A pistol red dot will teach you things about your shooting that you probably don’t want to hear. Your draw presentation? Probably not as consistent as you think. Your trigger press? That little dot is a merciless tattletale, showing every flinch, jerk, and sympathetic grip squeeze in real time.

But it’s not all bad news. A red dot also makes dry fire practice more productive, helps you see what your gun can really do at 25 yards, and forces you to be a responsible adult about battery management. Six lessons I picked up after years of running a dot on a pistol, and every one of them made me a better shooter.

READ MORE: 6 Things You Learn From… Using a Pistol Red Dot Sight