As far as I can tell there are no great pistol optics. If you simply want to shoot, there are some very nice ones like the SRO, 507Comp, and the C&H Comp. They feature large windows, but either unknown durability or known weakness. They are all open emitters which is fine for some uses but not ideal for others.
All of the known durable optics have too small windows, whether open emitters or closed. For duty use, a closed emitter is a better way to go, though I can live with an open emitter for my concealed carry use.
A window that is too small holds you back and there are things you can’t do as well with it, especially one-handed stuff. A window that is too big is too hard to conceal in most cases. Most high-level shooters carry one gun and shoot another, often guns that are not similar at all. That assumes they carry a gun at all, as many don’t. I have always tried to carry and shoot the same gun. Not literally, though I did do that for a long time. Instead, I usually favor carrying and shooting my carry gun until it hits 5-10,000 rounds. Then it is only shot for qualification. My training is done with a copy of that gun, set up the same way. This makes things easier and better, but only really matters if you shoot a fair bit.
An SRO is probably as large as I can go and still carry (mostly). If it was drop-proof and handled moisture better, it would work well. My C&H comp has worked well but is still unknown regarding durability. I have not had any moisture issues with it, but I haven’t had it out enough in bad conditions to know. The 507Comp is just too big for carry, but I suspect it is durable enough, though I have no proof of that.
I am tempted to adopt a more mainstream approach and simply shoot whatever I want, while still carrying my one main carry gun. I’m not there yet, but I may play around with the idea a bit. If someone would make a red dot that was small enough to carry, but large enough to not handicap the shooting, durable enough for duty use but with current features that make red dot use more convenient, I think they would own the market for some time.
