Difference Between T Style & B Style Red Dot Sights

Hunting and shooting enthusiasts may well think the difference between b- and t-style red dot sights is similar to former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of pornography: hard to define, but you know it when you see it. According to the technical support department of NcStar, which manufactures both styles, the b stands for a model based on an original design by Barska and the t for one originally designed by Tasco, both manufacturers of red dot sights.

  1. What They Are

    • Don't confuse red dot sights with laser sights so commonly seen in movies, which project a laser generated red dot onto an external target. A red dot sight is an optical device that reflects an illuminated dot into the center of the sight to help you aim properly. Red dot sights are designed to minimize parallax error, which is caused when the eye is not properly aligned with the sight. The red dot shows the center of the target even if your eye is not well aligned with the target, making the sight useful in military and police applications where the shooter must maintain accuracy during sudden turns.

    Power Source

    • Most red dot sights, whether they are b- or t-style sights, use batteries to generate the dot that illuminates the reticule. In some sights, though, a radioactive isotope, either tritium or trijicon, generates the dot, without need of a battery. That has led some to believe the b and the t designate whether a sight is battery-operated or tritium-powered, but that is incorrect. Some b-style sights are powered by an isotope, while most t-style sights are powered by batteries.

    Color and Shape

    • Red dot can occasionally be a misnomer, as some red dot sights produce a green, white or other color dot in the reticule. If a sight projects a dot into the sight itself, it is a red dot sight regardless of the color of the dot. Some speculate that the t stands for tube, like a telescopic scope and the b for something else, usually meaning a reflexive sight. All red dot sights are reflexive, meaning simply that they use optics to reflect the generated dot onto the sight. Some red dot sights are tube-shaped, though more often they resemble a soup can or a large lens, but both shapes can be either t- or b-style.

    Size

    • When shopping for red dot sights, a gun enthusiast may be surprised to see two sights that look nearly identical described as separate styles. The most consistent difference between the sights that have evolved from the original Barska and Tasco designs is that b-style red dot sights are generally smaller than t-style red dot sights. Now both styles simply represent the series from which each style sight originated. So don't worry if your hunting partner has a red dot sight that looks identical to yours, but is labelled a different style.