Red dot sights are amazing for people like you and I. I too have aging eyes. When I bought my red dot, the dot did not look perfectly round. It turns out that I have a slight astigmatism. I was due for a new pair of prescription glasses, so I had the doctor check, and he addressed this issue with my new glasses.

Now, the dot is round, and I am shooting better than ever. I have a vortex venom, that I have used on a couple different guns. I would reccomend a red dot with a 3moa dot for your application. I have a 6moa dot. I thought this would be best for handguns, but now wish that I got the smaller 3moa dot.

 

I put a Bushnell TRS-25 on my PC-9. Amazon had them for about $50 give or take. The Bushnell is my go to "cheap" optic. I have used them on many rimfires and my daughter has one on her 20 gauge squirrel/deer gun.
I got a Vortex Venom at Christmas when Rural King was running a 20% off coupon. I have it mounted on a handgun currently. It works very well.

I much prefer the Ruger over the Keltec. I did not care for the tube stock or the sights on the Keltec. Was next to impossible to wear a set of muff type ear protection and shoot the Keltec. I ended selling mine a week after I got it.

 

If you’re gonna use the rifle for self defense, what is it worth to you knowing that you have an optic that is rugged, maintains its accuracy, has decent glass quality and has decent battery life for readiness? Only you can answer that question. I’d recommend spending $150-300 on a quality optic and mount. I have an aimpoint PRO on my go to rifle. At minimum go with the bushnell trs red dot line of products as they have shown to be reliable for the price.

 

Old eyes also....Ruger 10/22 , Ruger MKII (both in 22 LR) and a S&W model 64 38 special , NRA Bullseye revolver ...every one has a millet SP-1 Red Dot Sight in weaver rings.
they work , last forever and usually go for in the $60.00 price range.
The SP-1 on the MKII is 15 years old. Wonderful for old eyes....After decades of shooting the eyes started to go...I had given up pistol shooting untill I discovered the SP-1 mounted on the Ruger MKII... My goodness...I could shoot again and hit what I was aiming at !!
Gary

 

I mounted a Vortex Spitfire AR Prism Scope model SPR-200 with the DRT reticle on my .300 Blackout AR-15. I liked that the reticle is black until it is turned on. I can choose between green or red illumination too.

They are a little pricey, but if you can find one one sale you might like it.

The nice thing about Vortex is they have a lifetime warranty on everything. Even their red dots.

 

I have this Spitfire on my IWI X95. It does not blur with astigmatism. It is NOT a red dot but it is a prism scope. You focus the Spitfire to your eye and you have a sharp image that is a nice black when the scope is turned off and your choice of red or green illumination when on. It comes in 1X or 3X models. The 1X model will not work with a separate inline magnifier. I am quite happy with mine.

 

I like the Sig Sauer Romeo 5 Red Dot. 50,000 hour battery life, 2 MOA dot, and auto on/off. You can find them on sale for about $140.

 

The auto on/off feature intrigued me greatly on this optic. Mainly the auto on

 

no centerfire ammo is cheaper than a 9. The new ruger carbine is great.

 

Which is one of the main reasons I ultimately decided on this weapon. When I was going to get the Walther, I originally was looking at it in .45, until I saw the price of the ammo...so I called a buddy of mine who is a LEO, and he said ballistically (is that a word?) there is not a lot of difference between 9mm and .45, and with the 9, you get a bigger magazine. He said just get some high quality jacketed hollow points in 9 mm and I would be fine. He suggested Winchester Ranger, which are very hard to find.

 

Ditto on the Bushnell trs 25. I have one on my pcc 9. With a riser you can still use the iron sights as well. The trs 25 is the cheapest of my 4 red dots but seems to work as well as ones I paid 3 times as much for.

 

Don't even have to use a riser. I have my Bushnell mounted on the standard low mount. Looking through the tube, both the front and rear sights are visible and usable. Nice being able to use the same cheek weld with both options.

 

thanks for the input. It is much appreciated. I did notice none of you said TruGlo

I should be receiving the "let me check on it" TruGlo today from Amazon...I did mount the suspect one on the carbine and aimed at some stuff in the living room running the rheostat (sp?) from 0 to 11. The red dot looked like a dot most of the way through until I got the brightness, I am assuming, too bright. Then it looked like a starburst.

A few of the optics you guys mentioned were on my list of ones to check out. In my research the Sig Romeo5 and the Bushnell kept popping up, after I see the two TruGlos, I will make a determination on which way to go, at less than 50 bucks, I might keep one of the TruGlos and get either the Sig or the Bushnell too.

Neither the Sig nor the Bushnell Magnifies, so I am assuming the "light gathering" effect of the optic helps the old eyes?

 

I happen to have a Bushnell TRS-25 and a SIG Romeo 5 red dot sight, as well as a Vortex Spitfire 1X prism scope.

They are all good optics in their own way. In order to determine which is best, I think you need to consider some priorities.

The Bushnell is inexpensive and has pretty good clarity and dot quality for its price range. It is a compact red dot tube sight. It comes with a low mount that will probably allow you to cowitness your iron sights through the sight tube. This can be an important consideration if you are considering the carbine for use in a self-defense role. Being able to cowitness your iron sights may be very important if your battery dies, the dot generator fails, or you do not have time to turn the illuminator on. In order for the unit not to totally obscure your sight picture, the RDS would need to be mounted low.

The Romeo 5 is excellent. As might be expected given its higher price tag, the unit has better dot quality and clarity than the Bushnell TRS-25. The MOTAC motion-detecting instant-on feature works very well and advertised battery life is excellent. The unit comes with a low mount and a higher riser. The low mount places the unit a bit higher than the Bushnell unit. I have not seen the Ruger PCC in real life so I don't know if the Romeo 5 would mount low enough to allow cowitness of your iron sights.

The Spitfire 1X is a non-magnified prism scope but Vortex also makes a 3X magnified version of the scope. These scopes have etched reticles that are visible even with illumination off, but can be illuminated red or green. The Spitfire is significantly larger and heavier than either the Bushnell TRS-25 or Romeo 5 and cannot be mounted as low. The Spitfire 3X would be larger and heavier still. These units do not have motion detection on but don't really need to have with the etched reticles.

The Spitfire 1X scope has what Vortex refers to as a dual ring tactical. In addition to the central red dot, the reticle has two concentric circles with the dot in the center allowing a very rapid sight picture acquisition. The Bushnell TRS-25 and Romeo 5 have only the dot. Picking up a relatively small red dot very quickly in a CQB scenario might not be too easy. There is a version of the SIG Romeo 5, the XDR which has a 65 MOA circular illuminated reticle surrounding the red dot. This unit runs on a single AAA battery instead of a button battery and also has the MOTAC motion detection instant-on feature. But it cannot be mounted as low as the regular Romeo 5 because the battery compartment is beneath the sight tube, and it is more expensive.

As for the need for magnification, be aware that any degree of magnification will reduce your field of view through the scope and may preclude cowitness of iron sights. This might not be desirable for self-defense purposes. I find that I can do reasonably well without magnification with a red dot sight at 50 yards and my eyes are 15 years older than yours. Some magnification would certainly be desirable for shooting at 50-100 yards, but you are almost certainly not going to be shooting a PCC in self-defense at those ranges. Also consider the limitations of the 9mm Luger cartridge. Like most handgun projectiles, 9mm Luger has a lousy ballistic coefficient in comparison with center-fire rifle projectiles, as well as much lower muzzle velocity. This means a lot of ballistic drop beyond 50 yards. That doesn't mean you can't shoot your carbine at 100 yards and hit with it, but you will have to deal with considerable drop.

Here is a trajectory chart showing the drop of 115 grain 9mm and 135 grain .40 S&W cartridges shot from a Keltec sub-2000 with the same barrel length as the Ruger PCC:

http://www.mcarbo.com/9mm-trajectory-chart-vs-40-s-w-trajectory-chart.aspx

At 50 yards the 9mm projectile has only dropped about an inch and a half, but by 100 yards it has dropped about 10 inches and is falling like the proverbial rock.

 

The SIG Romeo 5 comes with two different mounting height options. Using the low riser places the axis of the tube a bit higher than that of the Bushnell TRS-25 with no riser. If the Bushnell TRS-25 provides for an exact co-witness with the iron sights of the Ruger PCC, I would guess that the regular SIG Romeo 5 (not the Romeo 5 XDR) would provide for a lower 1/3 co-witness.

Having owned and used both the Bushnell TRS-25 and the SIG Romeo 5, I would say that the SIG is definitely better, but it did cost me slightly over twice again as much as the Bushnell. The Bushnell advertises a 3 MOA dot size, but if the light intensity is turned up it does starburst a bit and looks more like a 4 MOA. The SIG Romeo 5 advertises a 2 MOA dot size and I would say that it pretty much remains so at increased light intensity with less tendency to starburst. The instant-on feature of the SIG unit is very nice to have. The emitter turns itself off after 10 minutes of no motion, so you don't burn out the battery if you forget to turn the unit off after shooting. The Romeo 5 turns on at the last intensity setting, so you don't need to "dial it up" every time you turn it on and start shooting.

 

Any input here about the HOLOSUN HS403C? I just got my PC 9 Carbine and have heard good things but am completely open to the red dot input. The HOLOSUN also has solar charging for the battery and the battery is supposed to be lifetime?

 

Many claim that the SIG Sauer Romeo sights are made by the same manufacturer as Holosun, and there is certainly a great similarity in form factor and controls between the Romeo 5 and the Holosun HS403 series.

If I could have found a comparable Holosun model for the same price as I paid for the SIG Romeo 5 I might have done so, but I could not. Personally, I'm not sure how much value the solar charge feature adds as it might be one more thing to go wrong. Certainly, every solar-powered calculator I have owned as stopped working at some point. The advertised lifetimes of the button batteries for the Romeo 5 and Holosun HS403 models is so long that with the motion-detection on and off, I think I would just have a spare button battery on hand.

 

Considering this is a short range application, while RDS will work well, old eyes like mine may want to put a 1-4x. you can buy a brand new Leupold VX-1 1-4x for about $175, just a tad more than some of the mid price RDS.

I have a PCC coming too.. I have some spare RDS and some Leupolds to try out . May add a VX-1 1-4x anyway...

 

I've had My PC9 for a few weeks now and had a couple different optics on it already. First was the Vortex Spitfire 3X prism scope and then the Leupold VX2 3x9x40 in Vortex PRO high rings. The gun shoots equally well at 100 yards with either optic at around 3 1/2 inches for a 5 shot group. Zeroed at 100 yards it is 2 inches high at 25 and near 5 inches high at 50 so I will probably consider this a 50 yard plinker for my own shooting and put the Vortex Spitfire 3X back on and call it good at 50 yards. The Vortex Spitfire is faster to acquire a sight picture with and it has the ability to be illuminated for night time problem solving.

 

I think the gun looks better with the Leupold on it though..

 

RL - thanks for the pic, been wondering how it looks with a scope.

I have a PC9 inbound, been thinking if I can use the 3-9x EFR that I have. From your pic no doubt it will not clear the peep.

I just went ahead to order a VX-Freedom 1.5-4x from OpticsPlanet, the short tube should stay behind the peep. For me It will be a ~75 yds toy, I thinks 4x should keep me happy enough.

 

Another TRS-25 fan here. I've used it on several different rifles I have.

You could also consider a low power optic. I'm a bit reluctant to rely on a battery powered optic for a gun that has to work every time so on my go-to rifle I actually have a 1-3 power Weaver scope.

 

Consider that the PCC uses a pistol round. That means that effective range would be 100 yards (Max); usually less. A low power optic (1-4X) will work just fine and give you a wider field of view. You can see how a 1-4X Burris scope fits on the PCC here in the review of the PCC. The lower power scope fits very well and looks good.

Ruger PC Carbine Review: Part 5 - Range Tests

 

I'm now just heading out to shoot my PC with the ghost ring factory sight. I have both the Leupold and the Vortex sighted in at 100 and just thought I should at least verify that the original sighting system is on target. The more I think about it, the more I believe this should be an open sighted gun for my uses.

 

Ok, I set up a target at 25 yards and sand bagged the PC on my shooting bench and shot 3 shots and the ghost ring sights were printing a little high so I made a little adjustment and verified it was correct with 3 more. Changed the target and shot this 5 shot group. In all, they landed in 1 5/8" with 4 of the shots just under an inch. That is VERY good shooting for me with near 62 year old eyes, 37 degrees and spring time allergies starting!

I then went out to my 5, 8 inch plate rack and shot 17 rounds as fast as I could get sight picture and pull the trigger at 15 yards and scored all hits within about 6 seconds, just guessing. Also, the ammo I used were some of my least accurate reloads out of my SR9E that print about 6 inches at 25 yards, sandbagged. They are 115 grain red coated ACME Bullet Co. bullets with 4.2 grains of Tite Group powder. Recoil was more notable shooting off hand at that fast pace but it was all pretty much straight back and stayed on target on impact. It seemed that if I wouldn't have been trying to hit the 5 different targets, I could have shot one target easily as fast as I could have pulled the trigger without loosing the sight picture.

I'm sold on leaving the optics off this gun for what it will be used for and that is for farm/home/varmint/defense and plinking. next will be the search for a VERY nice light to go on the front rail.

 

I'm just going to use the iron sights, too. A soup can at 40 yards doesn't stand a chance until it finally hides in the weeds. That's as accurate as I need it.

 

Hmmmm ... Scope or RDS?

My aging eyes scream RDS for 25 yds, but scope for beyond... well, both are QD so I can just swap depends on mood

 

Spidermac, not sure if you have decided, but if you want to scope your PCC, check out the new Leupold VX-Freedom.

I have a few VX-2 for my CZs, love them Leupold! Although I was not sure about the new Freedom line, still bought one to try it out anyway. While the tube and the turrets are less refined that the good old VXs, the glass is for sure on par with VX-2 if not better.

They are $180 street price, lower than the VX-2 used to be, but Just on glass quality it is a good value.

Mine is a 1-4x, more than sufficient for 75 yd works, realistically I won’t shoot the PCC for anything past 75 yds anyway....

Happy shopping!

 

Spider, don't own a PC9, so take this for what it's worth.

I own two TRS-25s. One sits on one of my Mini-14s (in .223/5.56), and one on my Beretta CX-4 Storm in 9mm. My interests for a PCC pre-dated the release of the PC9. Had the PC9 been around when I made my choice of a PCC, I might have been tempted as I am a Ruger fan; but it wasn't and - despite my personal opinion of the ugliness of the CX-4 Storm (I'm a traditionalist), I went ahead and spent the big bucks and got one. The fact that it takes my 92FS mags and M9 mags was also a big factor. I love it, by the way...

I took my second TRS-25 off of my other Mini-14 and put it on the CX-4. What a wonder! Not only did the sights co-witness, the dot was exactly at the top of the front iron sight.

I'm a big a big fan of the TRS-25, but wish it had a motion sensor/auto-turn-off. I must admit my 65-year-old eyes would like a scope, and my one bolt-gun has one, as does my 10/22. But at the ranges I mostly use - or would use - my weapons (<100 yards), a dot is fine. The scopes on my 10/22 and Savage are there for convenience (10/22) and for 300-yard shots I might need to take for rabid 'yotes/foxes with my Savage .223. Nothing on the farm more than 300 yards without going into woods.

If you can't co-witness perfectly but can still see the sights without the TRS-25 dot on, you're good. In the heat of a SD scenario at the beginning, forgetting to turn on your 'dot can be fatal beyond 25 yards. Below that, you're probably good with a point-and-shoot. After a LOT of practice...

You may also want to consider a Burris FF-III: a bit more pricey, but smaller and very fine.

I'm a TRS-25 fan for my uses/intended purposes, even with my aged eyes. But other responses should certainly be considered - particularly since many of those are specifically oriented toward the PC9.

Hope this helps. If not...Sorry...

 

@spidermac
Do you have your RDS already? You can visit heartsoftexasarmory website and avail for a $30 discount on their Holosun 501c when you use the coupon code "510C" That piece of glass is awesome. They have it in limited supply. I was able to order one. Hope this helps.