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As budget allows, I am considering improving my ability to sight on a target (old eyes and bifocals are limiting factors). I’ve been researching sights, and there seems to be some ambiguity in catalog descriptions. Some places call red-dot sights laser sights, othes call them red-dot holographic sights, and others call them laser sights.

To me, a laser sight is one that projects a laser beam, and a red dot, which can be seen by anyone, actually appears on the target; a red-dot sight uses an LED to superimpose an image (dot, cross-hair, etc.), which can only be seen by the shooter, on a lens. A holographic sight uses a laser to project an image which appears to the shooter to be “floating in space”, superimposed on the target. Red-dot sights will have parallax, holographic won’t.

It appears to me that while laser sights (by my definition above) are easy to identify in ads, red-dot and holographic can only be differentiated by price – less than $200 = red-dot, more than $300 = holographic. Another differentiator may be battery life, if it is mentioned in the ad – due to the high energy requirement of a laser, batteries in a holographic sight do not last as long as those in a red-dot.

Have I analyzed this correctly?

You have done your homework. I have the combo laser/light on my 870 and a Glock 19 that is a bedside protection item. They both work really well for that purpose. For target shooting I love the red dots. The very best is an Aimpoint T1 that is built to mil spec and has a 50,000 hour battery life and is $600. Bushnell has a copy that looks just the same and at $139 has a 5000 hr battery life. They both have a 3moa dot which works for most things. The best all round target red dot is the Ultra Dot with four different dot sizes to choose from at $200. I have a Millett SP1 compact red dot ($79) on a Henry lever action that I can hit with from zero to 100 yds. Most today will do the job and battery life is not a problem unless you forget to turn them off. Regards

I agree with you - A 'Laser' sight is one that emits a visible or invisible light beam externally from the device. A 'Holographic' or 'Red Dot' scope just projects a image onto a lens within the device that can be viewed by the operator.

R,
Bullseye

You say aging eyes, I'm there too. The question you need to answer is can you see the target clearly? If so the holographics (reflex & red-dots) will work good for you. If you need magnification you need to go to a scope. I'm using a 2x scope on my MKIII 678. I picked off a rabbit at 70yrds with it earlier this week. But I could had used more magnification.