My P320 has a red dot which is a big help for older eyes. My understanding is the dot turns on when motion is detected, which means ccw will have the darn thing lit up a whole lot.

Is it practical in real life to carry the red dot without having to change batteries frequently?

IMO with the constant on red dot due to the motion activated feature and since used as a CCW, it’s good practice to change the battery more frequently say every 3-6 months. Your brightness settings also play a major role of battery life.

My new P365XL with Romeo Zero came from factory with a fresh date code , and the optic battery died within 6 months for example.

In contrast I have Aimpoints left constant red dot on at minimum setting for over a year and the dot still works. Although I change their batteries more often.

Yes. Some of my secondary long guns with Aimpoints have been on the original battery for several years. Like 3+. And still going strong.

For my serious use firearms, the optics get fresh batteries every year, since they're inexpensive and that's easy to remember, but realistically they would only need a new battery every 2-4 years.

Thanks for the info.

My old eyes have difficulty with near vision without the correct glasses on, unlike when I used to have 20/10 vision from the tip of my nose out to infinity! The red dot on my Sig P320 really improves my speed and accuracy in dim lighting. Ditto actually for the red dot on my evil black rifle - seeing the iron rear rifle sight and also the target at the same time is impossible now.

I’m on year 3 with one of our RMRs at work. I stuck it on a blue gun and it’s usually under papers in my mailbox so it’s dark and when people practice with it it auto adjusts to the light level.

My rmrs are the manual adjust ones. But we change our batteries every year during qualification. Same with our Aimpoints on our rifles.

As cheap as batteries are, I change them once per year on duty guns. Some of the rest stay on till they die. Usually takes several years.