I'd say looking through them would be a good idea. The optics in some are very poor. Also, pay attention to parallax. They all say no parallax, but it isn't true in my experience, especially the closer the sight is to the eye. I've had sights on pistols that were fine, but put them on a rifle or crossbow and parallax was very evident.
I finally switched to a TenPoint Pro-View crossbow scope with 3 crosshairs & illuminated reticles as a compromise between scopes & red-dot type sights. Tried a 3-dot crossbow sight and it worked fairly well, but was not calibrated to my crossbow's velocity, and the optic quality (light transmission) just wasn't the best.
I've been shooting scopes and 'dots on various handguns for years now. My huting guns all have low power scopes. I just bought a Barska reflex sight for my Mark II Ruger 22. It has 4 reticules, including a 2 and 10 MOA dots, dot in circle and a cross. And the price is right: $70. (Gander Mountain).
