In the realm of combat shooting the standard rule of thumb is, he who hits first wins. Consequentially, for the last couple of hundred years, the focus in firearms training has been sight alignment — the faster you can align the front and rear sights on your target, the faster you can put lethal fire on your target.
Unfortunately, until recently, darkness presented a significant challenge to this theory. If its too dark to see your sights, you can pretty well guarantee that you arent going to be able to align them very well and your accuracy is going to suffer. While there are a number of ways to overcome this condition (illuminate the battlefield with flares, illuminate your sights with tritium or similar material, or illuminate your fire by using tracers) none has been universally effective.
Electro-optical reflex sights have changed all of that. These sights are battery powered, non-magnified, single sight optics that not only allow the shooter to rapidly acquire a good sight picture and alignment in all conditions (day or night) but also provide the shooter with better situational awareness since they need not be totally focused on aligning their sights, but rather need only put the dot on the target, literally.
The first of these sights was the Aimpoint M2 which the Army designated the M68 CCO (close combat optic.) It was driven by a watch-type battery and had a single on/off rheostat on the side to adjust reticle brightness.
While the sight did perform as advertised, I had issues with it. First, the on/off knob was easy to accidentally bump, which could either cause your sight to turn off or go to max power, which not only reduced your battery life, but also produced a visible red glow out of the back of the sight. Furthermore, the aiming dot was visible, at high power, through the front of the sight, which could reveal your location to an NVG equipped enemy (I am told this has been addressed though I cant confirm it.)
The sight I liked, and what in addition to the ACOG seems to be the one being currently issued, is the EOTech model 550. The 550 is a non-magnified EO sight which displays a 1MOA (minute of angle) dot in the center of a 65MOA circle. Reticle brightness is regulated by up/down buttons on the back of the sight, and the newer versions are equipped with a NVG direct button that automatically dims the reticle for use with night vision devices. The 550 is powered by a pair of standard AA batteries, has a reticle life of 1100 hours, and is waterproof to 1 ATM (33 feet).
What I liked about the 550 over the M68 was the battery choice (AAs are much easier to get) the fact that there is no forward projection of the beam, even on max power, and that there was more positive control of the reticle brightness. The 550 is also mil-std 1913 rail compatable and works well with weapon mounted NVGs such as the AN/PVS-10.
While Im sure that there are certainly more modern CCOs out there with many more bells and whistles, the 550 does everything I need it to and it didnt cost an arm and a leg.
(See much more “beyond standard issue” advice and tricks over at Kit Up!)
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
the problem with these sights is that you have to turn them on. it should be integrated with the selector so it automatically turns on when you switch from safe to fire.keep it simple stupid.
The only downside to battery-powered sights is that they’re battery-powered.
SLNTAX, you have never pointed a gun at something on safe to see how the sights work? Military folks are sighting on things all the time with the safety on.
To add to Bill, Keeping it Simple would actually just involve keeping the power button seperate, thanks to the complications involved with running circuity through your rifle.
A solar cell might slow battery drain. Looks like there’s enough surface area on such sights for a good cell. Don’t know there are too many cells that can handle rough usage.
I’ve been pretty impressed with fiber optic sights. In a little bit of sunlight, they also give you a bright little dot on target. I’ve heard of glow in the dark versions that “recharge” themselves in sunlight. Don’t know if they’re available yet, but that’d be another way to beat the battery problem.
Regarding the issues of batteries and keeping it simple.
I went with the 550 over the Aimpoint M2 because of battery life and availability of batteries. Furthermore, there was no way you could accidentally bump the dial on the 550 as you could with the M2. In short, the reticle brightness stayed where you left it.
The stated battery life for the AA powered 550 is 1100 hours — that’s 45 days of continuous operation. The listed battery life for EOTech’s other sights is 200 hours, or about 8 days. While I can’t say I’ve evaluated that 45 day claim, even if it is just 200 hours (and the other claim was a typo) that’s still 8 days of continuous operation. I have never had my EOTech fail in the middle of an op (as an additional feature, when battery power is low the reticle will flash a couple of times on power up to clue you in that you need to change batteries.) I worried more about my AN/PVS-10s burning through batteries more than the sight.
As for simplicity, I don’t know how you can make it much simpler. You leave the wire, you turn the sight on. That’s it. In fact, if you don’t make a reticle adjustment in the next 8 hours, it automatically shuts itself off. Loading the rifle is more complicated.
I was part of one of the first issue for the Eotech for use in Iraq. I went from being an average shooter to expert. That thing took a beating and kept working. Target acquisition is nearly instantaneous. And those batteries seem to last forever. When they start losing juice youll notice it in the brightness of the sight. It’ll still last a day or so before you need to change them, even after going dim.
?
FX
FX ?
FX ?
FX ?
?
Abnaki Ski & Outing Club
The Ave Maria Foundation
?
?
?
?
? </a
FX
FX
FX ?
?
FX
FX
FX ?
FX ?
?
FX
FX ?
FX ?
FX ?
?
Abnaki Ski & Outing Club
The Ave Maria Foundation
?
FX
FX
FX ?
?
FX
FX
FX ?
FX ?
Look at everything everyone has a different attitude, I treat this game has its own state of mind.
Other players to me how, I will to them how. They send me Hellgate London Palladium, I will send them too.
Many people want to buy cheap gw gold, but they dont know where to buy thegw gold. I will tell you below.
The only downside to battery-powered sights is that they’re battery-powered.
The only downside to battery-powered sights is that they’re battery-powered.
Shaiya, what a beautiful name. I like its name very much and it has more beautiful characters and wonderful menu. I remembered that at the beginning of playing this Shaiya gold game I was attracted by its name, charactera and menu.