Real retro anything seems to command a high price these days. The retro rifle craze is to blame, but hey, at least old stuff is seeing new life. Some of the modern reproductions of old stuff are even expensive, like the Brownell’s clone of the old 4X Colt scope. What if you wanted something that’s not only retro, but affordable? If that’s the case, meet the Tasco Pro Point PDP3.
Going Old-School with the ProPoint PDP3
The Tasco ProPoint PDP3 is a simple tubular red dot from the early 1990s. It’s not Vietnam-era retro by any means, but if it’s older than 25 years, it’s a classic, right? Currently, retro Aimpoints are going for a mint thanks to the clone market, and if you’re a cloner, I don’t think the military ever used the humble Tasco.
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Tasco still exists, but they currently make rock-bottom red dots. I’m talking about those 39-dollar dots that are suitable for a rimfire rifle and not much else. The original Tascos were never high-end optics, but were competent, capable, and affordable. Where they really shone was being durable ‘enough’ for competition shooting.
IPSC and The ProPoint
The ProPoint brand as a whole gained a good following in IPSC shooting. They topped those early open race guns. After Jerry Barnhart won the 1990 USPSA Nationals with a red dot-equipped handgun, it was a race to get dots on your gun. As you can see, the ProPoint isn’t what you typically picture when you think of a handgun red dot.
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On revolvers, like mine, you need a rail attached to the top strap and a set of rings. The lack of a reciprocating slide made mounting these optics to revolvers fairly simple. Automatic shooters had to rely on frame-mounted mounts to get a view on the optic. Regardless, the optic sits fairly high on the gun, but the massive window makes it easy to find.
From reading articles about the early days of handgun red dots, it seemed pretty common that the Tasco ProPoints were pretty good, but would break. To be completely fair, the older IPSC guys broke a lot of guns too. Apparently it wasn’t uncommon to carry an extra zeroed ProPoint to a match just in case it broke.
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IPSC is where the ProPoint seemed to find its most success.
The ProPoint Today
The ProPoint in 2026 feels dated purely by its size and weight. It’s larger than an ACOG, but it’s just a red dot. Outside of its size, it’s not a bad dot for most purposes. I’m sure its night vision performance isn’t up to par, and I imagine the tube itself makes it hard to use with NVGs.
That’s not a big concern to me, because, well, nighttime is for sleeping.
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The refresh rate is fine. Not fantastic; there is just the tiniest bit of lag I can detect while waving the gun around like a madman. I don’t notice it while shooting or transitioning targets, but that might just be because I’m slow at doing both. In this IPSC-style revolver setup, there isn’t much recoil, and the dot doesn’t leave the fairly wide window.
The dot itself is 5 MOA, so it’s on the large side, but incredibly crisp. It’s a nice, clear dot with no star bursting I can detect. It’s honestly impressive. While it might be old, it has a nice reticle. It’s easy to see, and can get quite bright.
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The ProPoint uses a rheostat control with 11 brightness levels. At setting two, it blinks randomly for some reason, but every other setting works without issue. The dot has held zero from whoever originally owned it before it got to me. On this IPSC-tuned revolver, it feels like a micro-sized sniper rifle.
The view does have a fairly thick blue tint, signaling a heavy notch filter. That’s pretty common with red dots from this era, and sadly still common on more budget-ready options. It’s not all that bad for shooting targets in normal environments. In lower light, it makes everything a shade darker.
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Worth It?
With prices between $99 and $199, the Tasco ProPoint is a fun way to outfit your retro gun with a retro optic. It works on these old IPSC guns, but would be especially cool on a carry-handle AR. Rarely does anything that decent and retro remain cheap, but there doesn’t seem to be much demand for these Tascos.
Yet.
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