All posts in gun sights

Put some thought into high bright you want your sights to be

We’vemeprolight sights sold a lot of rifle and handgun sights and we could narrow it down to top sellers, but it really boils down to a shooters personal preference.   Several sighting systems are meant for long range shooting, close range engagements or for low light.  The statistics are that most shooters occur in low light and that’s why many of our Local Police Departments have the Meprolight sights already installed on their duty guns.  The most popular gun in our neck of the woods right now is the Glock 21 45acp handgun.  For most CCW purposes this gun is a bit of an overkill because it’s so heavy, but depending on the environment is that you are in, we leave it up to you to decide what works for you.  Some shooters are color blind while others are just looking for a quicker and easier to pick sighting system.

It looks like the old tritium night sights of the past are long gone and since we’ve had a very impressive year with sales on Meprolight sights we have to give them some generous words.   You may want to see which colors you pick up the best but there are multip meprolight sights that you can check out that can give you a 2 dot green picture and a yellow, orange or green front sight.   These light up handgun sights so well it is worth considering using them on an AR15 rifle if you choose to do so.  Some of the Trijicon ACOGS that we sell have the night sights built into the iron front sights that you can fall back on if need be.

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Looking for a red dot sight? Why not consider the RMR sights

There are plenty of reason to consider this small compact red dot sight.   Yes it is an expensive optic but we’ve seen Police Departments in our area remove optics from Police Officers in training when they showed up with red dot sights that were made in China or were know to be inferior.  Their exact quotes were that any sight that was not made by Trijicon, Eotech or Aimpoint it must be put under review and may not be approved.   We’ve seen most  police officers stick with whatever they could find in the $400 price range and that usually means an Aimpoint Pro or an Eotech, but many forget to consider the Trijicon RMR sights.  There are many different optics to consider but the RMR has a very long battery life and is very lightweight.

Fiber optics have their limits, battery powered optics have their limits and you have to train to fight if your optics fail you.   The Trijicon RMR sights we sell are flying out the door, primarily the RM08 green triangle.   One of the things you have to consider is the brightness of a red dot and not always the size.   A small red dot with a very bright setting may actually block your view as badley as a larger MOA dot.   Sometimes if you want precision you have to consider going to a lower power setting and not always worry about your red dot size.

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Compact sights that get the job done

eotech sights After you gain experience in Law Enforcement you realize that hits matter more than MOA groups.   I’ve been through so much training and had so much range experience that having an accurate rifle does not mean you are going to win a fight.  There are plenty of bad guys that can’t shoot for shit and they still can kill special forces guys if they spray enough gun fire at them.   Ricochet bullets can kill and even body amour mentions on the trama plates that they can cause ricochets so you know bullets don’t always fly straight.  The trend in recent years has been towards red dots and even though Trijicon, Aimpoint and Eotechs have been around for a long time, there are a lot of variations between all of them.  Many of our customers ask for advice but it’s really about what you want to see and  how you use them.

I personally have a strong preference toward Eotech sights and I’m a big fan of the Eotech EXPS2-0 sight.  I have been using Eotech sights for almost 8yrs and only had one battery issue, but wear and tear has to be expected and most of the big name companies have good warranties so you can send them  in for repairs.  My eyes still pickup the Eotech gun sight better than a red dot because red dots always seem to chase the targets to me.   The Eotech sights do have variations in reticles and for longer range engagements you may want the circle with the 2 dot system.  I am a big fan of the Eotech magnifiers.

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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.

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Are Eotech sights out dated?

eotech sightsWe have had a ton of people stop in our store and ask us if we sell Aimpoint but unfortunately the distributor that we use to deal with no longer is carrying them.  If we wanted to be a direct dealer for them, we’d probable not get product for another 6 months or more considering the craze that is going on in  the Country.   Aimpoints are probable the best price combat durable red dot optics but I am not a big fan of them.  My eyes tend to track the Eotech sights or a Circle dot reticle like the TA44 from Trijicon better than a red dot.   Lasers and Red dots seem to race around on targets and they also can obscure targets depending on the size of the dots.  Trijicon does  have a 1.75 MOA dot that is very nice but there are still some issues with that optic that I recently have found at fault.

After all of these optics are tested out, many of our customers still go back to the Eotech sights.  Primarily because they are zero magnification and you can keep both eyes  open when using Eotech sights which is very important if  there are close quarters engagements which statistically occurs for Law Enforcement.   I have been running the Eotech 512 for about 8yrs and only a battery contact came loose on it.  I do have the Gen 2 Magnifier on it but I could probable be better off if I was running the Eotech 516 or the EXPS2-0 which have the buttons on the left side which is what you have to think about if you are thinking about adding on the Magnifier later on.

 

 

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Eotech magnifier reviews

Eotech magnifiersEotech now has a Gen 3 magnifier and I can’t personally say that it’s better than the Gen 2, but I’ve never had them in combat or broke one, or saw one break for that matter.  I really love my Gen 2 and get a lot of use out of it.  The biggest downside to the Eotech magnifiers are that once you buy the two item you basically dropped as much cash as the Trijicon ACOGS least expensive models.   I’ve shown people the Trijicon TA44’s we have in stock and they act shocked when I tell them they are over $900.  The customer then tells me that they can’t afford one so they go with an Eotech.  The TA44 is kind of in between the red dot and an Eotech due to it’s circle dot reticle.

Much of the search for an optic is about preference and the job you want to get done.  Red dots are nice but my eye picks up the Eotech sights much better and the Eotech Magnifiers give me that medium range shooting ability that allows my skills to come out.   I find that Eotech sights perform their best out to 200yds and after that, they are somewhat limiting due to the lack of clarity of the circle and dot.  The way to combat this issue is to use a lower setting on the sights.  I run a 516 with the magnifier which is the best platform for me needs.  It is slightly shorter on the rail and gives me more room for a pressure switch which I will be placing on it.

 

 

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Eotech sights, 512 vs 516 and what about magnifiers?

eotech sights I remember being to ranges when I was a kid and seeing the guys with the AR15s and the 3-9×40 scopes and thinking that was the pinnacle of coolness.   If you are target shooting, hunting or on a really tight budget, something like that might be good for you but for close quarters defensive applications, the need for magnification is very low.   Most Police Officers we deal with don’t even see the magnifiers on their guns because many of those guys are even on even tighter budgets.  They use what they know they need and Trijicon ACOGS are something rarely  used in the Law Enforcement community because they don’t need a rifle scope with 3.5X or 4X.  That actually can slow you down with your AR15  or M16 carbine.  The Eotech 512 with the AA Batteries is still the most popular but the XPS and EXPS optics have gained traction because they are lighter and smaller.

On some of my Daniel Defense M4 carbines I am running an Eotech 512 because I find the AA batteries to be more common, but if you bulk buy and stock the CR123 batteries they will work well for you.   Many of the guys running the Eotech sights with the CR123 batteries use those because the weapon mounted flashlights like the TLR1, TLR 3 laser combo use the same batteries so mixing up the battery types is somewhat of an issue.   Battery life can be betwee 600 hrs and 1300 hrs but for domestic purposes having access to batteries shouldn’t be an issue.  Keeping AA batteries or CR123 batteries around is something that should just be as important as having 5.56 ammunition.   If you want magnification you can run a Gen 3 magnifier later.

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More feedback from customers about the optics they are buying

Trijicon TA01NSN for saleWe’ve stepped into the Law Enforcement Supply market this year and have had many new products come in that we would never have expected to have.   The Easy Unlocking Tools have come in and some of our local police departments have asked us to keep them around.  Other things like police badges and patches are new to us but it’s interesting how happy people that they don’t have to buy these things online and pay for shipping.    There are lots of things that we have that Law Enforcement and Military personal wear out or use up and need a local pickup point.

Recently we had some good feed back from local competition shooters and from a security detail that had come back from over seas.   The Trijicon optics that they were using were the well know Trijicon TA01nsn for sale in our store and all of these optics were purchased in our store.   It’s cool to see items like this get purchased and come back to us several months or years later completely banged, beat up, and still working with lots of stories to tell.   The Trijicon optic is probable the best priced ACOG since the iron sights add lots of use to the gun without much of a price increase over the TA01 ACOG.

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Eotech holographic sights are they still competing?

If you ask any of the local law enforcement officers in our area, that’s all you’ll hear them talk about.  Most SWAT Teams are still running these optics and the first rule of an optic for them is they must be able to keep both eyes open.   For any optics like the Trijicon ACOGS, they are more of a  liability for a police officer that may be in a hostage situation at 20yds rather than nailing a Taliban soldier at 4oo meters.  There have been many technological improvements to optics and to some people Eotech might be slacking because they are still reliant on batteries, but for short deployments that’s rarely and issue.  I personally run an Eotech 512 AA on my LWRC M6A1 and I have had some wear issues and batteries fail on me.  I had to super glue the contacts back in and recently heard that this was part of the reason the CR123 batteries are being used and they are also going in sideways instead of forward.

The Eotech XPS sights are smaller and lighter compared to the most popular Eotech 512 AA battery and this means something for those that are running various pressure switches or gun sights.   The smaller lighter XPS Eotech sights are running with the CR123 batteries and these batteries will give you more shelf life than the AA batteries and take up less weight.   The only bad thing about the CR123 batteries is they are not that common in gun stores or retail locations and if they are they are usually more expensive.  Buying these in bulk is a good idea, we normally sell them in 12 packs for $23.99.

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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.

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