Open red dot vs Closed red dot?

Hey guys I'm about to buy a red dot sight and can't seem to chose between closed (scope looking) and open (lens is on one side of the base)

What are the pros and cons to each style???



Open or Closed?


EDIT- Couldn't get links to work but the idea is



VS








Edited by sp1kez - 16 November 2008 at 10:07pm

Need opinions before I chose one ASAP please, I have not had the chance to try either type

Both types of sight work fine.

In my opinion NC Star sights should be avoided at all costs.  I have owned/used both of the ones shown in the original post.  The open style one is very ruggedly constructed, but the dot (even at the highest setting) is not quite bright enough to be used easily in normal daylight conditions.  The closed style one has a brighter dot, but is very cheaply constructed.  Mine did not survive the first hit by a paintball that it took.

I personally prefer BSA red dots.  This one has 22 style dovetail mounts which means it will fit most unmodified Tippmanns.  Note that they can often be found cheaper at places like Wal-Mart.  I also recommend that if you get one of these you get a see-through lens cover as well to protect your investment.  (I have had the plastic shot out of my lens cover three times.  Being cheap, I just keep replacing it with a piece of plastic from a piece of bubble packaging that I saved just for that purpose.)

Edited Addition:  Oops . . . forgot to address the pros and cons of each style. 

Downside to the open ones is that you can get paint on both sides of the lens and, depending on how far recessed the lens is, the back can be challenging to clean without the proper equipment.  Paint can also get into the laser emitter aperture and block the beam that makes the dot.  Neither of these are issues with the closed ones.

Downside to the closed style is that if moisture gets inside them you can have internal fogging problems.  This obviously does not occur with the open ones.


Edited by Mack - 17 November 2008 at 11:24am

I have a core red dot, which works great.

I got hit directly on the lens last game, from about 15 feet away. It survived without a problem, although there is still a bunch of red paint all around it now... I need to clean all my gear.

Mack wrote: DEVILDOGCOLLIER wrote: the second one you have posted looks almost exactly like the one i bought yesterday!!  i dont like using the ones with only one lense.  i get better sight acquirement withe the scoped ones bro.  but thats just me.   im pretty accurate with mine.... but trust me, it will be "different" once you put the scope on your marker. It's not actually a "scope" unless it also provides magnification . . . and magnification is pretty useless for aiming in paintball.

 

its not you idea of a "scope"  and it is a red dot 2 lense scope.   scope emplies the whole "2 lense" deal.  i use a   RED LASER DOT 2LENSED SCOPE

DEVILDOGCOLLIER wrote: Mack wrote: DEVILDOGCOLLIER wrote: the second one you have posted looks almost exactly like the one i bought yesterday!!  i dont like using the ones with only one lense.  i get better sight acquirement withe the scoped ones bro.  but thats just me.   im pretty accurate with mine.... but trust me, it will be "different" once you put the scope on your marker. It's not actually a "scope" unless it also provides magnification . . . and magnification is pretty useless for aiming in paintball.   its not you idea of a "scope"  and it is a red dot 2 lense scope.   scope emplies the whole "2 lense" deal.  i use a   RED LASER DOT 2LENSED SCOPE

wow.  someone needs to work on their reading comprehension.

no matter what YOU want to call it, it's not a scope unless it provides magnification, which I'm assuming it doesn't, because in your next post you say you agree that magnification is pointless.  


learn to read.  you have a sight, not a scope.

wikipedia wrote: A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope

wikipedia wrote: A red dot sight, is a non-magnifying firearm sight that uses an illuminated reticle, typically in the form of a red dot.

Again, reading comprehension.

Seeing as the word "scope" was only used once in the whole article, and wasn't used correctly, as wikipedia can be edited by anyone that's intelligent enough to make an account, which doesn't necessarily make them intelligent enough to KNOW anything, I didn't think it all that important, so I left it out.  If you can find the word "scope" anywhere else in that article, and it be used intelligently, I'll be glad to retract my previous statements.

I can haz poll?

^^^ All good points.  ADCO does warranty against paintball damage and while an 8 MOA dot is useless for long range with a real gun it is perfect for what we do with paintball markers.

My only problem with ADCOs is that I like to set my point of aim slightly below where the ball would hit if it had a straight trajectory (to semi-compensate for the arcing trajectory) and the two I had would not adjust down far enough for my liking.  As redneck sounds like he has more recent experience with them than I me, perhaps he will weigh in again and let us know if this is still an issue.