Has anyone tried a laser on a DG rifle for close-up work?
Seeing that most professionals in SF/LE who see close-quarter action do have lasers installed, and seem to quite like the setup for the advantages it gives in quick, close, confused situations, it would make sense that the same advantages would be beneficial in dangerous game hunting, especially when things go pear-shaped.
So my question is, has anybody tried that? And if yes, how did it turn out?
I use quite a few of these on other, lesser recoiling guns. Crimson Trace 206 Green. Green is a must for any outdoor use. On the rifles I am using them on, they are superb for the purpose intended. I have used them at night, with a light to dispatch several night critters with extreme success.
So a few years ago I had exactly the same thoughts as you are having and decided to give it a go.
I had a spare rifle laying about, it just happened to be a 475 B&M. Recoil levels are about what a 458 Winchester would be. I always use Leupold QRW Bases on these guns, so I mounted it on the forward base to try it out.
They are extremely light, and very "plastic". On the lesser rifles, mostly semi guns, I always have backup iron sights and on some rifles another optic as well. So these guns always have TWO, if not Three sight systems. Batteries also do not last very long, but are easy to replace. But if you find you have dead batteries in the field, you absolutely must have backup sights, iron at the minimum, and I would prefer iron and optic backup.
In addition I mention "plastic" above, and what I mean is I don't think they are very sturdy for bush use. I can see being in a rough area, banging this against a tree, rock, or riding in a vehicle and getting busted off rather easily. Now, I am sure there are more robust systems than this that would handle the mission. I choose this one on the guns I use because they are light, and they are small. I can have irons and optics that I can see over the top of these when mounted.
The way this one is mounted on this gun for this test work there are no options for other sights, and that would just not be acceptable on a DGR setup. I cannot see the irons and I am using my optic mount for the Trace. Should one find that this was viable, one would have to do a mount to allow for backup sights. My purpose here was just to see if I could get the gun to shoot accurately enough at DG Ranges and if recoil would break the mount, or the Trace.
After 3 rounds to get it sighted in at 25 yards it put 3 more rounds in the same hole, and about as dead center as you can ask for...............
At 50 yards of course the laser dot gets bigger and more difficult to be totally precise, but even with that it shot extremely well.
My opinion is that it absolutely would be a viable option, but the system would need to be robust enough to handle field conditions. One would have to figure out a way to mount it so as to have one or two backup sight systems, for that "just in case moment", sure as hell you get to the point you want to use, and the damn battery goes dead, or some other malfunction, you need backup sights. One neat condition I have is that you don't have to continuously check for sight in, you can do this with your backup sight systems, they will show if the laser is not sighted properly. On lesser guns I have not really had any issues with holding POI with these.
I never really gave it a proper working out, I maybe fired 50 rounds at max, I never experienced any issues with it. I also never took it to the field. But it was fun to play with regardless and proved that with the right system it could be used.
