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Article in Norwegian Magazine Jakt
3/18/2011
To read original article in norwegian, please click the thumbnail below.
IS REDRING THE GREAT SALVATION?
Redring is the world’s first and only specially developed optical sight for shotgun shooting! We tested it.
My first introduction to the Redring was at the Nordic hunting and fishing festival, where I was promised to be able to test Redring while bird hunting last fall. The plan was to do some test shooting, but most of all to get hunting experience with Redring. But not everything goes as planned, and delays for new products in the hunting and weapons industry are not unusual. The inventor of the Redring is P.O. Østergren, who is well known among Nordic hunters and shooters. I finally got my first Redring in January, and it was only a question of digging out the clay pigeon machine for the test shooting.
Simply put the Redring is an optical sight with an illuminated target sight. But in contrast to known sights such as Aimpoint, the Redring doesn’t have a red point, it has a red ring, like the name says.
At 20 meters distance, the ring corresponds to an area roughly 60 cm in diameter – roughly the size of the shot burst from a quarter bore choke at the same distance. Redring is parallax-free and what you see in the ring is an image of the target. You can shoot with both eyes open, the image in the sight should be correct regardless of whether you are using your dominant eye or not. When the ring is in the correct position in comparison to the target, your shot will hit the mark.
The old discussion whether to use a sight or not is naturally always relevant for shotgun shooters. But one thing that isn’t always so easy is to teach beginners is that even though shotgun shooting is about pointing, you must have control over the sight/muzzle in order to hit your mark. With Redring, you have to be asleep in order not to see whether the ring is in position for the target.
Shotgun purists will probably feel that an optical sight on a shotgun is sacrilege. At least until they have tested a Redring … The rifleman who is struggling to hit their targets with shot, will probably find that the Redring solves a lot of the mystery in shotgun shooting. It is easy to see where the ring and the target is when firing the shot. And for hunting instructors and other people who are teaching beginners the noble art of shotgun shooting, it is a lot more concrete to explain where the orange clay should be in relation to the red ring than to explain the relationship between the clay pigeon, sight/muzzle, eye and rest on the stock.
With Redring, it is so easy because the red ring is where the shot will land after squeezing the trigger. Of course skewed pigeons and side shots are another thing. But the ring can still be of help. It shows how far you are in front of the clay pigeon. Even if the rifleman needs a little practice not to aim for the middle of the clay pigeon.
On to the test shooting. With a Redring on a Remington 11-87 loaded with Gyttorp Steel Max, it was easy to shoot the orange clays from the sky. With a Redring on a Remington semiautomatic, 23 of the 25 pigeons were hit. The two that escaped were real flock birds, as the trigger pull came while the orange was inside the red ring. As you know, that’s when you are bound to miss…
My impression is that it is extremely easy to see if the target image or sight image is correct with Redring on the shotgun. You could almost say that it is enlightening. I probably aim more with Redring on the shotgun than without it, but it is simply easier to use and to explain to a person who has no experience with shooting a shotgun. Correctly installing and adjusting the stock is probably also not as important with a Redring on the shotgun.
Automatic shut-off after four hours is not practical for a hunting sight, since it isn’t easy to keep track of time when you are hunting. Eight hours or more would have been better in my opinion. But this helps to save the battery power. Only Aimpoint has been able to break the code for battery life. Redring is in a class with most viewer-sights using a red dot. But 300 hours is certainly enough for a year’s worth of hunting for most people. Changing the battery couldn’t be easier on the Redring.
Besides, I also had to test shooting with the Redring turned off. There was no problem hitting the pigeons – just get the orange in the middle of the frame that Redring shows in the viewing field – and it shatters.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. But my prediction is that the Redring will be one of the most talked-about and discussed products of the year, and many people will try to make shotgun shooting easier with an optical sight. From my perspective, I am sure that I will get a Redring for hunting this coming fall, and to try it out in practice. Both in terms of shooting and to see how the Redring tolerates the variable conditions in the fall.