Readers may have noticed I was absent the last several days. It was a good time away. A very good buddy and neighbor of mine, Robert, and I went hunting courtesy of the fine folks with Williams Hunting in South Carolina.
I was shooting a 6mm ARC rifle with a Grendel Hunter upper, Aero Precision lower, Amend2 magazines, Brownells scope mount, Radian Raptor charging handle, Nikon Black scope, and a Viking Tactics sling. I have no complaints about the gun. It's at least a 1 MOA gun…… [read more]
Holosun is known for making reliable, affordable red dots, and their new line of red dots is designed for use after dark. There’s a digital night vision model and two thermal models (standard and high definition).
They optics have a small footprint, a little larger than their AEMS, and are affordable compared to competitive offerings. The night vision optics will be about $1,000, and offer a 1024×768 resolution digital night vision sensor with up to 60 fps. They’ll also have features like 8x digital zoom, video recording, and are powered by two 18350 rechargeable batteries.
The DRS-TH Pro is the high-definition thermal red dot, and it will have a 384×288 resolution with white hot, black hot, highlight, outline and fusion display. The high-definition thermal will be around $2,300. For comparison, Steiner makes a thermal red dot that will set you back $7,500. The bad news is that these new optics aren’t available yet and you likely won’t be able to buy one until the end of the year.
They’re taking a smart approach to the product. They are overlaying the thermal image over their red dot. This will be effective for not only night hunting of game like hogs, but for home defense as well.
For $1000. I see it coming now. Lawsuits brought by Trijicon and Steiner and whomever else wants to join. “We thought of it first and wanted to patent it but they beat us to it, we don’t want that product to be legal in the U.S.”
For companies that jack their prices up out of reach to the ordinary citizen and go whoring after military and LE contracts, this is the first reaction. It all pays for their boats and college for their children, don’t you know.
On the other hand, companies like Holosun keep building products people want for a reasonable price.
New @holosunoptics Thermal (DMS-TH) spotted today. Check out how it overlays! You can have the thermal off and simply use it as a red dot sight, or turn on and have the thermal overlay the live image. Estimated launch late 2023. #shotshow2023#thermalpic.twitter.com/vY8LagGBc8
No budget scopes were tested. He does a fine job of explaining the differences in pictures you can understand. I have to remark that I do not even have the time or facilities to shoot at distances where these effects would be experienced, so the point is moot for me. I see no need for me to own a $2000 scope where I live.
From my perspective, the new Bushnell scope fills a niche, i.e., a high power FFP scope with a large objective lens for taking in light, at a reasonable price. The Crimson Trace scope does not. Who needs a 1-10X28mm tactical scope for a price of $649?
I’m most interested in the German Precision Optics reflex pistol red dot sight. It’s targeted towards pistols, but would be good for tactical or turkey hunting shotguns as well in my view.
F&S says it has a battery life of 25,000 hours, while GPO says it has 40,000 hours. The price point is good at $379. It’s a good competitor to the Trijicon RMR.
But when they says new, they mean new. I haven’t found availability of this new optic anywhere.
One final question remains, and that is the footprint. According to GPO it has the Leupold DeltaPoint interface. This source says that Leupold DeltaPoint is compatible with the RMR footprint, while this site more assertively states that it has the RMR footprint.
If any knowledgeable reader has this optic or the Leupold DeltaPoint optic, and can confirm that it can be installed over the RMR footprint, that would be appreciated.
I like being confronted by things I’ve never thought about before – or in other words, I like to learn. This is one of those many things.
My take: No glass is perfect, especially the less expensive glass used for fixed magnification sights (1X) and red dot optics. There will be some parallax, refraction, and lack of clarity.
Think about how you want to set zero on your rifle for later use with only iron sights. What Reid is saying is that you may not be able to co-witness the irons with the glass if both are to be correct.
Good point. I’d like to take one of Reid’s classes.
Outdoor Life has an article entitled The Best Scope Rings of 2022. They go the spectrum from Seekins to Night Force, from Zeiss to Leupold. As for prices, they go from budget (just over $50) to around $500.
That’s what I’ve noticed about this market – the massive divide in price point. Precision Rifle Blog has a rundown of what the long range competition shooters use, and as anyone might guess, it leans towards the pricey end of things with Nightforce being the most prominent of the choices.
Spuhr makes some very expensive mounts/rings too, mostly in the range of $400, up to $500 for quick detach mounts (which in my book are preferable to fixed mounts and rings).
What are the experiences of our readers? Do you find much difference between moderately priced rings and the pricey ones? Which ones do you prefer, and why?
I find that the really cheap ones are really cheap and not much worth having.
Reflective optics for artillery have been around since before World War One. With the massive rounds of the Great War, it makes sense – who would want to put their eye next to a scope ocular on a rifle with enough recoil to give shooters a black eye?
At first, these ambient light and half-mirror, “powered” reflex sights were confined to artillery and aircraft. They were simply too bulky and too daylight-dependent for small arms use. After World War Two, reflective optics were offered for sporting guns but were not considered suitable for individual military weapons.
Photo, Oleg Volk
The first “red dot” in relatively wide military use was actually an Armson OEG (occluded eye gunsight), a fiber optic presenting a bright dot to the dominant eye but occluding the target from it. The occlusion guaranteed a high-contrast aiming point, while the non-dominant eye would see the target, and the brain would superimpose the two for a sight picture. Although useful for short-range aiming and quick in use, OEG sights did not gain overwhelming popularity.
Around the end of the 20th century, the battery-operated Aimpoint red dot sight went mainstream with the US military as the M68 Close Combat Optic. Unlike a reflector sight that used a flat half-mirror and a lens-collimated optical source outside the line of sight, the M68 uses a curved semi-reflective mirror to direct the reticle toward the shooter’s eye. The use of a single-wavelength LED permits a long battery life and also allows the passing of all other wavelengths of light through the half-mirror.
There’s some history; read the interesting breakdown of advantages and disadvantages at the link. As always, readers’ insights and experience are welcomed.
Crimson Trace has finally released the HRO or Heavy Recoil Optic that was announced during SHOT Show 2022. The HRO is intended to be used specifically on rifles chambered in bigger, heavier hitting cartridges like 308 Winchester, 300 Win Mag, 458 SOCOM, and the like. This makes the HRO specifically effective on what most people would typically call a “Hog Gun.”
It has automatic shutoff and gets 50,000 hours of run time with a battery.
This isn’t an advertisement – I do not have one. They haven’t sent me one to test, unfortunately.
But I find this interesting for bigger bore guns. Perhaps some enterprising reader wants to run a red dot on top of a Henry .44 magnum or Marlin 45-70.
Dimensions (L x W x H) w/o Mount: 4.0 x 1.6 x 2.1 in. (102 x 42 x 53mm)
Weight w/ Mount: 5.1 oz. (144.5g)
Illumination Source: Fiber Optics & Tritium
Reticle(s): Circle Dot, RTR .223 Reticle, RTR 9mm PCC Reticle
MSRP: $1,357
I put the MSRP in bold. Yes, you read that right. They’ve released an ACOG that doesn’t have the magnification of the classic ACOG, and increased the price.
Ha! And I had the audacity to recommend to Trijicon that they consider their pricing and whether they really want a share of the American market!
Why on earth would anyone buy this for $1357? It isn’t a 1X so both eyes open downrange will see some oddball things, and it isn’t powerful enough to really be an LPVO or legitimate prism scope.
I’m not sure these are the best, and the prices are stunning in some cases. They range from $2000 in some instances up to $3200 for the Zeiss. It’s just not clear to me who would drop $3200 on a scope like that except professional shooters in the military (e.g., Army snipers).
Some expected names like Leupold (and whatever model they have up there will doubtless be discontinued within a year), and Athlon.
Some unexpected omissions. Why wouldn’t they include Arken Optics give the features and reasonable price?
What do readers think? Would you spend $3200 on optics for a hunting rifle or carbine?
The best deal I ever got on a scope was when Gander Mountain was closing their store in my town. They wanted big parking lots to compete with Bass Pro Shop for selling RVs.
The last days of the store they had everything for 50% off (not including firearms, which were 15% off sticker). I also used a membership from a friend which gave me another 10%.
I picked up a Nikon Black FX1000 FFP 6-24×50 for $190. It was a deal too good to pass up.
