I just bought my new Aimpoint and mount from G&R. Because I don’t know a thing about optics and I’ve dealt with Grant several times before, I let him guide me to this purchase. It arrived yesterday and it looks great.
My friend has purchased three “brand x” optics for about $50 each…maybe less. He was teasing me for having bought such an expensive optic. (He mounted them on his Colts too. Not sure if that’s a crime or not.)
I’m into quality, so I know I did the right thing for me…but what’s the difference between cheap optics and quality ones?
Durability?
Accuracy?
Reliability?
Everything?
The funny thing is, he owns three Colts because I talked him into buying quality rifles. God knows what he would have purchased if I wasn’t bugging him about it!
Yup. All of the above. We pay the premium because if we’re using these tools under the most hostile of conditions, we want it to work all the time, every time – not just on a square range with no one shooting back.
Probably MOST people MAY never need that level of performance. For me at least, I’d rather have it and not need it – than need it and not have it.
At the end of the day, it really depends on what he’s gonna do with whatever sights he purchased – which sound like BSA or worse sights. If he wants to poke fun at you for buying quality, just tell him you use the same value system when choosing friends!
If these RDSs just sit on safe queens, many of us couldn’t care less. Heck, I know a bunch of great shots who just use irons.
BSA sights will work for awhile on rifles that are used to make pretty groups from the bench. Many people own black rifles for just that purpose – and more power to 'em.
Just don’t tell me your cheapo RDS is “as good as” my Aimpoint, and you won’t have to worry about showing your ass.
The Aimpoint has a longer battery life, so that’s a major plus.
Some of the Aimpoint models also work well with night vision.
Aimpoint still has the parallax issues that their website says they don’t. The cheaper red dots tend have even more parallax issues than the Aimpoints. The Aimpoint sights are also light years ahead of the cheaper red dots in terms of durability.
In all reality I think most members here would do fine with a standard red dot in the fifty dollar range :o.
The only time the extra battery life comes into play is during hunting and home defense when it is invaluable to have the dot ready to rock and roll. I have hunted with cheaper red dots and hated the fact that I had to leave the dot turned off until I was ready to make a shot. Naturally for home defense I (me personally) would absolutely NOT use a cheaper red dot.
The extra ruggedness of the Aimpoint is helpful because inevitably gear is going to get bumped around and zeros may shift. That is less likely to happen with an Aimpoint. If your honestly only taking this thing to the range to shoot, I can’t see investing the $700+ for an Aimpoint M4. Yea, it may look pretty in the picture threads but as a serious shooter you need to be able to honestly evaluate your own needs.
well i only have two personal examples of POS crap going tits up- an ATN “holosight” and a set of Ncstar binos.
the ATN was purchased about a decade ago for like $75 for a mini14… couldn’t even zero it, so it never got used. the reticle was a flawed design, even if the “dot” hadn’t been blurry- you could not only see the “dot,” but the whole tube and crap down to the projector was mirrored hazy red all over the reflective apeture. as i said, it wouldnt even zero… fired probably 200 rounds chasing the dot all over the range before i gave up. i still have it… i find it kicking around in one or another box full of shit every once in a while. i keep it for unknown reasons.
the Ncstar binos… well, they were big, had a clear picture, armored, guaranteed waterproof and were only $30 at a gun show. not bad for full size 50x binos, even if they broke at some point. well, they broke- i was using them as a make-shift spotting scope, and apparently the muzzle blast coming off my vortex alone was enough to break the reflector on one side. one shot, they worked, one more shot and all of the sudden i had a really big monocular. and it’s not like they were in front of the weapon- they were just sitting about 1 foot to the right and rear of the muzzle on the bench.
the only two “cheap” gear purchases i’ve ever made, and they panned out in typical fashion.
If someone is to stupid to understand quality. Save your breath and find new friends… Oh, and yes it is a crime to mount a POS on a Colt. Tell him he should buy a Hi Point for his shitty optic that wont work when he actually needs it.
I say let it ride. In a few years he will have spent as much as you replacing these RDS’s or replacing batteries. When he gets to that point he’ll have to continue to spend. Also when you go to the range and do some standing to prone drills, that could pretty much be the death of his first string of sights. I have tried to educate people with what I have learned but they always reply with “my friend has had one for x years and he knows more than you, you just got one x years ago” so I’m like, “ok good luck” Then I ask why the new optic everytime I see them, theres always some excuse but I know its cuz the last one crapped out on them. I get a better feeling years down the road when people realize if they had listened to me then things may have been better. I dont push people I only offer my observations from my lessons. Really a life lesson I learned is, “you can learn by others mistakes, but your’s hurt more” so I try to follow lessons others have already had to go through, though some things you just have to learn on your own. Check my sig for my feelings on the matter.
I know a guy who did the same thing. He bought some cheap POS RDS for his new AR. He was all excited about it until I asked him about it a month later. He said it wouldn’t hold a zero and was a POS. He ended up junking it and buying an ACOG.
very good to excellent weather proofing (including battery compartment)
optic coatings will allow more light transmission, and also what is considered “true color” transmission
quality control in grinding of optics is consistent across high majority of viewing area
durable…durable…durable
what does this mean in real world terms?
high quality scopes don’t mist, fog, or leak moisture (into scope interior). you should be able to go from cold trunk storage into warm house, without scope fogging. You should be able to leave the scope in the rain, and it won’t impact it’s performance.
most scopes will naturally concentrate the available light and allow it to pass through to the operator. Good scopes use more expensive coatings and higher quality lense materials, so that the maximum amount of light is passed through instead of being reflected back out. Easy test here is to look through the scopes outside in the dark. If scopes are similiar size in optics and tubes, the better quality scope will transmit more light through, giving the operator more visibility in low light situations. All scopes perform well in nice sunny well lit conditions; try using the scopes in dingy, misty overcast day and see which one performs better.
“True color” transmission isn’t critical in shooting optics, but they are still a measure of good optics. If the “jacket” is “teal” color on the other end, a good scope will show the true color as “teal”, instead of “blue”.
-optic quality across the view area is harder to describe so bear with me. Most scopes will give you a clear picture in the center of the scope. but what happens if you view that same image, not in the center of the viewing area, but near the edge? Quality control is hard to maintain due to the curvature near the edges of the lense elements. A good scope will give you a clear image right up to the very edge of the viewing area.
durability…
I watched a guy who was doing a report on an M4 with an ACOG scope; he was showing me the quick release mounts that could be used in the case where the scope had to be ditched fast. We were in his garage and he flipped the scope off the rail, 4 feet down onto the concrete floor; on the second bounce I still missed it. He just laughed and said “if that scope breaks from such an easy fall, I don’t want it on my M4”. Re-attached the scope and it was undamaged.