Ruger’s ReadyDot is available as a package deal with the company’s Max-9 pistol and also sold separately.
December 17, 2023
By Brad Fitzpatrick
When Ruger announced it was going to get into the reflex-sight game, I don’t think anyone was surprised. After all, SIG and Springfield had done the same by offering branded red dots. But Ruger did something completely unexpected and didn’t offer an electronic red dot at all.
Instead, its ReadyDot uses fiber optics to display a big 15 m.o.a. red dot in the window, a design that lacks electronics of any kind. Also, the dot is fixed and can’t be adjusted for point of impact. That’s why when the first ReadyDot landed in the hands of writers, there was a bit of a shock. Why go with something so different?
“The major design intent for fiber-only illumination is for simplicity and durability,” Ruger’s R&D manager Gary Hamilton said. “We found through internal testing that the soldered connections on electronic sights became a failure point on micro 9mm pistols.”
Further, he said the lack of batteries makes the sight straightfoward to use. As to the lack of adjustability, he said there were several considerations that drove the decision.
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“Adjustability was omitted to help reduce part count, to keep the complexity of the user experience down and keep the overall profile of the housing as small as it could be,” he said.
It’s powered by a fiber-optic coil, and its 15 m.o.a. dot is fixed. Hamilton noted it’s similar to iron sights on most micro-compacts, in that they aren’t usually adjustable either. On top of that, the ReadyDot is designed to co-witness with factory-height irons from many gun manufacturers. Importantly, he said every ReadyDot is verified for both dot height and centering during assembly.
The ReadyDot is indeed small and lightweight. It weighs just 0.25 ounce and measures 1.6 inches long and 0.95 inch wide. It’s just 0.75 inch tall from the top of the rounded window to the base of the optic, making it one of the smallest and lightest red dots on the market today.
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The ReadyDot uses the Shield RMSc footprint, which is common on micro pistols. It features a polymer body, an optical-grade polymer lens with anti-glare coating and a fiber-optic coil in the center of the body about where the battery compartment sits on most reflex optics.
Light gathered by the fiber-optic coil is bounced onto the screen and forms the 15 m.o.a. red dot. The intensity of the red dot corresponds with the intensity of ambient light. In full sun the red dot is quite bright; in low light it is dimmer. But wouldn’t this illumination system—running on ambient light instead of battery power—mean the light vanishes in total darkness?
Yes. If you’re in complete darkness the dot disappears altogether. That’s enough to make some ready-for-anything shooters shy away from the ReadyDot. However, the dot is visible anytime there’s enough light to see clearly.
I tested this in our bathroom, slowly closing the door and identifying the moment when the dot disappeared. At the point at which the dot disappeared, I could not read a newspaper headline or see the numbers on my watch face. Objects in the room were unidentifiable.
The ReadyDot Ruger sent me for testing was mounted on its Max-9 semiauto 9mm, and the ReadyDot is sold with this gun as a package deal for $489. (It’s also available separately at ShopRuger.com for $100.) This is significant because the Max-9 has a tritium/fiber-optic front sight and a blacked-out drift-adjustable rear. When the last light evaporates, while the fiber-optic sight’s red dot may go away, the pistol’s green tritium front sight is still visible.
The Ruger ReadyDot is a small, light, simple and effective red dot. In the same darkened bathroom I used a Streamlight TL-2 X light, and it illuminated the dot. I tried it in a darkened garage as well, and with the light focused on a door 26 feet away, there was sufficient ambient light to illuminate the fiber optic. Essentially, this sight works in just about any light conditions but total darkness—when it would be impossible to identify a threat anyway.
Our editor also tested the ReadyDot in a completely dark basement using a handheld light. He found that regardless of light technique—Harries, FBI or neck index—the flashlight’s beam kept the dot illuminated.
The ReadyDot ships with two M4x0.7 8mm screws equipped with blue locking compound and a T10 Torx wrench. Installation is fast and straightfoward. Just be careful not to overtighten the screws. Ruger recommends just 12 inch-pounds to secure the sight.
In a market where most red dots vary from three to six m.o.a., a 15 m.o.a. dot is gargantuan. It covers about four inches of the target at 25 yards, so clearly this is not an optic designed for pinpoint accuracy. The company intended this reflex sight to work for close-range defensive shooting, where the objective is simply to shoot a threat in the vitals.
To that end, I shot the Max-9 pistol with ReadyDot on targets placed seven and 10 yards away. The optic was aligned closely enough with the sights that I could switch from the optic to the irons, and my group sizes didn’t change much. I could make head shots at seven yards but not at 10. At 10 yards I could make center-mass shots both from a standing position and from the draw.
Thanks to the big dot, the sight is really fast to use. It shows up in any ambient light, including flashlights and weapon-mounted lights, and it’s designed to co-witness with many manufacturers’ iron sights. The window of the ReadyDot is small, casts everything in a blue hue, and on bright days the dot is very intense. But other than that it works just like any other red-dot optic and does so without the hassle and worry about batteries or electronic malfunctions.
Some internet gun “experts” have guffawed at the ReadyDot, proclaiming it won’t succeed. There are gun companies that are out of touch with their customer base, but Ruger isn’t one of them. I suspect there are a lot of people who simply want an optic because optics are all the rage right now, and the ReadyDot provides them with a simple alternative.
“Overall, simplicity of operation was the design paradigm we were going for in this product,” Hamilton said. “We did field research and found that many new shooters had interest in reflex sights but were overwhelmed with the complexity of operating and zeroing the sights with their guns. With that in mind we aimed to create something that was simple and easy to understand as soon as you pick it up.”
I do think this sight will attract the millions of new gun owners who struggle with aligning iron sights. I also think this optic will be a huge benefit to aging shooters whose eyes are failing them. I know several shooters like this who don’t care about shooting little groups at 25 yards but rather want a defensive setup they can see well under normal lighting conditions. For them, that’s the ReadyDot.
The Handguns staff picked a dozen sights from 2023 that will improve your pistol shooting and are easy to operate with a minimum of mounting and battery fuss. To see the full roundup, visit: 12 Great Pistol Sights for 2023
