Red dot sights have become more and more popular, and mounting them to pistols has become more than just a trend. As an optics nerd, I find myself squarely in the middle of all the activity. Which has allowed me to bring you another optics review, this time of the Gideon Optics Alpha red dot sight.

Years ago a curious development in the optics market occurred; a new brand popped up that offered all the good features folks were after. And not only did the brand present these features at a competitive price, they stood behind it. And thus a new star was born. Those of us who’ve been around the industry for a while have seen this cycle repeat itself over and over again. And these budding brands continue to battle for the same section of the market.

The Gideon Alpha

Gideon Optics is a more recent brand on the optics market, I was made aware of the brand through a friend who showed me some of Gideon’s red dot sights. They produce several different red dots of various footprints, so there is likely one that will fit your needs. Gideon is a sister company to JSD Supply, well known for a variety of firearms products.

The Alpha red dot uses the very popular Trijicon RMR footprint. This gives you the advantage of a great variety of mounting options due to aftermarket support. In addition to the RMR footprint, the Alpha comes with a Picatinny rail mount option as well. This comes in handy for mounting to your favorite carbine.

Function

Since a plain dot has become a little boring, I really appreciate the circle dot reticle that comes standard in the Alpha. The large window of the Alpha allows maximized use of the circle dot red dot, it is also available with a green circle dot. Another popular feature incorporated into the Alpha red dot is the motion sensing illumination, which helps increase battery life. When motionless for a time, the red dot automatically shuts down. As soon as the weapon is moved, the red dot resumes illumination instantly ready to use.

Like most red dot sights, the Alpha comes with two small adjustment screws for elevation and windage corrections. The included tool allows you to turn the screws which equate to one MOA per click of movement. And speaking of included, besides tools the Alpha also comes with a couple different screw sets for different mounting. This is always a welcome practice.

Mounting the Gideon Alpha to a Sig Sauer P320

Of the many hosts that awaited the Alpha, the first pistol was my Sig Sauer P320 X-Five. The X-Five has RMR cuts and threads from the factory, making the drop-in easy. After lining everything up, and torquing down the screws everything looked fantastic. A few simple turns on the set screws to get the reticle zeroed and we were ready for the range.

I carried the P320 Legion with the Gideon Alpha for a month or so, and used it for a variety of range trips. I found that the combination to be very comfortable to shoot. The reticle of the Alpha was very effective for shooting, and helped naturally move the aim onto target.

With the motion setting on, the Alpha was on everytime I presented it. Drawing from a holster dozens of times a day for weeks at a time, I got more and more accurate with my presentation. I really grew to like the Alpha on my pistol.

Swapping Optics On My Pistol

After a good deal of shooting with the Alpha on my P320, I decided to swap it over to my Shadow Systems DR920. Both pistols allow mounting of RMR footprinted sights without an adaptor plate. Which made them ideal for testing the Alpha.

After torquing the screws down holding the Alpha to the slide, I made a couple simple adjustments to co-witness sights. Once again, it made a fantastic sight picture every time I presented the pistol. The lighter weight of the DR920 changed a little bit the way I presented the pistol, but the different grip angle made it seem faster and cleaner every time. And like I experienced with the Sig, the large reticle of the Alpha made it very easy to bring the aimpoint on target.

read more about the DR920 here

Concluding Thoughts

Normally I feature a Pros and Cons section, but I couldn’t really find anything I didn’t like about the Gideon Alpha. It has been reliable for the past few months carrying it daily, it’s always on when I look through it. It’s easily zeroed and has stayed zeroed since I put it on. The popular RMR footprint means it will fit a wide variety of popular pistols. And all this comes in a box for a street price under $200, which I think is a pretty good deal compared to other optics on the market.

As I continue to build an army of red dot sights, I am glad to have this Gideon Alpha in my collection. The refreshing selection of affordable quality optics we enjoy today sure makes it feel like the good old days. As always, if you’d like to see how this red dot endures, follow me to see how it performs over time. If you too are looking to broaden your red dot selection, check out the red dots from Gideon Optics, you’ll be glad you did.

-CBM