What's with all these Aimpoints on our Troops M16s?

[444]

One comment on the brightness setting for those that have never used one before. The brighter the ambient light, the brighter you need to have your red dot so you can see it. On the Aimpoint, I find that the brightest setting is too much even out in the desert during the summer. The problem with having the brightness set too high is that the dot starts to blur, or put another way, the dot doesn't appear to be nice and round and crisp. This makes real accurate shooting more difficult. Now if you were expecting to be making extremly fast, close shots this doesn't matter and having the dot brighter will make seeing it all the easier. But, most of my shooting is done two settings below the max. This gives me a dot that is still easy to see and easy to pick up, yet it is nice and round so you can make more precise shots. If I am shooting on paper, I set the sight for the lowest setting that still allows me to see the dot. The result is that the worst case senario battery life numbers are almost never needed since the sight on my rifle is basically never on the highest setting. At night, I use maybe the second or third lowest setting and it is plenty bright enough. Lastly, the batteries arn't expensive, so if I am doing something like taking a carbine class, I just put a new battery in even though the present battery would probably last for weeks on the brightest setting; but, for a couple bucks, why not just be sure ? I have never had a battery wear out in a dot sight. I have an older Aimpoint sight on a Ruger MKII that has been in the sight for years and I bought the gun used, so who knows how long it has been in that sight ? Put in very simple terms, the batteries are not an issue. I wouldn't be surprised if a GI joined the military on a four year hitch and could have the same battery in the sight when he is discharged.

 

[longspurr]

I too have an older Aimpoint that I just removed from a 22. The battery compartment has white flakes coming out of it and I can't open the battery compartment- the cap just keeps going round and round. Did I say that there is no red dot!! I am trying to decide weather to send it back for repair, rip the cap off with vice grips and try to jury-rig a battery replacement, or just throw the Aimpoint 1000 away. Any thoughts? Batteries do go bad and self-distruct leaving the powered device a mess. I have thrown away more than 1 flashlight because of battery structural failure.

I have an older Aimpoint sight on a Ruger MKII that has been in the sight for years and I bought the gun used, so who knows how long it has been in that sight ? Put in very simple terms, the batteries are not an issue. I wouldn't be surprised if a GI joined the military on a four year hitch and could have the same battery in the sight when he is discharged

 

[RustyHammer]

FWIW ... I saw a company of Marines (in Bagdad) on the news last night that had nothing but the iron sites on their M-16's.

Had to love it!

 

[buzz_knox]

Just because they only had iron sights doesn't mean it's a good thing. The Marines historically have put a heavy emphasis on marksmanship, which is an excellent thing. But that has also blinded them as to the benefits of optics. As said before, teach the basics and then give them every advantage.

 

[Art Eatman]

Training? I was on Occupation Duty in S. Korea from mid-1954 through November, 1955. I served in an ack-ack battalion, with M-19 light tanks with twin-40mm pom-poms and M-16 halftracks with quad-50s. Our personal weapons were M2 Carbines.

We received no, repeat no, personal weapons training. We went one time to the range for ack-ack firing on radio-controlled aerial targets. Ammo was very limited, and nobody got to shoot enough to develop any proficiency.

SFAIK, I was the only guy in the battalion who "liberated" the occasional canister of carbine ammo from the arms shack, and went to the beach to shoot "just for fun". Got chewed out for it; had to quit.

Art

 

[Onslaught]

I am trying to decide weather to send it back for repair, rip the cap off with vice grips and try to jury-rig a battery replacement, or just throw the Aimpoint 1000 away. Any thoughts?

What me? Thoughts?

First off, I'd at least contact Aimpoint before ViceGrips got involved... but the Warranty for the 1000 was only 1 year, and parts are no longer available.

Second, the Aimpoint 1000 and the CompM2 are WAAAY different sights. The 1000 (discontinued in 1987 according to http://www.aimpoint.com/products/old/1000.htm )was an "Economy" model that was never ever intended for "adverse conditions" of any sort... I would bet my Tasco PDP3 was tougher.

Batteries corrode because of moisture. If the 1000 had been water tight, the battery shouldn't have done what it did.

The CompM2 on the other hand is built like a a TANK, submersible to 80ft, and with a battery life probably at least 50x that of the 1000. Even the older CompM2's (pre XD) had a 250hr - 1000hr batter life, so technology advances in battery life have come a long way...

I can appreciate that all red dots don't last as long, aren't as durable, and can't be depended on like the CompM2 XD... But for that specific model, I would take one of those and a Back Up Iron Sight (BUIS) over a carry handle any day, and twice on Sunday.

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

I could have sworn there were some Elcans as well

I saw those also; wish I could find a picture online. They seem to be mounted exclusively on the M249, havn't seen them on any M16/M4 types.

One thing I know for sure, all this 'embedded' coverage is going to result in HUGE sales for Aimpoint and Knight's Manufacturing.

Perfect product placement.

 

[Blackhawk 6]

I believe the Elcans you are refering to are the M-145 Machine gun Optic.


Kevin

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

BlackHawk 6- You are correct sir! After a quick google search I found out that the M-145 you referred to is the 6x version of the Elcan. I was not aware that the military had adopted and designated it.

OT- of all the pages I found when I googled 'M-145 optic' the most hits that came back were pages for Counter Strike players... CS players are really into the details I guess.