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

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 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.

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.