on the market today to fit every situation. The other day I was shooting my Ruger mark 3 and it got me thinking about a red dot optic for my pistol, which is my topic for today. For a pistol, you want a smaller less obtrusive optic. I’m thinking of optics for quick shooting, so magnification isn’t required, that won’t weigh me down and allow me to get off more accurate shots. Small red dot optics are also popular to mount on or around a larger variable power optic, good for close quarters situations that would be less that desirable with a high power optic. 3 gun and tactical shooters use this type of set up, along with our troops over seas. Another good use is if you’re shooting a pistol discipline that allows an optic, you can have faster follow up shots, stay more accurate, and shoot from more angles and awkward shooting positions. Many manufactures make sites, but these are the ones I like. My ruger is stainless, so I really like the Aimpoint micro R-1 is a neat little optic, you can adjust the brightness of the dot and it has great battery life. Aimpoint makes products for the armed forces so you know your buying quality and a site that can last a long time. This site would work well on a rifle for 3 gun matches and dedicated hunting or shooting handgun. Check out all the Aimpoint micro scopes for a great compact optic. Another compact optic would be the Burris fastfire sights. These are the smallest sites I’m going to talk about today, so they could fit any situation that would require a very small red dot reflex site. A friend of mine has a Burris fastfire II on a glock 34 and it’s a blast, (no pun intended) to shoot. The last optic is a little large, but with a little imagination I think you could make it work the Eotech xps sight. This would probably be the quickest sight as far as target acquisition and the sight also feature a quick detach knob so you can transition the sight from one firearm to another. Any of these sights would work well in a situation where a smaller sight would be needed. That’s the word from sportoptics.com.