Handgun Hunting Afield

 

Matchdot II first impression

I recently received a package containing a Matchdot II Red and a Matchdot II Green tube type optical sights. My first impression was they were well built and  my first look through the sights before mounting them was a welcome surprise. These were far from the sensation of looking through a car window with a dot on it. The quality was immediately visible. This was more like looking through a high quality scope  with the magnification on 1X. The tube is 30MM which allows them to have a great field of view. The adjustment knobs for the dot size and brightness are easily accessed and well marked. The elevation and windage knobs are also easy to access and they are precise. The sights are supplied with rings for mounting. 

Better optical glass

Dot type sights do offer advantages in several types of shooting and hunting situations. As pertaining to handgun hunting the biggest advantage is being able to see the aiming point and the target, but  with the perception of being  in the same focal plane.

To be truthful I shoot some reflex type sights but I have never been a huge fan of most dot type sights. A lot of that stems from the fact that the glass quality in most dot sights leaves something to be desired. I wear glasses and have astigmatism in both eyes as well as being farsighted in one and near sighted in the other.

I started having prescription shooting glasses custom made to deal with the vision issues. The Matchdot II Green from Ultradot has changed the way I view tube sights literally. If you have tried to use tube sights with astigmatism you know all about the flaring and starburst effects. The higher the brightness setting the worse the problem. It is part of life with poor vision. 

The Green Matchdot II works

Ultradot introduced the Matchdot II Green with this statement:

“For those that have vision constraints or where a red dot is not easily visible in an outdoor setting, the Green Matchdot II solves the problem!” They must have heard some of my conversations.

When you are already struggling with your vision the last thing you need is a sight that is more like looking through a window than a gun sight. The second problem I have to overcome is the flaring/starburst effect.

The Matchdot II Green has the ability to not only control brightness but the size of aiming dot as well as offering some target type reticles. The dot sizes are 2,4,6 and 8 MOA. My personal preference is to keep things simple. The dots are less busy to me so it was easy to figure out a dot size and brightness setting that allows me a precise aiming point coupled with a decent sight picture. After a bit of experimentation I settled on the 4 MOA dot at brightness level 4 in the green sight as my go to general setting. I was able to virtually eliminate flaring or starburst effects.  

This was mounted on a 10MM Glock that I limit shots on game to 70 yards. The 4 MOA works great to that distance. If I need more precise aiming, one click on the knob and I am at 2 MOA. 

 

So how did they work out?

I have read several of the recent articles and reviews on the Matchdot II so I already know they handle recoil well and are precise enough for some long range revolver shooting. My big question was how will they work for my type and style of hunting?

A lot of my hunting involves close quarter situations in hardwood stands that usually border agricultural fields. Since there weren’t any hunting seasons open I decided to do some practice scenarios that simulated actual hunting situations. It would be easy enough to see how the optics would perform when real hunting opportunities presented themselves. I had a good supply of printed deer targets and a stand to hold them so setting this up was pretty easy.

Since I limit the 10MM to 70 yards for use on game there wasn’t a reason to push it any further. I am happy to report that I am able to achieve good shot placement within the range I use that gun, 70 yards so I am very pleased with it. 

 

Green

 I like to keep things simple so it was a simple matter of finding the best compromise within 70 yards. The load I am using and have decided on for this gun shoots a 120 grain Cutting Edge Bullets Raptor 1434 fps. This load proved itself on a large doe during this past deer season.

 When the smoke cleared the simple thing to do was to zero it at 70 yards. I found that sighting it in at 30 yards had exactly the same point of impact at 70 yards. To further simplify things The elevation change from 20 to 70 yards never exceeded 1” and if I had decided to shoot at 100 yards the bullet was only 3” low. I didn’t have to touch the drop compensator  turret.

With the gun sighted in my only issue  was to see if my vision would work with the green dot looking at a true color deer target instead of a white piece of paper with an orange dot in it. With the target set up I backed up to 30 yards. I figured 3 shots would tell the tale. It did. The Cutting Edge bullets cut 3 nice holes in the vitals and my virtual tag was punched. Time to back up to 40 yards. Three more shots and three more tags punched. The lack of magnification wasn’t a factor. I would have no problem killing deer or hogs out to 70 yards and should the need arise to go a little further the sight was up to it. 

Red

The gun I chose to mount the Matchdot II Red on was specifically chosen because It is very accurate. It is one of the early Bangor-Punta Taurus guns. The T441T was probably the finest Taurus revolver ever built.

Fit and finish is on par with the S&W guns from the same era. They were sister companies at the time and it shows on this gun. The plan was the same. Find my best sight in range and keep things simple.  After sighting in with the 2 MOA dot. I started working with the dot size and brightness settings. At this point I was happily surprised to see that I could actually see the red dot enough to make it very usable on this gun.

After pondering the subject for a bit I realized that a lot of the problem with dot optics may be because of the lack of quality glass. I have always blamed the flaring on the way the sights work. Now I feel like there is more to the equation. Good glass and brightness/ dot size controls make this work.

I set up a deer target that has actual deer colorization. My plan was to use it in a hunting scenario and see how I would fare with the red dot on the brown background of the deer target. I am happy to report I was able to shoot with the Matchdot II Red good enough to hunt out to 100 yards which is my self imposed distance limit with this gun. 

They just work

After shooting the guns with the Matchdot II sights I drew a simple but logical conclusion. They work and work well. I can shoot smaller groups with scopes on these two guns. That should be expected. We are talking about 2X and 4X magnification.

What the Matchdot II sights offer the handgun hunter  is fast target acquisition and ease of finding the aiming point on your target. I am not saying the accuracy is bad. It is completely adequate for the hunting situations these sights would be used for. When I took them into the dark woods to see how they would perform, It was apparent that there would be times when they would certainly have an advantage over a conventional scope and a tremendous advantage over open sights.

The best I can tell, I can gain another 10 to 15 minutes of shooting time at dusk and that is huge. I have shot a lot of big mature bucks right in that time frame. With open sights in a blind during the last minutes of shooting light the Matchdot II will get the nod every time. 

What I like about the Matchdot II:

• Great field of view.
• I was able to find a great compromise setting by being able to choose the dot size and the brightness setting. I was able to achieve zero flaring or starburst effects with minimal effort. 
• I love the fact that there is an off position between brightness settings.  In lower light I simply turned it to the dimmer side of off. In brighter light I just flipped it to the brighter side of off. All of this can be done without even looking. 
• The glass quality vs. other tube sights I have used is much better. There is zero distortion at the limits of the field of view but without the sensation of looking through a window. 
• Having the ability to select reticles is nice but in my case just changing dot sizes was the bonus. While I am sure the other reticles will appeal to some they weren’t applicable to my use of the sight.

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What I didn’t like about the Matchdot II:

While I love the bullet drop compensator I feel like the actual knob can use some improvement. I understand that its position above the erector can’t change but possibly a mushroom top attachment so that while the gun is already in a rested position and the dot on target, the knob  could easily be operated  without changing the position of the gun. 

My overall assessment is that it is a great product at a fair price that will work well for handgun hunters. With the availability issues of proper handgun scopes, the Matchdot II is a viable option.

One of the biggest problems with aging eyes and handguns is the eye’s ability to focus on the target, the front and rear sights of a handgun. Trying to coordinate all three objects at the same time is a chore. This sight certainly makes it easier to put the sight picture and aiming point together. The concerns I have heard over using a battery powered sight bothered me on the start but these sights have tremendous battery life. It is also easy to keep a spare battery and it literally takes seconds to change it. Before hunting season just slipping in a new battery will easily last all season. So there you have it. I got to use these on a trial basis and I am glad that I did. There is definitely going to be at least one gun set up with a Matchdot II Green this year. 

 

Happy Handgun Hunting – RDY 

Ultradot Matchdot 2 Red and Green by: Corey Burton

 

http://www.ultradotusa.com