BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[griz7674]

I leave a week from this Friday for a black bear hunt in Canada. I've been there before and used my Remington 1100 with Buckhammers. At the time, I had a scope on my shotgun.

This time, I am taking my .444 Marlin which I have not had a chance to hunt with yet. All of my shots will be 50 yards or less from the ground and over bait. The place that I purchased my rifle from insisted that I would be very pleased with a holographic red dot site since the only time I will use this rifle is for close hunts. My only concern is low light situations. The biggest of the bears wait until low light to come in and I don't want to be in a situation whereby I cannot see to shoot.

I have looked elsewhere for advice but really did not find any regarding low light situations. I can put a scope on my .444 but I do prefer the lightweight of the red dot. Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Bob

[GBoyd]

Is there a problem with the open sight?

I've always thought levers looked the best when they were left alone. And at 50 yards, there shouldn't be much need for sights above and beyond what came on the gun.

[griz7674]

The issue is when low light arrives. You are looking at black sights on a black bear in low light. It's not a good position to be in.

Bob

[blacktail hunter]

to solve that problem you use finger nail polish in a bright color to paint your open sights

[Redhawk1]

Red-dot's work great, that is what I use on some of my handguns for black bear hunting. Yes the scope will gather light, but in very low light, it is hard to see the cross hair's. With the red-dot you will see it in the lower light conditions.

I would say, find someone with both and go into the woods and see how they compare and work for you.
I am leaving on my black bear hunt on the 23rd to Maine, I will be taking my handguns only, a 510 GNR revolver with open sights, and a back up Encore 510 GNR with a EOtech holo sight for low light conditions.

[atomikall]

I personally don't like red dots but some of my buddies swear by em. I would'nt use one in low light, but thats why I have a 50mm scope, I hated my 32mm for that reason; it was really bad in low light situations. As blacktail stated I would try some automotive touch up paint in bright green or orange. I use it on all my shotguns and some rifles it works great, just a dab on your sites should brighten them up more than enough. Good luck on your hunt.

[ADKBEAR]

I am not a fan of any hunting optics/sights that rely on batteries. I always try to eliminate Murphy (Murphys Law and all) out of the equation. I always figgured that the biggest big game critter I was hunting would show up and my batteries would be dead :](*,) Now I do have Holo type sight on my .22 for rabbit hunting and like that just fine. Still a 2 lb hare and a 600 lb black bear......well apples and oranges if you know what I mean.
I would scope it. Definetly get a 42mm or larger objective. You also might consider a 30mm tube as oposed to the standare 1 inchers for light gathering qualities.

[Redhawk1]

ADKBEAR wrote: I am not a fan of any hunting optics/sights that rely on batteries. I always try to eliminate Murphy (Murphys Law and all) out of the equation. I always figgured that the biggest big game critter I was hunting would show up and my batteries would be dead :](*,) Now I do have Holo type sight on my .22 for rabbit hunting and like that just fine. Still a 2 lb hare and a 600 lb black bear......well apples and oranges if you know what I mean.
I would scope it. Definetly get a 42mm or larger objective. You also might consider a 30mm tube as oposed to the standare 1 inchers for light gathering qualities.

I have been hunting with red-dots for many years, and never had a battery go dead on me. I have left my Ultra-dot red-dot on for 4 weeks, and the dot was still there. I did this to see how long one would last, never did see actually how long it lasted, I got tired of waiting for it to go dead.

Also I put new batteries in at the beginning of the hunting season.

[atomikall]

These days too many things rely on batteries I would use a normal scope just my point of view.

[Redhawk1]

atomikall wrote: These days too many things rely on batteries I would use a normal scope just my point of view.

To each his own. I use both.

[d-max]

get the green with red dot open sighs this what i have on my 444, everything i aimed at within 100 yards drops.