Comparison of Holosun 509T Reticles

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

In the past few years, Holosun has become a leader in the optics market, by making optics for all kinds of firearms that are rugged, reliable, work well, and are offered at a more affordable price than most of their competition.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the Holosun 509. We’ll start with a brief introduction to set the stage before focusing on one of the cooler features of the 509 series: this is one of the first pistol sights where the user can adjust the reticle on the fly. With all of the choices in configuration, if you’re looking for a great pistol sight, then the Holosun 509 is likely an awesome choice for you.

The Holosun 509

Before getting into the reticles, we want to introduce the optic more generally. The Holosun 509 is a pistol-sized red (or green!) dot sight that’s meant to fit into industry-standard RMR mounts.

Adding a red dot sight is a great way to get greater accuracy, and the 509 is designed for people who plan to do a lot of shooting, or who need a reliable sight for their defensive firearm. The body of the sight is made out of titanium. This makes the sight exceptionally durable, especially when you consider that it’s a fully enclosed design.

Primarily, the 509 runs off a widely available battery with an exceptional life, which is preserved with the shake-awake feature that Holosun has included. But, should the battery fail, there’s also a solar backup. Having solar power in any optic is awesome, having it in a pistol sight is truly cutting edge in the industry regardless of price point. Holosun has also done the end-user a massive favor: you can change the battery without removing the sight, which means that it’ll hold zero when you have to change the battery.

We also like that you have the option between a red or a green sight. This isn’t just an aesthetic preference: some folks see one color or the other much more clearly, thus having the option to choose from the factory makes the 509 an extremely compelling choice in pistol red dot sights. 

Reticle Options on the Holosun 509

With a simple press of a button, you have three different options for reticles in the 509 series of optics. The first is a simple red or green dot that’s 2MOA across. There’s also the option for a circle by itself, which is 32 MOA across. Third, you can have both the 2MOA dot and the 32MOA circle at the same time.

Here, we’ll go over each of the options, and suggest their utility, as well as some small potential drawbacks. Also, to note, MOA means Minute of Angle. This means that at 100 yards, that 2MOA dot will cover a 2” wide circle. At 200 yards, it will be 4”, and so on. 

ACSS Vulcan

The ACSS Vulcan Reticle is a new design that makes aiming faster and easier when mounted on a handgun slide. One issue with slide mounted red dots, is that it can sometimes be difficult to find that tiny 2 MOA dot when drawing from a holster. When bring the pistol up to eye level, it can be easy to “lose” the dot and have to spend a few seconds trying to get it in your sight picture to take your shot.

The ACSS Vulcan utilizes a large circle and a 10 MOA chevron center reticle. The large circle gives you a quick reference to help guide you to the center chevron and disappears once the chevron is in your view. The diagram below shows just how useful this can be.

2MOA Dot

The most simple sight option you’ll have here is the 2MOA dot. It’s about as easy as it gets: put the dot on the thing you want to make a hole in, press the trigger, and you’re sending rounds down range and onto targets. Red or green dot sights are extremely common these days, and with good reason, it’s an intuitive and easy sighting system. These are great up close, and can even be pressed into use out to longer ranges, though with a pistol that’s usually not what the gun is intended for.

The downside of a simple dot in pistols is that, if you’re drawing from a holster you might be way off in terms of sight picture, especially under stress. It’s possible to miss the dot entirely, and it might take you a few precious seconds to find it. That’s where the next option, a circle, becomes attractive for defensive shooting in particular. 

Circle

The 32 MOA circle, we think, presents an interesting option for defensive shooters. Americans, as a general shooting culture, are accuracy obsessed. It’s why, for example, we still have military folks qualify at out to 500 yards with their rifles, and why we have so many snipers.

Defensive shooting, on the other hand, is where speed might matter more than individual shot placement. A 32 MOA ring, which is easy to find, is still only about the size of a  fist at five yards. That means that if the ring is in the chest area of the target, the shots will be good. For some folks, using a ring as opposed to a dot might be faster in a stressful situation. This will, of course, come with a loss of precision. But, if you just need to make hits in a hurry, then we think using just the circle might make sense

Circle And Dot

A dot is precise. A circle is easy to acquire and fast on the target. Together, then, we think you have an excellent reticle. Basically, if you have both the circle and the dot, you can get the benefits of the dot.

The circle, in this context, helps get you on target quickly. Once you’re on target, then, you can dial in the shot placement using the dot. We think that the circle dot combination is one of, if not the, best possible reticle choices for practical shooting. If, for instance, you’re shooting defensively, the dot can be used to get the first shot in the ballpark, and the dot is useful for dialing in subsequent shots.

Conclusion

Overall, we think that the Holosun 509 is an excellent optic. It’s extremely durable, the batteries last a long time, and, importantly, you can change out the reticles. Using the dot by itself, you can get an accurate shot. The circle used alone isn’t quite as accurate, but it can get you on target nearly instantly. Used together, we think that a circle and dot is an excellent reticle that gives you the benefits of both, with few downsides. With a circle and dot, the Holosun 509 is, in our opinion, an awesome pistol optic.