All posts tagged Eotech 552

Your aging eyes and target acquisitions

Eotech sightsI recently got off the phone with a customer that told me we shipped him the wrong scope and the reticle he has on his optic was green and not amber.   We took out several of the optics we had to see if Trijicon might have come out with a new scope reticle and we discovered that they had not.   We did a quick quality control to see if something freeky happened and came to the conclusion that the customer was wrong.  The thing that people don’t understand with red dots, Eotechs, night sights ect are that it’s really about contrast.   You don’t need night sights during the day because it’s already light, you need night sights in low light or total darkness, but depending on how long the light is, you might want brighter imagery.   There are always issues when moving from indoors to outdoor with a scope right and thats why varying power on a rifle or shotgun sight is a good idea.

I rarely adjust the settings on my Eotech 512 but I have plenty of friends that told me they had them on full brightness when they were outside in the desert.  I recently did a comparison between Eotech sights and the new Trijicon SRS sight and fell right back in love with my Eotech.  Considering all of the changes I have seen in the Surefire and Streamlight flashlights where the candle power is up about 85% which is a huge leap forward.   Solar panels and battery storage is way up and I expect to see something very new in these regards with Eotech sights.  I am a big fan of the EXPS sights and the red dot and 65 MOA dot get picked up by my eyes very well.  I don’t see this changing anytime soon for my primary CQC optics.

Top

Moving away from battery reliant optics?

I remember when Eotech sights and red dots were showing up on gun ranges about 15yrs ago and how high tech they were.  They were because you were basically getting an F16 gun sight on a Carbine and it was so easy to see targets and engage them quickly.   I have good eye sight for my age but there have been many times I have taken friends and family members as well as students to the range and people had trouble looking through optics.  The best thing about low magnification optics is that is less of a problem for them.  Aimpoint is still probable the king of the red dots but Trijicon has the SRS red dot out now and we have a few of them inbound.

Having AA batteries around for your firearm optic is easy and it’s a very common battery to find.  There have been design changes to Eotech sights because it was common for the gun sight to have issues with the battery contacts when the batteries were put in forward in relation to the firearm.  I assume it had something to do with barrel harmonics but I have witnessed this first hand.  The smaller CR123 batter is being used more than the AA batteries and you’ll get a shorter smaller optic.  There are always trade offs with firearm optics and even trijicon is moving towards battery powered optics.

Top

Eotech magnifier gives you distance

We’ve heard time and time again from our friends and customers that are serving in the military that the Eotech gun sights are the fastest combat sights around.  I recently got to check out some of the optics coming from Trijicon and they are really making some nice 1x magnification gun sights also.   It’s been over 2 decades that the ACOGS have been around, but it seems that just about everyone and their dog has them on an AR15 and in many cases, the Trijicon ACOG is a bit of an over kill depending on the gun sights that you are using.   We got a first hand account today about a guy using a Trijicon gun sight in a police call that identified an individual that was thought to have been holding a gun.  Someone with a standard Eotech gun sight could not identify an object in his hand and there was a call to shoot.

The only real drawback to the Eotech gun sights besides magnification are the batteries they are using.  Some people have issues with the CR123 Eotech sights, and mostly want the AA battery versions.   At some point someone from Eotech is going to have to come out with a non battery illuminated version of the sight because given the trends and technological advancements I have seen in the last decade, anything that is battery powered now is going to be obsolete in the near future.   Flashlights are going to get better when it comes to being rechargeable and holding power and gun sights should be self illuminated or controlled without battery power.

Top

Some time with the Eotech Flip to side Gen 2 magnifier

I have been using one of these on my LWRC M6A2 for several months now.  It’s taken me awhile to get to where I am at with using it, but it was a learning experience.   When I first looked at these I was trying to decide if I should get an Eotech magnifier or the Mako magnifier.   I figured I would start out with the higher end and work my way down.  The first thing that hit me was the cost of the Eotech 556 I have and the Magnifier were the same as some of the Trijicon rifle scopes that I have been looking at.

I’ve learned to keep my guns in a configuration that they are meant to be in, and M4 carbine is meant for close up fighting so why turn it into a long range shooting weapon.   Eotech gun sights are my favorite for close fighting but there are major drawbacks to using them at medium ranges and in low light environments.   The magnifier gives you that medium range visibility and  helps ID targets and become more effective at hitting targets. with the flip to side mount, it takes a second to go back to close range shooting.  Definitely worth it in my book.

Top

Is it time to upgrade your Eotech gun sight?

I finally got on the M4 Carbine bandwagon about 6 years ago after many years of shooting without being much of a black gun enthusiasts.   I jumped on the piston driven carbine wagon and I’m glad I did.   I’ve been getting lots of good feed back from my friends and LWRCI about the Carbines that I own, but I have also shot many DI guns from Daniel Defense that are 100% reliable under extreme conditions, well extreme AR15 conditions.   If you want fast you gotta go with an AR15 platform, there are other nice 556 guns, but the AR15 is really pretty darn close to perfection when it comes to versatility and comfort.   Reliability is something that Magpul Pmags and modern technology has done with drastic leaps.

The Eotech gun sights I used years ago are still working today, but I’ve gotten a little tired of trying to turn them off and on when I have a magnifier in the way.    The side mounted buttons on the newer Eotech make that a non-issue.   I am also having problems with the new magnifier not because of it’s weight or durability, but that it is not compatible with some rear flip up sights.   I have to mount my magnifier a few notches forward of where I want to  place it because it does not clear the rear sight if I move it back.   Time to do some tweaking on the fastest AR15 guns I own.

Top

Holographic gun sights

EotechModern combat optics are becoming more and more advanced.   Back in the day people just used the European pole or standard crosshairs for rifle scopes, but not anymore.   These days combat optics may be red dots, green dots, illuminated reticles, bullet drop compensators etched in glass or Mil-dots.   Combat optics like IOR scopes may have a reticle that is almost a sizing guide for range estimation where you just simply hold the target into a range estimator and then make adjustements on your target knobs or just  hold over.
There is also something completely unique.    Eotech holographic gun sights.  These unique combat optics have a holographic gun sight that, once sighted in, will stay sighted in no matter how you view through your sight.   According to many of those that we have spoken to in Iraq and Afghanistan, these are hands down the best CQB gun sight.  With zero magnifation,  you have the FOV that is unmatched by normal rifle scopes, and with that, comes faster target acquisition.    The unique holographic gun sight looks like something that was used in aircraft gun sights.   There are also options that can  be used for some level of magnification so that identifying targets at greater distances can be done without compromising the close up speed that these optics give you.

Top
Page 1 of 1