Any suggestions on a red dot for a pistol?

[gypsyman]

My son has a Springfield XD, and am looking to get a red dot for him. He's a pretty fair shot with a rifle, but hasn't shot much in handgun. So, am looking at what's out there for handgun. Would like to find something with maybe a 3moa dot, and a mount that doesn't need a gunsmith to mount it. Looking at maybe a Vortex Venom, or a Burris Fastfire. Any suggestions?

[Dee]

Man there is a bunch of'em out there. I've only shot one pistol with one on it, and I didn't care for it.

[JustaShooter]

You might look at the Holosun line, I have a Holosun 507C X2 on my M&P and am very pleased with it.  A warning, since you don't have a cheek weld to help center your eye in the optic, red dots on handguns do take a fair bit of practice to be able to reliably draw and present the gun and have the dot in view.  He may find himself hunting the dot quite a bit till he's put enough time in.

[Lloyd Smale]

there are many good ones on the market. look for one with battery life good enough to be left on all the time or one of the units that come on instantly with motion or are turned on automatically when pulled from there holster. if you ever need to actually use one to protect yourself or family there will be lots of stress and its no time to have to fumble with some switch to turn it on. ill add to that there is a big industry in china and other countries with making cheap clones that are very hard to tell from the real thing. so avoid buying them on places like ebay and amazon. buy only from a reputable source. once you decide which you want do a search on how to spot clones of that brand. i bought a couple sig romeo 5's at a screaming price and found i bought clones. there now on 22s. they may be ok but im not trusting my life to them. same thing with scopes. the market is full of Leupold clones

[gene_225]

I got a Millett for a S&W .22. Made the handgun so heavy I took it off and now have it on a Ruger 10-22. I like it on the Ruger.

[JustaShooter]

there are many good ones on the market. look for one with battery life good enough to be left on all the time or one of the units that come on instantly with motion or are turned on automatically when pulled from there holster. if you ever need to actually use one to protect yourself or family there will be lots of stress and its no time to have to fumble with some switch to turn it on.

Good point - the Holosun line I mentioned have good battery life and go to sleep when not in use and instantly wake up with movement.