This winter all of my AR’s when through a metamorphasis, as I’m constantly figuring out what works best for me.
I have 3 Colt LE6920’s that I changed barrels out on about a year ago. I changed the barrels from the factory 16" M4 countour to the heavier Colt 14.5" M4 SOCOM barrel on all 3 guns. This change did add a little weight to the guns. As did adding the S&B Short Dot, which is a heavy optic.
I was running Surefire 961C’s in LaRue mounts on the Colts. The 961 is the full sized 9 volt Millinium light. I found that chaging out the 961C’s for Surefire 6 Volt Scout lights made a big difference in how the gun balanced and how it effected the weight of the gun. Trimming a few ounces “here and there” adds up, as does adding a few ounces here and there.
Another modification to this gun is the addition of the LMT SOPMOD stock. I had tried this stock a couple years ago and it was a decent stock, but didn’t feel that it was worht the price they were charging. Late last fall (2006), I put the LMT SOPMOD stock on one of my duty guns and ran it for a while. I really warmed up to the SOPMOD. I don’t know how I ever lived without a rubber buttpad. Ergonomics were perfect. Longer length was perfect. Cheek well was perfect. Footprint of the buttstock was perfect. There was literally nothing that I didn’t like about the LMT SOPMOD. Of all the M4’s that I had that had VLTOR’s were chaged out and a LMT SOPMOD was added.
I took purchase of a two Schmidt and Bender (Gen I) Short Dots in May or June of 2006, what is written below is what I posted in late July, these were my initial impressions of the Short Dots.
Keep in mind that what was posted below is from using the optic for a month or two. I have now used the Short Dots for close to a year. I have used them in a couple rifle matches (Zak Smith refers to the rifle match in his article in Guns and Ammo “Book of the AR15” that is on news stands now…distances from 3 yards to 425 yards), training at work, SWAT call outs, practice / training on my own, in Pat Rogers’ EAG Tactical Carbine Operator’s course, etc.
I found that my experiences over the last year with the S&B Short Dot solidified what I wrote on July 31, 2006:
[i]I recently upgraded the optics on my duty LE6920’s.
Over the years I have been in search of the “perfect” optic.
In a SWAT setting 75% of the missions are CQB and the other 25% can range from permiter work, to overwatch on a VIP detail, to searching large warehouses or schools, etc.
SWAT missions can often be dynamic in nature. One minute you can find yourself on a permiter trying to see if the barricaded gunman standing in the window has a gun or a cell phone in his hand, and the next minute you’re being picked up as part of the entry team. On other missions you may find yourself sitting across a large parking lot covering a buy / bust operation, the bad guy goes mobile and now your part of a vehicle take down.
In short there are times where an electronic red dot rules the day and other times where a magnified optic is more desirable.
I have tried magnifiers, a few variable powered optics, etc, etc, etc. I had issues with everything that I tried.
A couple requirements that I have in any optic that I use for duty:
-Lit reticle that can be seen in bright day light (this knocked out some optics like the MR/T M2 1.5-5)
-Very little distortion on the lowest power (this knocked out most optics that had the lowest setting at 1.25x and higher)
-Have close to the same speed with the optic as I did an Aimpoint.
I have tried most of what is on the market and after doing much research (thanks to the Lightfighter members who took the time to answer my many questions) I settled on the S&B Short Dot and after training with it for the last month I’m very satisfied with it:
Not perfect, but damn close:
The entire thread can be seen here: http://lightfighter.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9046084761/m/8941079552[/i]
Colt LE6920:
-Factory Colt LE6920
-14.5" Colt M4 SOCOM barrel
-Gem-Tech Bi-Loc A2 flash hider perminately attached
-Gem-Tech G5 suppressor
-LaRue 7.0 rail system
-Tango Down rail pannels
-Tango Down vertical foregrip
-Short Dot (Gen I…non locking turrets…Gen II has the locking turrets)
-LaRue SPR-E
-Troy Industries Dual Apeture BUIS
-Tango Down Battle Grip pistol grip
-KNS non-rotating hammer / trigger pin set
-Blue Force Gear VCAS Sling
-Daniel Defense rail mounted QD sling mount
-LMT SOPMOD stock
-Surefire M600 Scout light with clicker tail cap and incandesent bulb
-LaRue Tactical Scout light mount
-Jeff
Always enjoy reading your findings and viewing your photos
