Pistol red dots…how important is back up irons?

[sheep dog]

For those who rock the red dot How important is back up irons? Are they necessary in your opinion? Why or why not?

So far all my dots have either suppressor height sights or cowitness cuz it’s direct mount with low profile dot
I’m looking to through a holosun 407k on a hellcat pro but it requires a adapter plate (c&h precision is the only one I’d use) which creates its own potential issues but because of that plate ya loose co witness and ya can’t direct mount the holosun without altering slide so it got me thinking do ya care if ya have cowitness or not with a quality dot?

 

[Gingerbeard Man]

Irons are forever..... batteries are not.

 

[steviesterno]

Irons are forever..... batteries are not.

I’ve broken ~3 sets of irons and only one red dot so…..

The rear window of the dot acts as a ghost ring sight, so it is kind of a back up. Also the Holosun’s have a rear iron sight built in. I’m happy with mine and low/standard irons on my 365xl

 

[Boot71]

Maybe I'm paranoid about it, more than I should be, but I don't even want a gun that doesn't have quality irons. Be it pistol, rifle or scattergun.
I've got optics of some sort on all types of firearms, but even my deer rifle has a qd scope mount and a good set of iron sights. Seems to be cheap insurance against Murphys law.

 

[Bennyboy]

My only experience is with an RMR and while I trust the optic a lot, I have seen water smear the dot on the lens or if it get in the emitter, no dot at all. Of course, a quick wipe or blow on the emitter fixed both.

I like the idea of backups though.

 

[sheep dog]

This was a shield smsc optic. It fell off the lil table at gun range. Wasn’t mine but a member sent me pics of when it

happened. I guess the “polymer window is stronger” is not completely true.

Shield smsc can mount flush without plate and can give access to use of irons with no issues it not sure I want another smsc if a fall from that height will result in this. I’ve seen holosun drop tests and they hold up

 

[4ssss]

I went to the range yesterday, picked up my gun, put a mag in, lifted to sight, and.............nuttin. Dead battery. I always keep an extra or 2 in the range bag, but I'll be checking the dot before I leave the house now. I don't think I had anywhere near the 20,000 hours Sig says the batteries are good for. I could have used the iron sights though if I had to.

 

[CrzTyler]

I tried optics on handguns but I prefer quality irons.

When my eyes get as old as y’alls I’ll probably say the opposite

 

[spencer60]

Buy a quality RDS and you can forget the irons, they can actually screw you up. A lot of competition shooters are removing their irons so they don't have their monkey-brain trying to acquire sights that aren't useful anymore.

For a self defense pistol you can always center the target in the window and get a decent sight picture if the RDS goes down... Which with moderns (quality) RDS's will never happen.

 

[Red Squirrel 556]

All of my stuff is 1/3 cowitness including the handguns.