I went out to the range at Fort A.P. Hill on Saturday and got to fire my new M4 for the first time with real ammo and I also used a high quality red dot sight. The last time we went to the range we went to Gunpowder, and the rounds we used were the plastic rounds shooting at paper targets at 25m with iron sights - some of us do pretty well (although I have yet to qualify Expert with that setup, I get close every time) but most are barely making the grade of 23/40, and we have some people who struggle to qualify at all.
Between June and now, the unit has gotten a lot of nice optics - mostly Aimpoint RDS, but a handful of Trijicon ACOGs. I didn't get an ACOG and got the Aimpoint RDS instead, which I was disappointed about, but it is what it is. Part of it is that with marksmanship scores affecting promotion points for E4s and E5s, (I'm an E6) they want people looking toward those promotions to have every advantage, so they got the few ACOGs as a means to boost their scores.
I have one inexpensive RDS on one of my two personal ARs - a Vortex Strikefire II, but I have yet to shoot my rifle with it. With that said, the experience at the range on Saturday taught me two things:
1.) I have an astigmatism - I always knew I had a "slight astigmatism" but this was the first time it limited me in a direct way
2.) At 50 years old, my eyes are now bad enough that I'm having a hard time even seeing the 300m popups at the range, which sucks because even into my early 40s my vision was always excellent.
For my astigmatism with the RDS I effectively see two dots - the main dot which is the real dot, and I see a slightly less bright ghost dot up and to the left. I managed to score 34/40. The RDS was plenty effective for everything 200m and closer for popups, but I had issues even seeing beyond that due to my generally degraded vision. I also had an issue with a magazine where I completely missed even firing at one of my targets due to dealing with that issue, so I missed Expert once again - I need 36+ for that. I think I'd have gotten the additional shots necessary for Expert with the ACOG.
This brings me to my main point - at this point I think I'd like to move to magnified prism optics, and obviously the gold standard is the TA31 ACOG. The best price I've found is the Exchange - they are selling them for $1100, but typically I see them for around $1300-$1400, which inspires a few questions:
1.) Are there any solid alternatives to the ACOG in a lower price range, or is this one of those things where "buy once, cry once" really comes into play?
2.) Are there sources online where people are buying/selling/trading gently used optics?
3.) Should I get laser vision correction to fix the astigmatism permanently?
I've always felt that there is great value to be had buying used. I buy almost all of my guns used - I can't tell you how many guys flip perfectly good firearms at a loss, sometimes with only a single box of ammo through them. I don't know if the same thing holds true for optics though, especially not for a sight like an ACOG. I'd think that once a person has gotten to that point with a proven military grade optic, they're probably going to hang onto it, but optics could be like guns with people flipping them all the time.
Thoughts?
Between June and now, the unit has gotten a lot of nice optics - mostly Aimpoint RDS, but a handful of Trijicon ACOGs. I didn't get an ACOG and got the Aimpoint RDS instead, which I was disappointed about, but it is what it is. Part of it is that with marksmanship scores affecting promotion points for E4s and E5s, (I'm an E6) they want people looking toward those promotions to have every advantage, so they got the few ACOGs as a means to boost their scores.
I have one inexpensive RDS on one of my two personal ARs - a Vortex Strikefire II, but I have yet to shoot my rifle with it. With that said, the experience at the range on Saturday taught me two things:
1.) I have an astigmatism - I always knew I had a "slight astigmatism" but this was the first time it limited me in a direct way
2.) At 50 years old, my eyes are now bad enough that I'm having a hard time even seeing the 300m popups at the range, which sucks because even into my early 40s my vision was always excellent.
For my astigmatism with the RDS I effectively see two dots - the main dot which is the real dot, and I see a slightly less bright ghost dot up and to the left. I managed to score 34/40. The RDS was plenty effective for everything 200m and closer for popups, but I had issues even seeing beyond that due to my generally degraded vision. I also had an issue with a magazine where I completely missed even firing at one of my targets due to dealing with that issue, so I missed Expert once again - I need 36+ for that. I think I'd have gotten the additional shots necessary for Expert with the ACOG.
This brings me to my main point - at this point I think I'd like to move to magnified prism optics, and obviously the gold standard is the TA31 ACOG. The best price I've found is the Exchange - they are selling them for $1100, but typically I see them for around $1300-$1400, which inspires a few questions:
1.) Are there any solid alternatives to the ACOG in a lower price range, or is this one of those things where "buy once, cry once" really comes into play?
2.) Are there sources online where people are buying/selling/trading gently used optics?
3.) Should I get laser vision correction to fix the astigmatism permanently?
I've always felt that there is great value to be had buying used. I buy almost all of my guns used - I can't tell you how many guys flip perfectly good firearms at a loss, sometimes with only a single box of ammo through them. I don't know if the same thing holds true for optics though, especially not for a sight like an ACOG. I'd think that once a person has gotten to that point with a proven military grade optic, they're probably going to hang onto it, but optics could be like guns with people flipping them all the time.
Thoughts?
