Redring – The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib – Range Report

Authors For Shotguns Gear Reviews Paul Helinski
Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
The Redring shotgun sight mounts on your vent rib and gives you a unique sight picture for any type of shot load. It is mounted on a Mossberg 835 Ultimag.

Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
GunsAmerica President Jim Van Gilder with an Osceola turkey taken with the Mossberg and Redring at Kissimee River Hunt & Fish, Okeechobee, Florida.

Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
It doesn’t matter where your head is positioned with the ring. It will always be the approximate edges of your shot pattern at 20 meters, or 65 feet.

Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
The circle gets lighter and darker depending on the brightness of your target.

Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
You can’t see the circle from the front, and even this red reflection can’t been seen more than five yards away.

Redring - The Illuminated Shotgun Sight That Mounts On Your Rib - Range Report
There is no mystery to the way the Redring works. This little flashlight is aimed at the prism, which reflects it back to the shooter.


Redring USA
https://www.redringusa.com/

With some things, once you try it you can never go back. That is the case with the Redring, a unique illuminated sight for shotgun sports. It doesn’t fit a Picatinny rail. The Redring is for shotguns that have what is called a “vent rib” on the top. You probably have one on your duck gun, but you never thought to yourself that a red dot type sight would be useful. Shotguns, as a rule, are pointed, not aimed, so nearly all shotguns meant to shoot actual shot loads have nothing more than a plain brass BB on the end, because that should be enough to get you on target. The BB works great, and historically served sportsman well over the generations, but it might just be time to move on. The Redring isn’t a dot, it is a dashed circle, and the circle represents your shot pattern edges at roughly 20 meters. We found the Redring a pleasure to shoot, and it solves a lot of problems that can get you into trouble in the field. At an MSRP of $899, currently discounted from Redring for $749, this is definitely a luxury toy to enhance your shooting, but if you can afford it, the Redring is something you won’t want to shoot without after you give it a try.

This is the company video on the Redring. It’s a cool toy.

This isn’t a new product, but as a testament to the thoughtfulness of the original design, they are still in version one of it 4 years later. Redring has only been available in the US, however, since last fall, so don’t worry, you haven’t been living in a cave if you have never heard of it. If Media Day at SHOT Show hadn’t been so insanely cold we would have carried a piece about it then, because Redring is one of the truly unique new products in the US shooting market this year. Several competition shooters have already signed onto Team Redring, including 3-Gunner Steve Lockwood and Benelli USA team shooter Tim Bradley. There is no mystery to the way the Redring works. You can see the red flashlight that shines on the prism that you look through, but simplicity is part of what makes the Redring work. You just look down your shotgun and shoot, no guesswork required.

The most difficult thing to write about with this product is to nail down exactly what type of shotgun sports the Redring favors. The answer is really all of them, and the key is that ring. If you are trap shooting, the Redring will give you a competitive advantage because the ring is always the shot pattern, no matter what your head position. Duck or turkey hunting, you can pattern your load to the ring size , then use it as a distance calculator. The same thing if you are hunting deer or coyotes with buckshot. The estimated 20 yard shot pattern can be measured to the choke you are using, and it will be easy to calculate just how far your target is away by how much of their body fits inside the red circle.

Something that may surprise you is that not all shotgun ribs are the same. Who knew? The Redring comes with inserts to fit ribs from 5 to 11.5mm. These are little clamps that fit inside the mounting housing, and they are pretty easy to use. Where on your rail you choose to mount the Redring is up to you. Our mount is forward of where a lot of the pictures and videos on the website place the Redring, but it felt right for this gun, a Mossberg 835 Ultimag. The Redring only weighs about 5 ounces including the mounts, so it isn’t going to effect the swing of your shotgun that much regardless of where you place it along the rail. Don’t worry about the angle or the brightness. The Redring adjusts itself to existing metered light conditions for the right amount of brightness for your shot.

3-Gun Shooter Steve Lockwood showing you the Redring in action.

If you watch the videos here, it will give you a very good overview of how the Redring is used for different types of shooting. The most surprising is the tactical and 3-Gun applications. We have all seen Eotech and other holographic and red dot sights on shotguns over the years, mounted on a Picatinny or Weaver type rail. The Redring gives you that kind of sight, specifically made for shotguns, that retrofits to the more common and traditional vent rib shotgun rail. There have been a few “tactical over/unders” now, because for a while there you could only sell tactical shotguns, but as the shotgun sports have picked up steam over the last couple years it is nice to see a sight that can be used both for hunting and tactical and competition work on a traditional Mossberg, Remington, or Browning shotgun. And again, it may be expensive, but once you try the Redring, you most likely won’t want to go back.

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  • baharudin ismail November 26, 2015, 12:00 pm

    i like to buy redcycle optic. how to buy and the price to malaysia. tk.

  • Jim Mapes July 22, 2014, 10:25 pm

    Its a good idea, basically adapting the EOTech style sight ring to a sight fitted for a shotgun. Given the simpler mechanics and less broad features (NV compatibility etc) I’d call it over priced for what it does. And I buy a fair amount of overpriced gear.

  • Jim Dulin December 28, 2013, 1:29 am

    total insanity on price. what makes this worth over 6x as much as the truglo i have on my AR that gives 3 colors and 4 sights? i’ll wait for a couple of years until these guys have some competition and the price comes down to what it’s actually worth, about $50.

  • FatherPatriot December 23, 2013, 9:23 pm

    For less money you could buy a good red dot sight with a circle dot aperature and a mount for it. A better idea would be a vent rib to scope ring or picatinny adapter.

  • Donn December 23, 2013, 5:03 pm

    700 bucks for a shotgun sight?…you are kidding right?…right?
    For 700 bucks it should be laser guided with GPS

  • Jamie December 23, 2013, 11:15 am

    Only will work for no lead targets. You can’t focus on the ring and the clay on a 50 mph station for double.

  • Scott December 23, 2013, 9:28 am

    I use a Winchester with a rifled barrel to hunt deer in Illinois. I have taken over 40 deer in my life, and, including sighting it in, have fired a couple hundred rounds through it. I mounted a 2x Tasco scope, about $40, back in 1991, and it still performs flawlessly. The scope basically affords me the crosshairs with little or no magnification, but allows me to quickly zero in on my target. This red scope seems like overkill, for a sport that just requires skill and patience. Too much equipment for me.

  • C Smith December 23, 2013, 6:30 am

    I paid $300 for the laser on my Glock and thought that was a bit much. It’s probably the next big thing but somebody will duplicate it for half the money and still make a fortune,I’ll wait for that one unless they want to put a reasonable price on this one.

  • Ralph December 23, 2013, 6:16 am

    These guys are way out of line with their price tag.

  • Rob May 30, 2013, 6:38 am

    It’s a cool sight but too expensive. As a cheaper alternative for turkey hunting I clamped a piactiny rail onto the plain barrel of my 12 gauge and mounted a red dot sight onto the picatiny rail. I basically accomplished what this $800 sight does form about $100.

  • Bill May 22, 2013, 2:27 am

    He is using a Winchester SX2. For 3 gun nothing is better you just put the steel or clays in the circle and done. Very fast. Plus no sighting in you just mount it and go. Price is its own worst enemy but if you buy one everyone will want to use it and you will be the man just like Steve. By the way I am running the timer.

  • Keith Garlinger May 8, 2013, 11:01 am

    I’d be real interested in seeing how this sight works on on a shotgun with a rifled barrel for hunting deer using sabot slugs.

    • Administrator May 8, 2013, 4:02 pm

      If you look on their website the 3 gun shooter uses a vent rib 1100.

  • Jay Dee May 7, 2013, 1:35 pm

    How can $749 for this sight be justified? Basic Eotechs can be had for between $450-$550. German made Docter reflex sights are $398-$545 plus mount. Redring’s price point needs to be adjusted.

  • Gary May 7, 2013, 10:23 am

    I just spent most of a year hunting coyotes with a shotgun equipped with different e-sights and using 3.5″ #4 buckshot. They were mounted to a rail and were a bit above the sight plane of the Redring.

    Sights that are higher than the rib force a change in the way the shooter cheeks the gun. You’ll have to lift your face a bit higher than you would sighting with just a rib or a bead. After a while, it becomes second nature to let your face float over the stock comb. Not the perfect form for the club, but accurate nonetheless.

    E-sights are superior on rising shots, whether it’s a coyote that blows by your leg from behind, or a springing teal at the clays range. Those shots and the lead are now visible, not blocked by the barrel. The Redring is a bit lower than an Aimpoint or Eotech. It doesn’t appear to give as good a view all the way around the target. I really liked being able to see under a target.

    These e-sights are deadly. They shift “pointing” almost into the realm of aiming. They really force the shooter to aim small, not just on still targets like a turkey. Not as fast as a skeet, but some of the coyotes were coming, going, crossing, veering, jumping, or reversing course at 35 mph.

  • Pops May 7, 2013, 10:00 am

    Way too much money. For the black rifle equivalent, the only reason Eotech’s and Aimpoints are so expensive is because of the military contracts those companies hold. Puts more demand in the civilian market, and helps justify the cost they charge on their military contracts. This sight, while innovative, and a lot more slender, needs to have a price that most hunters can afford.

    • Administrator May 7, 2013, 10:22 am

      See what China addiction has caused everyone? We have become entitled to cheap goods made with slave labor.

  • Ken April 24, 2013, 12:17 pm

    I just returned from the first week of turkey hunting here in Michigan.

    A great piece of gear but the makers have to be real about cost. I’ve used hevi-shot and fire sights to kill my last five birds. That about $40 bucks worth of ammo and sights.

    I suppose if some makers are selling black rifles for $2000 to $ 3000 they expect a mere $650 or so to be no big deal.

    Wrong again, folks

  • Ron Iden April 22, 2013, 7:38 pm

    Getting into 3-gun, but after extending myself on the shotgun, the sight somehow puts me over my budget! 🙁 Can’t imagine putting one on each gun as article says!

    • Administrator April 22, 2013, 8:34 pm

      Well one sight will fit any gun with a rib. So, since you can only shoot one at a time, you only need one sight.

  • samuel mordente April 22, 2013, 6:41 pm

    Sir; I am a avid trap shooter and belong to the ata, is this sight legal for shoots with the ata? for all competition shoots.

    • Administrator April 22, 2013, 7:35 pm

      We didn’t get that information yet.

  • Steve Simon April 22, 2013, 5:51 pm

    If I spent 700 to 800 bucks for this sight I would have a red ring around my head from the frying pan my wife hit me with!

  • Jeremy Baisley April 22, 2013, 11:47 am

    Cool sight, but it costs more than my shotgun.

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