Holographic Sights: How to buy

[Orwell]

It’s five o’clock, the sun is low in the sky, and even under the trees and leaves the temperature is still well into the eighties. Sweat is pouring down your face, into your eyes, and your keffiyeh is so damp you could fill a glass with it. Heavy gear got heavier as the day got longer, and your rifle feels like it weighs 1,000 lbs.

You’ve been moving through the woods for at least forty-five minutes, circling around to behind your enemies’ lines. You know where they are. You’re tired, but you’re sharp. You’re going to be the talk of AP when you sneak up behind them an-

*CRACK* You step on a twig and stop dead still. You can’t hear anything, but you’re not sure if that’s because no one heard you or because your pulse is filling your ears. Deep breath.

*CRACK* This time, it wasn’t a twig. This time, it was a bolt, and although you yourself didn’t feel anything, you heard the BB whiz past your head. Unfortunately for the sniper, the sun is behind you. His shot betrayed him, and now you have a perfect visual on his prone form. He’s barely more than 100 feet away. You shoulder your weapon and try not to grin. You aim at the only part of the sharpshooter you can see, his head. You line up your beautiful new ACOG on his forehead and squeeze. *PAPAPAPAPAPAP*

You missed! The patch of leaves next to the lucky devil looks like confetti, and you know what’s about to happen. *CRACK* goes the rifle, and your body jolts. There’s a tinkling sound. You know you’ve been hit, you scream hit, but you have no idea what happened. Then you look at your brand new, $50 ACOG you bought at the gun show and your heart sinks. Sitting squarely behind the front glass is a round, slightly deformed, .30g pellet. You didn’t bring back up sights, and you know you’re done. It’s late anyway. You’re going to take your ball and go home.

-------

You ever have this happen to you? I’m really sorry. If you haven’t, you’ve been lucky or smart. There are a lot of really cool sighting options out there. Now, if you go to AONW and ask them for a damn good sight, chances are you’re going to get one. And you’ll pay for it. If you’re like me, you’re broke and paying for college out of pocket. So: How do you get a cool sight that doesn’t break? What makes a good sight? That’s what I’m here to help you figure out.

The three important aspects of a proper sight are construction; tensile glass strength; and parallax, a funny word we’ll have more on later:

1) Sight Construction

This is the easiest part of a sight to test. Does it feel good? Is it made of metal or plastic? Does it feel solid? Do you want to throw it, just because you think you could? If so, your sight passes the sight construction test. Fortunately, you often get reliable information on this from the seller. Please don’t throw your sights.

2) Tensile Glass Strength

This is a phony pony to test, unless you don’t mind breaking a sight before you decide to buy its brother. Tensile glass strength, for those without dictionaries or the internet, how tough the glass is. That simple. There are a couple ways to deal with glass issues:

a) Buy a sight cover. Many sights come with or have an optional cover. For example, this EOTech 552 replica from AONW comes with one. You can also buy them separately, like this Aimpoint scope cover.
b) Buy a killflash. A killflash is a perforated piece of metal that prevents scope glare, or “flash”. Having used real-steel killflashes, I can tell you they work very well. The tech for an airsoft one should be identical.
c) Buy a sight-shield. This is the best way if you can't find a killflash and want to still play. A good example is found here.
d) Grab some plexiglass and cover it yourself.
e) Hope.

It shouldn’t prove a huge danger. Even with the situation described at the head of this post, proper eyepro greatly reduces the danger to the eyes.

3) Parallax

God I hate parallax! It seems like every kid with an airsoft sight expects parallax, accepts it as normal. Listen to me: Parallax is under no conditions acceptable. It’s a pain. You can buy a sight with parallax issues, and even though I’ll be polite to you I’ll be laughing inside.

So what is parallax? Stick your finger in the air. What’s behind it? Move your head to the right, but don’t move your finger. See how what is behind your finger is different now? This, in it’s most basic form, is parallax. The way we combat parallax and make sure our sights hit their target is by having a front and back sight. When they’re both lined up, you know that your barrel is pointing straight at what you can see. The problem with red dot sights is that they also deal with parallax.

Now, I don’t know the science behind it, but the folks at Trijicon and EOTech and Aimpoint, etc. know how to make parallax not a problem out to a given range. You’ll see the phrase “parallax corrected,” which usually means that anywhere from 10 yds. 150 yds. there is no parallax, depending on the sight and how it’s configured. You’ll also see “parallax free”, an unofficial standard meaning up to 100 yds.

If your sight doesn’t say parallax free or parallax corrected, that’s a dealbreaker for me. A lot of people have sights with parallax, and most of them aren't noticeable. Still, if you can see how much that dot is moving, it may be affecting your accuracy at as little as ten feet. Realistically? 50 feet. Still, I never want to shred a bush when I could be getting hits.

So that’s it. I don’t know that it’s impossible to find a sight that’s parallax free, that’s metal constructed, that’s solid, and that has strong glass for under $100, but I’m sure you can find two out of three. Good luck, and good hunting!

[Diegunner]

thanks this will be very helpful for when I get My eotech

[icebullet]

This would be a great sticky in the AEG section.

The intro is very creative, by the way.

[Orwell]

Thank you, guys. I worked hard on it.

[Diegunner]

I have a G&P EoTech replica on my sr7. The thing is amazinging, it has taken so many hit to the glass and doesn't show a single wear mark. As for parilax with airsoft replica sights they r not parilax free. I've learned to deal with it. Great reveiw HartThrob!

[Hamster]

Great reveiw HartThrob!

THERE IS NO REVIEW.

Good job, You began using punctuation.


Also, There are the Element holographics on tiger111hk for sub 50-60 dollars, and IMO they're kind of nice. They have their cons here and there, though. I think I should do a short review on my 552 later today.

If only I was able to compare it to other brand 552s and holographic sights out there, though.

[DJ]

Parallax is always an issue, even with very high end RS scopes. the better scopes have a parallax correction (Leupold, Nikon,zeis,svarkowski) so do not sweat this issue on cheaper air soft glass. The ranges we deal with in airsoft pretty much make this a non issue. Worry more about the quality of the glass ( breakage) and what the reticle looks like. I bought a ACOG replica with an illuminated reticle , but the reticle is so complex (busy) as to draw your attention to the reticle ( obscures) rather than to the target. The best glass I ever owned was a Leupold mark 4 tactical 10X fixed power. Very expensive , very simple with a mil dot reticle. KISS is the moto with glass, particularly when someone is shooting back at you. You want it to work every time the same way. Oh and one other thing, , if you like to play in the rain, the integrity of the seals is important. A fogged scope is worthless. Gas filled (nitrogen) is very desirable.
I have half a dozen airsoft scopes, "Eotechs, reddots, etc... and frankly they all are mostly for looks (except at night).

[McNair]

I have half a dozen airsoft scopes, "Eotechs, reddots, etc... and frankly they all are mostly for looks (except at night).

I have an aimpoint on one of my rifles. I hardly ever turn it on. It generally is sighted in, but being airsoft, I can see where my rounds are going and adjust. I do like a x3-x4 since I'm blind and need a new prescription. But yeah, I have it on there 80% for looks.

During the winter, I end up having to either remove or just look over my optics as I have a habit of keeping my rifle "at the ready" and inadvertently breathing on them.

[VogonFord]

My rifle has a front sight for looks. It's just a piece of sheet metal I folded over the barrel and duct taped down. Who needs real sights when you know how to point shoot?

[Orwell]

If y'all don't use your sights, that's fine. This article isn't so much for you, then.

[Steve]

Been my experience that "parallax free" means past a certain point where the dot is is where the bullet will generally land. For example, the real-steel AimPoint Comp M3 (or CCO, as the Army calls it) is zeroed at 25 yards at 1.4" below point of impact in order to be dead-on at 100 yards because of parallax.

Eotechs have less of an issue with parallax. However: the higher you mount your optic above your bore, the more parallax issues you will have.

Also, I've had it up to my eyeballs with airsoft scopes that twist adjust instead of click-adjust. AONW has a replica AimPoint that clicks when you twist it, and can mount a kill-flash. It is full of win. The majority of airsoft scopes I've seen have no positive click when doing adjustments, and generally don't hold their zero, which is annoying as all get-out, especially when you're used to adjusting "x" numbers of clicks to the inch.

[Orwell]

Been my experience that "parallax free" means past a certain point where the dot is is where the bullet will generally land. For example, the real-steel AimPoint Comp M3 (or CCO, as the Army calls it) is zeroed at 25 yards at 1.4" below point of impact in order to be dead-on at 100 yards because of parallax.

...the higher you mount your optic above your bore, the more parallax issues you will have.

Also, I've had it up to my eyeballs with airsoft scopes that twist adjust instead of click-adjust... The majority of airsoft scopes I've seen have no positive click when doing adjustments, and generally don't hold their zero, which is annoying as all get-out, especially when you're used to adjusting "x" numbers of clicks to the inch.

To the first: You're right. You can never truly correct parallax for every distance. As to the comments about twist-adjust: I completely agree. I'll add that to the article when I have time.