I believe that you and I agree on each of your points, but we may have arrived at different conclusions. Allow me to explain:

Quote Originally Posted by sinister View Post
M193/20-inch M16A1 was the standard when the ACOG was introduced. It got Trijicon their intro to the US military and helped win them their initial M4-NSN SOPMOD contracts. The rest is history.

M16A2 and A4 with Green Tip got them their Marine Corps contract and Army RFI sales.

M4A1 with M855 got them their Big Army contract and supports Euro military contracts (HK416 countries/armies).
In this contract timeline, the reticles have kept up with the ammo in use at the time. They have evolved in the direction that I advocate, and today have arrived at exactly what I described in my OP. Matching M855a1 and 14.5” barrels; close enough for 12.5”-16” with most “medium” weight .224 bullets.

Quote Originally Posted by sinister View Post
Mark 18 and IPSC/USPSA? Rounding error numbers.
Please don’t allow my points about these niches to distract you from my main point, which is about a more middle ground, common in duty weapons. I only included those topics for relate-ability with a larger range of people. Competitors helped prove that LPVOs are useful; what I’m talking about is the duty adaptation of this technology during the past couple decades. Which is focused on 10.3”-16” barrels. Rarely are 55gr bullets relevant.

Quote Originally Posted by sinister View Post
Does the potential market justify a whole new product line? TA01B meets your barrel and bullet weight variances, and Steiner, Vortex, and others are following their generic arcs.
Lets flip that. Does the potential market of M193/20” shooters justify a whole product line? Certainly not more so than 62gr/14.5”-16” combos. If the former is true, so is the latter. But not necessarily vice-versa.

We can debate on why the m193/m16 reticles sell well, but I suspect its because most buyers don’t know better, not because that's actually what they shoot. Says .223 on the scope box; so does the ammo, so it should work, right?Kinda like the existence of 7mo NREMTP accelerated courses.


Quote Originally Posted by sinister View Post
How many are you proposing buying from them, OP? Maybe a half-dozen over your lifetime?
I don’t matter as a purchaser, hence my point about the DoD agreeing with me. I can name 3 recent contract magnified optics that have the type of BDC reticles I’m advocating for, and zero that use a M193 BDC in current use. You have access to info that I don’t, so maybe you know of some.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Sig only put those mil-dots in there to distinguish their reticle from Triji, Steiner, and Elcan. Notice that there’s no mention of the somewhat popular budget brands in there. They all do the M193/20” thing exclusively instead, but seem to be running a little low on contracted models for door-kickers.......