Last year, Burris was kind enough to send me one of their Speedbead sights to test out on a demo Remington 1100. I liked it, and I thought it was a cool little doodad to have on a gun. Unfortunately, I didn’t own the 1100 that was the test bed, and Burris didn’t make a mount for my Yildiz. In fact, reader Totenglocke summed it up best; “It just sucks because this is something I would buy, but if you have a limited range of what shotguns you can mount it to, that definitely decreases it’s usefulness.” The folks at RedRing apparently agree . . .
RedRing’s designed their sight to fit almost any shotty out there. Simply put, if your shotgun has ribs between 5 mm and 11.5 mm, it can accept a RedRing. And that’s absolutely awesome. To make things better, instead of using a red dot like the Speedbead, the RedRing uses a, well, you guessed it, a red ring that corresponds to your shot burst diameter at 20 meters.
The whole body is made of anodized aluminum with weatherproof buttons and a general feel of quality craftsmanship. All of the buttons (both of them) are within reach while you have both hands on the gun. All you’ll really need to do with them, though, is change the brightness of the ring if the autosensor doesn’t do it to your liking. I never had issues with the sensor, but for the sake of testing, we can confirm that the buttons change the visibility of the ring.
The biggest question I had when I put it on my gun was, “Does that damn thing work?” And yes Virginia, it appears to work just fine. Now keep in mind that I’m an occasional clay buster who has gone bird hunting twice in my life. So when I go shoot a round of skeet with my coworkers, it usually takes me a few rounds to get warmed up before I start to get in the rhythm. And some days, it doesn’t happen at all.
I took 20 minutes to mount the RedRing (it can be done in 5), walked out to my private range, missed two or three and then started busting clays. When I actually focused on fundamentals, I was unstoppable. It didn’t matter what Nick threw out of the launcher, I was going to hit it. So does it work? Hell yeah. It works great.
Specifications: RedRing Shotgun Sight
- Battery: AAAA 1.5 V
- Battery Life: Approximately 300 hours. Auto shutoff after 4 hours
- Weight: 4.7 oz without mounts, 6.8 oz with mounts
- Length: 5.3 in.
- Width: 1.7 in.
- Height: 1.8 in.
- Material: Anodized Aluminum
- MSRP: $899 ($749 promo price)
Build Quality * * * * *
The RedRing is really a sight to behold. Absolutely beautiful build quality, solid controls, and a pleasing aesthetic appeal.
Instructions * * *
I scratched my head a couple times during the installation, but once I figured out the message, I got the RedRing installed in a matter of minutes. Once installed, things are solid and stayed that way through heavy 3” loads.
Overall Rating * * * *
I was pleased as punch about the RedRing. I’d like to see future revisions a little slimmer if possible, and the, ahem, price could certainly come down. But, from a pure performance standpoint, it works. And it works nicely.