Oleg Volk
Moderator Emeritus
I finally got my hands on a 4x32 ACOG yesterday. It was the military version, with fiber optic illumination of a chevron reticle. I played with it but had no opportunity to fire a rifle with it mounted. It had some very impressive benefits:
- wide field of view
- bright, sharp, clear sight picture
- fairly prominent reticle in any light, though a triangle would be better
- huge exit pupil
- illumination always on
Compared to the EOTech 511 I am currently using on a 20" flattop with a fixed front sight, it was slightly slower to bring on target due to left-right eye parallax. Indoors, in very low light at ranges under 10m, it was also harder to acquire targets due to "tunneled" vision and 4x magnification.
At 20+m, it showed targets much more clearly than the unmagnified red dot sight. I am new to scopes and not certain if seeing the tatget better would translate into more reliable hits or not. It certainly boosts the shooter's confidence, and also helps to correct by observation.
My question is this: on a defensive rifle, would a 4x (or a lower-power compact ACOG at 1.5x or 2x) cause serious problems up close, or not? Some SWAT people I know use only irons but that's due to problems with temperature oscilations in wintertime, not an issue in Tennessee. Others use red dot sights. Most other rifles other than AR15 lend themselves well to point shooting, and AR canbe used that way with practice. Has anyone with experience in this area care to comment as to the desirability of a scope on a fighting rifle.
Also, if this is a go, how would you solve the issue of backup sights? I could use front sight only if the scope breaks, but I am not sure if the scope would have to be removed first.
- wide field of view
- bright, sharp, clear sight picture
- fairly prominent reticle in any light, though a triangle would be better
- huge exit pupil
- illumination always on
Compared to the EOTech 511 I am currently using on a 20" flattop with a fixed front sight, it was slightly slower to bring on target due to left-right eye parallax. Indoors, in very low light at ranges under 10m, it was also harder to acquire targets due to "tunneled" vision and 4x magnification.
At 20+m, it showed targets much more clearly than the unmagnified red dot sight. I am new to scopes and not certain if seeing the tatget better would translate into more reliable hits or not. It certainly boosts the shooter's confidence, and also helps to correct by observation.
My question is this: on a defensive rifle, would a 4x (or a lower-power compact ACOG at 1.5x or 2x) cause serious problems up close, or not? Some SWAT people I know use only irons but that's due to problems with temperature oscilations in wintertime, not an issue in Tennessee. Others use red dot sights. Most other rifles other than AR15 lend themselves well to point shooting, and AR canbe used that way with practice. Has anyone with experience in this area care to comment as to the desirability of a scope on a fighting rifle.
Also, if this is a go, how would you solve the issue of backup sights? I could use front sight only if the scope breaks, but I am not sure if the scope would have to be removed first.