What years did Red Dots come around?

When did red dot sights start to replace iron sights as the normal equipment? What span of years did this transition take place?

Somewhere before 1980 Jason.. 1980 was the 1st time Perry was won with one if memory serves. Joseph Pascarella

won with an Oxford dot and grip mount.

Before putting all my efforts to high power rifle, I dabbled a bit with bullseye pistol. That was 1987. At that time most of the local league shooters were still using irons. A couple used handgun scopes and a couple used Weaver Quick Points. I think the Aimpoint 1000 came out around that time. It as small and low and became popular for pistol. From there on dot sights developed quickly I think. 
One of the shooters I shot with back then is still using his Quik Point on his 22. If you think an Aimpoint 9000 is big!

My mentor, the late Bob Brown was using Bushnell Phantom optic in the late 1960's on his Browning Medalist .22 pistol. I can't remember if he was using on his 45 or not. So optics have been around for a while.
Jon

FYI - introduced in 1970's

Had one of those quik points on my 1100 for shotgun matches back then. Still have it

Used a Mark 3 in about 1983-84.

jglenn21 wrote:Somewhere before 1980 Jason.. 1980 was the 1st time Perry was won with one if memory serves. Joseph Pascarella

I shot a 2700 at Ft. Sam Houston around the very late 70's or very early 80's. The All Army Reserve pistol team was there and Pascarella was there with the All Guard Team. His Oxford sight drew a lot of attention from some of the other top shooters. No other shooter used an electronic sight at that match. I think that the Aimpoint started to become popular during the 1982 National Pistol Matches when a few top shooters had them on their pistols.

If memory serves, Pascerella won the National Championship in 1981 using a red dot.  It got everyones attention and a lot of us starting gearing up to shoot dots.  Most used Aimpoints on grip mounts and they were very heavy plus the grip mount placed it awkwardly high above bore line.  Ultra Dot entered the game shortly thereafter and was much lighter so we could mount them on the slide.  That was a much better alternative and the rest is history.
Phil

Meet Joe

james r chapman wrote:Meet Joe

Thanks for the memories. This was before Joe showed his dark side. I enjoyed the article about Bill Toney. Besides being a former National Pistol Champion in bullseye pistol, he excelled in PPC. He was Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol Del Rio Sector before my time. When I was detailed to the radio room, I did get to hear some great stories from the janitor who was around when Toney was Chief. I found out through others that the janitor, was a disabled vet from WWI (mustard gas).

BE Mike wrote:This was before Joe showed his dark side.

There are certainly some stories. The ones that I've heard have been second- or third-hand, so I won't repeat them in public.

That aside, among Pascarella, Lenardson, and Zins, there sure are a lot of Ohio boys who have won the Harrison Trophy over the last 40 years. That's not even claiming Bonnie or Jim

james r chapman wrote:Meet Joe

That was a great read, and I only skimmed it. Pretty sure I saw a young Jim Chapman in there holding a scattergun

That takes me back to my days of being a pre-teen, bored out of my skull at the shooting range, reading whatever was on the tables.

Mrs. Bickar is gonna be asking me, "What are you reading?" for a while...

john bickar wrote:

james r chapman wrote:Meet Joe

That was a great read, and I only skimmed it. Pretty sure I saw a young Jim Chapman in there holding a scattergun

That takes me back to my days of being a pre-teen, bored out of my skull at the shooting range, reading whatever was on the tables.

Mrs. Bickar is gonna be asking me, "What are you reading?" for a while...

LOL

Thank you for the link James! I love reading older articles of shooters from before my time. Way cool!

john bickar wrote:

BE Mike wrote:This was before Joe showed his dark side.

There are certainly some stories. The ones that I've heard have been second- or third-hand, so I won't repeat them in public.

That aside, among Pascarella, Lenardson, and Zins, there sure are a lot of Ohio boys who have won the Harrison Trophy over the last 40 years. That's not even claiming Bonnie or Jim

Joe was living in New Mexico for some time.