Market Penetration

Firearms accessories is a field fraught with good ideas that take a long time to catch on and bad ideas which take forever to kill.

Being an early adopter of red-dots means I got to experience the time frame of a good idea taking a long time to catch on while it was happening.  You'd be amazed at how old the idea of collimating and reflex sights are.

Optics are too fragile for a combat rifle.

Harrrumph!  The batteries will be dead when you need it.

I was around when the Brits did the unthinkable and made an optic general issue for their primary infantry rifle.  Despite all of the complaints about the L85 and L86, there really weren't any with the SUSAT.

I also noticed that hardly a person predicting the failure of the SUSAT seemed aware that the Brits had years of solid experience with the SUIT on their L1A1 rifles.

Then Canada cut the carry handles off their C7 and mounted the ELCAN C79.

Suddenly the fragility argument died.

The SUIT, SUSAT and C79 are tritium illuminated, negating the battery life argument.

A valid argument... until AimPoint Comp M2.  The Comp M2 gets 10,000 hours of on time with the same batteries that my Aimpoint 1000 uses up in 100.

It's proven to be private proof too.

Red dots have exploded since the Army got on board, but note that it took 15 years of making red-dots in Sweden before the M68 caught on.

Similarly, it took from 1976 to 1985 to convince the British that a prismatic optic could be general issue and years more before anyone else tried.

Trijicon had marketed the ACOG for nearly 20 years before the military bought any, and that was limited issue.  It was almost 30 before the USMC adopted it.

We're starting to see red-dots creeping into acceptance for handguns.

I'm on the fence.

The lens sticks out just where I want it least when carrying.  That's a deal breaker and my method of carry in the summer.  But I'd only need a new holster for winter!  Time will tell.

Red dots rock because they are amazingly intuitive.  Collimation and virtual elimination of parallax means that if you can see the dot and the target you can hit it.  No fussy alignments.  No getting three things at different distances lined up with only one in focus.  Just keep both eyes open, focus on the target and put the dot there.

Bang!

It makes close in work fast and simple.

Which reminds me, I should really finish my thoughts on the occluded eye gunsight.  Armson is still in business!  Go full Son-Tay raider with your XM177E1!