Used an ACOG back in 05-06 in the US Army. We had a handful in the arms rooms as the standard issue was the M68 CCO made by Aimpoint, The M68 were fragile when they were actually getting used in combat. The rheostat on mine broke in an IED strike and then batteries became almost impossible to get. I acquired a ACOG and used it for the rest of the tour and I loved that thing. It survived several more IEDs, plenty of firefights and even a minor helicopter crash. That being said 20 years later I have LPVOs and red dots with magnifiers on my rifles and don't even have an ACOG. It was amazing two decades ago but the optics world has evolved a lot and this is reflected in games.
@@civilianuseonly The new products from Aimpoint have become quite good, but I will readily admit that my prejudice against them is still there, even though it's quite irrational at this point.
@@civilianuseonly I mean... If you got hit by an IED, 70% of your stuff and even yourself would be a casualty regardless so it killed his optic which, in retrospect, isn't hard to understand why. Unless you tell me that he dropped his gun with the optic on it and it broke just from a 1ft drop then that's a shit sight. Getting it demolished by an IED is normal as hell.
1) Thank you for your service 2) I've always considered the fiber optic on the ACOG to be a weird addition, but after what you said about having a battery shortage make me appreciate that feature more. Trijicon really was thinking ahead of its time.
ACOGs have found themselves somewhat relevant second hand. A lot of airsoft guys get them used and my friend has one on his AR-15 that he got from his father.
Never forget there was a point in Rainbow 6 Siege’s history where ubisoft’s main method of balancing operators was giving them or revoking their access to acogs
Here's a tip from a Marine grunt for using an ACOG. Put a small piece of electrical tape over part of the fiber optic on top of the scope to control the brightness. The more of it that is exposed, the brighter the reticle will be.
The same thing happened in the Battle of Belleau Wood iirc. Germans thought that the US was sending in some kind of American special forces sniper unit, Americans thought their troops were just executing the Germans at point blank, turns out it was just Marines being really good at shooting over long distances.
But we keep forgetting the thousands of other war crimes the USA commits because they could never do anything wrong, only big bad Russia is a war criminal
I’ve used ACOGs, LPVOs, and an eotech with magnifier in real life. ACOG felt like having aimbot. The eotech was the most fun to use. Lpvo gives the most range but is heavy and difficult to use quickly, also foggy weather blurs the lens fast. They all have pros and cons. I’d recommend the eotech with magnifier tho.
@masterterrorman Lmao what? Eotechs are fantastic. Also ACOGs aren't really that amazing, they have no eye relief and a small field of view. I have a feeling you don't know what you're talking about
@@mattfernandez5821 cope the eye relief is the biggest excuse ive ever fucking heard. "dont know what im talking about" okay not like I was a Marine or anything
I think that one of the primary reasons why the ACOG is not very popular in video games is because what it really excells at is allowing assault rifles to effectively engage at medium to long range and in quite a few games, the ACOG with 4x magnification is the most powerful optic for assault rifles. The problem here is that in a video game you can just switch to a DMR/Sniper rifle without any logistical issues and given that these weapons are usually flatly better then assault rifles at medium to long range, you'd almost always take them over an assault rifle. And since picking a DMR/Sniper often pretty much forces you to engage from longer ranges, you are heavily incentiviced to pick even more powerful optics than the ACOG, which DMR/Snipers almost always have access to. So, in conclusion, the ACOG is great at making assault rifles relativly viable at longer ranges, but assault rifles are most often outcompeted at those ranges while the best weapons for said ranges have better optics available.
In insurgency sandstorm, you can absolutely reach reach out to medium ranges with an M4 with an acog and can even reach out to long range with an M16 with an acog. Always dedicate 3 of my points to getting an acog on my M4 along with a smoke nade launcher.
@Ember34 Yes, in Insurgency: Sandstorm (and a few other tactical shooters with emphasis on realism) the ACOG is one of the better optic choices on rifles because of the very effective (and realistic) ability to fire at close range without aiming, de-emphasizing optics for closer ranges, but I meant across shooter games generally. (Although a marksman rifle or Sniper are still preferable if you plan to fully lean into long range shooting, but that may just be me)
With few exceptions, FPS games are more CQB than real life engagements. How many times in Iraq or Afghan did people use a x1 sight system, very few because the vast majority of engagements took place at 300 - 600m which is why we practice single shot and rapid fire at those ranges with x4 systems. Yes there is a place for instinctive shooting but in my experience these rarely involved the use of any sighting system as speed of engagements and peripheral vision trumped accuracy of placed shots. There are some maps in RoN i use an ACOG style of sight but its only ARMA that has modeled actual warfare accurately.
I think a big reason as to why the ACOG was so dominant in Siege was because it was in a sweet spot of having a 3x magnification, later reduced to a 2.5x Magnification, which although it can be challenging, is still usable in close ranges. If the Siege ACOG was perhaps a 4x or 4.5x Magnification, it would be easier to spawn peek yes, but substantially harder to use in close quarters encounters. I am not saying they should change it, but it is interesting to think about
God I love it, I've play for so long l it just feels most natural to use, i use it whenever I can except on Russia guns where I use Russia version as that's what I'm used to as well.
10:08 in most games, it makes your gun “heavier” or less reactive, and most games like Call of Duty games, are fought closer in on smaller maps. I bet that the most played map in black ops 6 is the 15th remake of nuketown.
It's a franchise where it's current playerbase are tik tok teenagers who CRY for muh slide cancelling and saying some crap like "realism doesn't equall fun" as if the 21st cod of the century is fun to begin with
My only gripe with the Acog is that Trijicon keeps the monopoly on 4x magnification prismatic optics, like I 90% sure they sue everyone that tries to put their foot in the market. Sig Bravo 4, discontinued. Leupold Hamr 4, discontinued. Primary Arms 4x Prisms, discontinued.
ITs actually just they had a monopoly for most of the time prisms were popular. (early 2000's) Prisms are really only very popular in military infantry, civilians use LPVO's or other magnification solutions and special forces follow suit with their own solutions. But that isn't the market for popularity The HAMR had its own issues with its small aperture and the others generally all fall into this reasoning: Other optical solutions are cheaper or more reliable. as in the ACOG. Also Leupold is just on crack with their prism sights lol. Even their red dots change every couple of years as they throw ideas at the wall. Not to say the acog is perfect, it has brightness issues mainly. But if you want a compact light and durable scope in a life and death situation. The acog just works. Feel free to min max your LPVO nv compatible setup though
There's at least 1 that isn't discontinued, the ELCAN SpcterDR 1-4x. I'd argue that it's actually a better optic than the ACOG, though it is kind of fugly.
Played with one IRL just recently, they’re really fun. One thing I don’t like about the way they’re depicted in video-games is how obnoxiously large they are on screen when you ADS. I don’t feel like it’s that bad when I used it IRL.
That effect is something very hard to do right in video games due to how in real life due to the eyes focusing on the target it blurs out the optic body due to your other eye not being obstructed. Very few games implement that feature, and even less do it properly.
yeah, if you aim with both eyes open you don't really see the optic housing. Games need to blur out the outside of the scope or make it transparent when looking through it to get it more realistic looking
@@123asap6 It's not like it even can be implemented "properly" given the inherent limitations of graphics rendering. Even if you can simulate two eyes in VR, you're still looking at two screens with 2D images rendered onto them. Without true 3D, you can't render looking through an optic realistically and have to use approximations.
It would be a pretty interesting mechanic if a game would implement optic imposed rendering (2 eyed vision) similar to how some games render scope picture in picture
I think delta force games ("delta force xtreme" comes immediately to my mind) used to sorta do that kind of aiming, by basically moving zoomed retice/optic to the side of the screen (sniper optic view for instance), leaving normal crosshair on center of the screen.
It wouldn't be that hard. They just need to make the weapon ~50% translucent, maybe with some ghosting effect from the other eye's perspective if we're going the extra mile
PLEASE READ IF YOU WANT TO BUY AN ACOG: Don’t be deterred by the price. Don’t buy cheaper. Don’t buy anything that looks like an acog that’s not made by trijicon. Make sure you research the optic as there are so many options for so many applications. Understand that most are built for the 5.56 round and are based on barrel length. It is one of the best options. The TA02 is probably the best option to date. If you have the money make sure you look into its competitors like the specter DR Elcan. Also 4x magnification is so versatile. It’s valuable and completely useable from 0 to 400 yards. The recitals trijicon offers are so simple to understand. Paired with a piggyback red dot it is one of the most effective tool. Just make sure it’s right for your specific application.
It is important to note that those Marines under investigation were due to headshots made during the battle for Fallujah, which specifically had lots of close quarters combat. Edit: i say this because the video says it's no good for close engagements, but then mentions its lethality in a battle that was mostly close engagements. Sort of a contradiction.
But imagine being in a call of duty game and you peek just enough to not occlude your reticle from in back of a room of a building. In FPS this usually means you're really exposed since the line of sight actually comes from the top of your chest and not your head, but in real life a person like this would be exposing only a few inches of target at 25m. Try hitting something like that when you're being shot from all over and you need to first detect where they are shooting from.
@neglectfulsausage7689 i mentioned that because he said the ACOG is not good for close distance fighting in real life, yet the best example of its lethality was literally in a battle that had the most intense close quarter combat since Vietnam
@@protoman1214 It sounded like a counterpoint to the argument of long range acog good headshots and the short range combat claim could be a nod to the argument it was executions. I was trying to make sense of the probable reason for why acog would get headshots in a built up area.
@neglectfulsausage7689 yeah, I can see that. Probably didn't make that clear. But I used an M16 with an ACOG in the Marine Corps. definitely not optimal for CQB, but the issue isn't so much with the ACOG, it's more so with the length of pull (fixed buttstock) and the long barrel (20" vs 11.5-14" on most CQB setups) Our table 2 rifle qual is at 25 yards and under and getting your sight on target was still very fast with practice.
@@neglectfulsausage7689 Might be something more trivial, like insurgents having little to no training, and poor understanding of supression, teamwork, and use of cover and concealment. To put it bluntly, sticking their heads out of cover in predictible spots, and no one distracting Marines watching these spots.
8:40 Partially also responsible for this was the fact that a lot of combatants were only peeking out their heads and very limited portions of their upper bodies, making the head preferable to if not being the only target they had.
Another notable game where the ACOG shines is in Squad, where factions that get ACOGs on their rifles (US Army/Marines, WPMC) do really well and medium to long ranges, even beating out their own marksmen/snipers in reaction speed and flexibility. It's more or less the best AR scope in-game besides the Specter sights that the Aussies get.
Would love to see a video like this on the Elcan Spectre in games too. What's interesting is that games rarely implement the biggest appeal of it, which is that is can quickly be switched between 1x and 4x, but most games that feature it strangely just use it as a fixed magnified optic like the ACOG
I would recommend watching Hop's review on the Elcan Spectre. It's titled "The Optic Nobody Likes Enough to Keep." And he... lays out the myriad of issues and problems with it. And it explains a lot. I kept seeing Spectres constantly being resold on the secondary market and the prices were looking pretty good. I almost bought one myself until I started looking at reviews and saw his video. Instant nope.
Escape from Tarkov allows you to switch between 1x and 4x but after all these years you still can't mount a reflex on top of the optic even though the mount is depicted in game, and even has a slot on the modding screen. I guess you can't have it all!
Payday 2 does the 1x-4x thing but with the fixed backup irons instead, I guess it’s close enough tho, but would be cool if it actually used the 1x magnification setting
I still remember in COD4:MW 2007 until COD MW3 2011,the ACOG have unnecessary Nerfs such as: -increased recoil. -Decreased recoil Centerspeed. -cannot steady your aim when you use ACOG on Snipers. Due to these nerfs,most COD4-MW3 Multiplayer META Attachments on their full auto guns are just suppressors because it remove muzzle flash to make it easier to see where you shooting at. And also,i still remember Rxqe cannot Aim Down Sight with ACOG because he's holding left shift key/steady aim button at 2:02 in this video 👇. ruclips.net/video/deFNdVsXHvg/видео.htmlsi=0RwsXCvyMn2jsI0b&t=2m02s
ACOG really works nice in VR, especially one simulated it well (eg.H3VR), most other optical if you miss the eye position, it's pitch black, but ACOG still gives you the red dot so your eyes can still superposition it on target. Still, if you don't have physical stock, it's more likely you miss the eye position than IRL.
The ACOG in 4x zoom, is ideal for 200-400 meters, which is about where 5.56mm begins to peter out if you reach much farther out anyway. The ACOG is also fantastic as it needs no battery to be illuminated, as it can run off ambient light. Reticule too bright? Just slap a bit of tape over part of the accumulator.
5.56 has an effective range out to 500+ meters for aimed fire and an effective area fire range of 800 meters. Now if we're throwing different barrel lengths into the mix then that's a different story
The ACOG has always been a pretty popular scope in battle royale games, like PUBG. Since gunfights often happen at medium to long range, having a versatile sight with 4x magnification is really helpful. Granted, you do have access to higher magnification scopes with variable zoom, the ACOG is well rounded and works well on pretty much any weapon in the rifle category.
The vast majority of games do not have engagements in ranges that make ACOG and other medium-long sights the most reasonable option, especially with automatic weapons. Shooter aiming controls make it difficult to fine adjust the aim in the way that ACOG sights would necessitate in closer ranges, and the average monitor/TV makes spotting targets in realistic ranges much more difficult. Most games also set players on automatic weapons as the default, and the recoil produced by their shot when combined with the intended range for these long range sights require much more finesse and tactical planning by the player. Slower, tactical games like CS and R6S usually still have these sights seeing prominent use due to the slower pace, tighter aiming and area clearing mechanics, and milsims will obviously feature them more often due to the much, much longer ranges that engagements take place in. It's a question of how the design intended for real life use doesn't translate well to the conventions of the FPS genre set since the days of DOOM and Unreal Tournament. Why would you reasonably use weapons and sights intended for ranges of hundreds of meters with slow moving targets, when the average COD map is about that range size in *length* with MUCH faster enemies?
I love the Advanced Combat Rifle trials! "We're gonna run trials to make our soldiers more accurate. no budget, go crazy. SOME TIME LATER "Hey turns out all these guns are cool and all but making far away things look closer makes it easier to hit them. SO thanks for the proposed rifles but we're just gonna add zoom and call it a day."
My best friend's TA110 was the reason why I went out and found an Elcan SpecterDR 1-4x Not an ACOG exactly, but it's my favorite prism sight of all time
TA-01 owner here, which btw IIRC made it's first trip back to Trijicon to have it's dead iridium rectical replaced last year after it finally died "after 12 years", (note: that's 2 years past it's normal lasting life, as they are guaranteed to last 10 years). It was placed back on the same BCM uppered, DPMS lowered M4 it was removed from and it's zero check'd - after this check, (which required zero adjustment, and how they managed that I haven't a clue) from the 800 yard range off the back porch at the farm here - I duplicated a benchrested shooting feat this ACOG/AR Rifle combo had done many times in the past. I fired 5 rounds of Black Hills factory boxed MK262 Mod1 (77grn SMK) @ the 700 yard steel target and these 5 rounds went into a sub-5 inch group, just as stated above. (note: this is 100 yards past the 600 yard lowest stadia line in the TA-01) - and the rifle itself had only a Rock River Arms 2 stage NM trigger and a permanently attached Vortex G6 FS to it's 14.5" bbl as non-stock parts, the rest of the upper was all factory BCM and all DPMS lower. (okay it did have the Enhanced BCG from BCM when purchased) I own the full spectrum of optics from Leupold Tactical Mil-Dots to Nightforce/Vortex/Schmit-Bender hunting scopes to the old M68, M2s to the T1 Aimpoints and even the EOTechs, as well as few cheap TRUGlo red-dots - Leupold Tactical scopes set atop all my LR custom built rifles, but the Trijicon ACOG any variant is in a league of it's own when it comes to combat optics.........., in the humble opinion of this old retired NRA "F" Class comp shooter.
One of the other benefits of the acog is the integrated rangefinding capabilities of the sight and points of aim for 100m 200m 300m 400m amd 500m respective to the width of the target in relation to the chevron and declenation lines. Most games weapons are hit scan or completely ignore this aspect of the optic, the only one I've played that gets it right is squad.
Americans never really got the BDC reticle stuff down as good as the rest of the world. Primary Arms is the leader in that field however but they still pull heavy inspiration from the Russians.
this is pretty much a perfect video, nice and long (not too long). explains everything well. great voice to listen to, great talking speed. and everything you talk about you support with videos so its even easier to understand. 10/10
the acog has been my favorite sight since I started playing fps games with gun attachments, i never liked high zoom scopes and the basic red dot for a lot of games don't gel with me, so when i unlocked the acog in cod for snipers it felt amazing to not be overwhelmed by the zoom and still have enough to actually see at a distance. edit: the okp-7 red dot rules though
I have a replica ACOG scope from a Amazon that I use for airsoft and I love the thing, it’s helped me to get so many extra hits on people from a longer range without having too much zoom like a sniper rifle.
Awesome video as usual. Oh and do yourself a favor and go into Sandstorms settings and enable PIP scopes. It's under "Settings" -> "Video" -> scroll down and in the "Advanced" part you can find "Scope Setting" select "Picture-in-picture". It will take some FPS but i think it's more than worth it.
I think one big factor in ACOGs not being popular in games is how the fact that most games render magnified optics all wrong. Most games “cheat” magnification by simply zooming the entire screen rather than rendering both a magnified and unmagnified image simultaneously. This often causes a really disorienting effect every time you aim down sights. Also, in order to maintain graphical fidelity, a lot of games only give the ACOG 2-2.5x of actual magnification, rather than the real life 4x.
We still use these things to this day. I qualified with the ACOG on my M16A4 in boot camp back in 2018, 6 years later I still qualified with it. Got attached to another unit for a MEU deployment, they gave us M4s and sure enough they had ACOGs ontop as well. When we got to Okinawa and zeroed our ACOGs, I was putting 5 shots in a group the size of a Japanese 500 Yen coin at 25yd without even being properly zeroed yet. My M4 was basically just a laser pointer once I adjusted it and got my zero, I mean it was pretty much like cheating with aimbot. I'd love to try newer rifles and optics, but if I can't then I know I can trust my life to an M16A4 or M4 rifle with a Trijicon ACOG on top.
Another important factor as to why ACOGs are not as effective in games: Recoil and sensitivity. When you are zoomed in, most games will significantly slow down your sensitivity as well as decrease your FOV. This isn’t an issue for slow firing weapons like bolt-action sniper rifles, since you only fire a single shot and can wait for the recoil to reset before taking the next shot. But on automatic rifles, this combination on decreased sensitivity and FOV make the recoil much more difficult to control compared to when using 1x sights.
10:55 - The dominant eye still sees the target, but being able to still keep the left eye open gives you better situational awareness. And makes it so you don't get tunnel vision and can more easily spot targets popping up in your peripheral.
I've found that Arma 3 is a game that interprets ACOG sights the best. The game by default usually involved engagements between 75-500 meter distance fights, meaning using iron sights or even holographic sights puts you at a disadvantage over using a magnified sight. The ACOG sights give you perfect magnification for those ranges, and thanks to the lack of health regeneration there won't be the issue other games have where if you don't kill with a small burst of rounds you won't be finishing off your opponent. On top of that, the ACOG sight in Arma 3 allows for point shooting, effectively giving you a "Braced" stance with your gun, allowing for accurate fire without peering down your scope, thus giving you the accuracy of aiming, with the clarity of no magnification whilst still giving you the downside of no sight to incentivize the use of red dot sights.
I had a red dot on my M4 in the Army for the longest time. Once my unit converted the M4s into M4A1s, we suddenly got a bunch of ACOGs. Honestly, I liked the ACOG more than the CompM4 red dot. Despite the M4A1 being a 14.5" barrel carbine, I performed better at the range using the two eyes open method of aiming. Don't get me wrong, the CompM4 CCO is great when you're kicking in doors and doing CQB stuff, but I was a 19kilo tank crewman. Chances of me actually going door to door are pretty slim in the first place anyway. Then again, if I need to shoot at anything with my rifle on the battlefield, either something is wrong or my tank is broken.
It's kinda funny how first optic sights were basically a telescope strapped to a weapon And Acog is in its principle, a half of binoculars set strapped on top of a weapon.
I find the section of R6S being one of the few videogames where optics were know to be stupid strong just as intended to be pretty funny, at the time it was well know to be a pretty hardcore game that was not welcoming to new players due to the amount of map knowledge required and how punishing spawn peeking was. The two main culprits of the outrage were Bandit and Jager, both of them defenders with access to an assault rifle that could equip an ACOG and also "speed 3", the highest movement speed for operators. What made those two particularly frustrating to deal with was them being speed 3 meant they could easily maneuver across the map during the preparation phase, then they would use their higher caliber pistols to shoot a single bullet hole into the window boards and use the tiny hole to spot enemy players right as they spawned and dome them from maximum distance thanks to their magnified optic. As mentioned in the video, removing the ACOG from their attachment list was one of the first measures taken to prevent spawn peeking. The second however was preventing bullet holes from being actual "holes" that could allow vision through cover, now if you shoot a bullet hole the game will only render a black texture forcing players to bash boards open thus making them much more visible to enemy players if they want to peek outside. I do find myself culprit of ignoring the ACOG in most game however, while the mention of it being clunky for close quarters and outclassed for long range in videogames is true. Another small thing to consider is how the ACOG is popularly depicted using a Chevron reticle while many other options use a cleaner dot reticle for a clear target view or have a full crosshair for better alignment with the environment. Great video as usual, you're the new Ahoy it seems.
Just found your channel and wanted to watch a bunch of these videos to realize this is like your 5th in this format. I think you’ve found your calling, please keep it up! Would love a video on the desert eagle
In afghamistan I used an Aimpoint red dot as my first optic on a battle rifle. It worked, but one time after falling off a hesco wall, it lost zero and had to fall back to irons. next deployment I was issued the acog. It was a big change, and I didnt like it on my M4 and thought it was overkill for my needs. After 3 months I was able to swap for an EO TECH. That was the "hot optic" in 2007-08. The picture crarity was not as good as the acog. after the first firefight, I stitched back to the acog and that stayed as my optic of choice until i got out in 2014. Now my civilian rifles have un magnified red dots, and my 308 has a 4x acog.
well it is in the game "escape from tarkov" but you can only zero it to 200m there while it has a single high zoom level, so there is no point in using it most of the time. I'm also not sure if it works differently from other optics in that game honestly but since durability is not an issue I would say it behaves the same. edit: I just realized that the reason for the scope being a lot smaller in tarkov is what you have mentioned, lots of tarkov players use the vudu scope because it offers a nice and big scope area with small borders for the housing which also covers most of the screen I would say. Prhaps that is why it is less used in Tarkov, because the ACOG only covers a small portion of the screen and for the most part players prefer larger "scope area" if you catch my drift. But I do appreciate the developers detail in making it overall cover less of the screen to pay homage to its origins
I have been shooting from a rifle with red dot sight. The the best feature is that you do not have to have your eye perfectly aligned with the sight to hit the target. If it is zeroed-in correctly, its just "the bullet goes where the red dot is". I found it absolutely fascinating when I used it for the first time.
the acog may have a small eyebox, but with enough familiarization and repetition, its a non issue unless youre shooting in odd positions. also hard to show in video, the field of view and glass quality is amazing. i may be biased since this is the optic i learned to shoot on, but if i had to take a rifle to war tomorrow, id want an acog on it
I love these videos so much, they seem heavily inspired by the old xbox ahoy videos on prominent weapons in games, and they’re so good, please never stop these
It's always cool doing the proper aiming method and seeing the reticle floating a few inches away from my muzzle like some kind of video game HUD. Also cool seeing a zoomed-in circle in front of my rifle.
Wow I didn't notice that until now. The fact that games typically just zoom in with the housing still visible instead of rendering the zoomed-in image within the housing.
Humans: normally have 2 eyes, so you can see through and around the sight. Video Games: let’s make the ACOG take up 1/4 of the screen so nobody wants to use it. Seriously, just give it 50% opacity. You should be shooting with both eyes open.
I actually use to use the ACOG on my scout snipers on COD back in the day because having peripheral vision when sniping out in the open is invaluable. Made it perfect for covering objectives anywhere. If there was a bomb we needed to defend, a flag, or just a commonly used corridor, if I was there with my ACOG scout rifle, nobody was getting through. It was actually my favorite sniper build ever just because of how flexible it was on the battlefield just because of the ACOG. The only weakness I found was often my back was exposed making me an easy flank target if you could ever spot me. But a claymore to fixes that
Bro this thing was my go-to in bf4. On every dmr and lmg, and on most of my ar and even a few carbines. It’s got the clearest picture and highest magnification. I use it in the division 2 on my dmr and in insurgency sandstorm. In every modern game I play I use the acog all the time. In bf4 especially you put an acog on an lmg, I love the LSAT especially, a bipod, heavy barrel, you have a full auto dmr with a 100+ mag. It’s hilarious to use After watching the whole video your style kinda reminds me of Ahoy a little. Your voice especially. You use a lot more footage but the layout of this was very similar to his Iconic Arms series. I enjoyed this video good work👍
What a great optic. Im good with iron sights, always shot at least 38/40 on popups, but with an ACOG I feel like a superhero. I was troubleshooting a lane my guys were complaining about targets not falling when hit, so I had another NCO with binos next to me. With the ACOG I knocked down targets before he knew they'd popped up. Fantastic sights.
The Trijicon ACOG TAO1 4x is an awesome sight, the glass is the best quality for perfect clarity and turning on the red recital works in low light as well as day light, its fiber optic light gathering in day light and in very low light. When not 100% black out, I can see almost to 100 yards. At 5:45 is a Canadian ELCAN sight, not as good as the ACOG.
Im a Siege player and want to give more insight on Acogs in the game When the game launched, the defenders had plenty of Acogs, half the defending team had Acogs, one of them having it on their secondary SMG, (the SMG-11) slowly, most of these Acogs would be removed, first Smoke lost his, then Bandit and Jager, This left Rook, Doc, and the later introduced Echo, later along, Maestro got an Acog on his LMG, which would later be removed because 81 bullet high powered LMG with an Acog was way too good on defense. and even later on, the last Acog I remember off the top of my head would be on Kaid's TCSG (which would later be reused on Goyo with the Acog.) a bit later, they would rework the optics system, addingg the 1.5 and 2.0 scopes. if Im remembering the technical part of it, the 2.0 scope was basically the Acog, but the Acog was moved up to a 2.5 scope. Rook, Doc, Kaid, and Goyo, would keep their 2.0 scopes during this time. then recently, at the begining of this year (2024 for future reference) they reworked sights AGAIN, its now only 1.0 and 2.5, and "telescopic" (3.0 or 3.5 I forget) scopes, and so Holos and Acogs rained supreme. However, Ubisoft wouldn't let the 1.5 scope, and the 2.0 scopes go to waste, so now, the 1.5 scope got moved to a 2.5 scope, keeping its casing, and the 2.0 scope moved to a telescopic scope, there were small conversations about whether the 1.5 scopes casing was better than the Acog, however I see most players using the Acog, most likely because they increased the size of the graphic inside the scope so much that getting a clean shot is difficult, Acogs are more ever present than ever, especially since odd operators have them, like Tubarao's DMR having a Acog, despite him being completely broken, Goyo having a Acog on his Vector, which is straight evil from the developers, and even Echo gaining his Acog back. Thats all I got, might be wrong in some areas, was a kid when the game released so I wasn't keeping up that much.
You might already be familiar, but Primary Arms makes some pretty great affordable prism sights too, and even a few 1x options as alternatives to red dots for people with astigmatism
I served in the army and was blessed to have ACOGs in our arms room, I had tape over the 95% of the fiber optic on top never had an issue with day light making it too bright, God I loved that sight
You can also use electrical tape and fishing glowsticks. Snap the glowstick and lay it on the fiber optic part of the ACOG, then tape over it to cover the glow stick, and voila, functional illumination for the ACOG in night ops...
It's not very good in Stalker Gamma with 3DSS, at least with default 3DSS settings, since 3DSS blurs magnified optics when using NVG. Gamma's going to have 3DSS integrated by default in future versions too. I'd rather have a night vision scope, a Leupold LPVO, and an RMR hotkeyed than use an ACOG.
Another factor to mention is the simple fact that ACOGs are only effective with controlled single shots or short bursts in semi-auto. Full-auto that thing, irl or in game, and the thing is a nightmare to look through. Since a vast majority of games have a medium to long range hits-to-kill of 5-10 shots for assault rifles, it's no wonder people switch to bolt-action sniper rifles that accurately shoot and kill in 1-2 shots. This is as opposed to real life where 1-2 well placed hits from an assault rifle easily disable most infantry.
Recently the Marine Corps Adopted the VCOG (Variable Combat Optical Gunsight) and it is mounted on the M27 IARs that were currently issued, the ACOGs were still in use but the Majority Now Used in the Marine Corps's Rifles were the Trijicon VCOG.
I use the ACOG in literally every video game its in, and i recently got excited when i unlocked it for my M416 in 2042 and SFAR-M GL, few other optics in gaming get me excited like that.
In my 6 years in the army I almost exclusively used the m68 red dot. It had like 15 brightness settings and if you sighted it on the lowest setting you could see with it could make your m4 damn near laser accurate at 100m. Only got to shoot with the ACOG a couple of times, they were reserved for sgts and above due to low supply. i remember one of my NCO's telling me the proper way to sight one was to put the cheveron ontop of the target like a hat. Never made sense to me.
A big reason of their struggle in fps games is also that games like call of duty tend to give ACOG sights a slower ads (aim down sights) time than red dots or iron sights. In such a fast phased game, being able to aim faster and shoot earlier than your opponent is a huge advantage. Acogs also magnify the "recoil" of your guns, which means you have to pull down the mouse further in order to compensate for the recoil compared to a red dot or iron sights, making you less accurate when shooting fully automatic.
Another thing that comes to the close range engagements in games is that most games just lower the fov when looking through the optics. Which is not at all how a real scope works. It only magnifies what is in the scope, but not the surrounding. So not only do you get the big optic frame on your screen, you also lose peripheral vision. Some games use picture-in-picture to draw a magnified area in the scope, like it works in real life, and in those higher magnification optics are much more usable. Especially for marksman setups.
It was a ritual for my buddies to pass me the 2x/acog equivalent in apex, I used to clutch and tear through squads with that bad boy on a p20. Something about the shape of it just helped me lock in better than a traditional crosshair or red dot.
Why? The answer is simple: the optic is constantly misrepresented and thrust into game designs that do not allow for such an optic to shine. At all. In short, the devs didn't care, they just put it in their game because they wanted to entice players with the option. Even though their questionably designed game has no room for it. Again, the devs don't care.
I was in a fishing tackle shop here in Ireland (they're the only places you'd get guns, accessories, hunting stuff and targets) and I was talking to two guys about guns, I had told them I bought an acog specifically for an airsoft gun to create a replica of a gun from a game, I showed them the model and one of the guys laughed and said he uses that exact model acog in the Irish army.
another thing in rainbow six is that a headshot is always an instant kill while you might require A LOT of body hits for the same kill especially on defense you usually have weaker SMGs while in attack you can get heavy rifles or even medium caliber machineguns, so if you are playing on defense with a 9mm modified glock carbine and a 19 round mag (mozzi used that), and your enemy uses a 30cal soviet machinegun with a 100 round belt you can only wish to hit the head to win the gunfight, you drop the enemy with 5-6 body shots while the enemy drops you in 2 people focus too much on hiding from enemy fire and the head is the only body part you always have to expose to see your enemy this means that the acog alongside high fire rate is very good at hitting the enemy heads on defense
I’ve never seen a game portray an ACOG correctly. The eye relief is very small, so you need to put your eye right up on it. But when you do, you get a massive field of view. In games, it makes it look like you are looking through the tube of a drinking straw. The optic housing looks large around the main view. This is specifically the opposite of how it looks IRL. The field of view is so large that it’s like looking through a red dot but with magnification.
I had no idea having both eyes open did that with the reticle, I wish more games would simulate it. Though I guess it wouldn't look like it does in person, so maybe that's why they don't. I'm not a gun person but now I want to look through an ACOG in real life just cause I'm curious lol. I've always liked them in games despite the chunky housing.
Used an ACOG back in 05-06 in the US Army. We had a handful in the arms rooms as the standard issue was the M68 CCO made by Aimpoint, The M68 were fragile when they were actually getting used in combat. The rheostat on mine broke in an IED strike and then batteries became almost impossible to get. I acquired a ACOG and used it for the rest of the tour and I loved that thing. It survived several more IEDs, plenty of firefights and even a minor helicopter crash. That being said 20 years later I have LPVOs and red dots with magnifiers on my rifles and don't even have an ACOG. It was amazing two decades ago but the optics world has evolved a lot and this is reflected in games.
@@osiris5432 Interesting that even Aimpoints were failing
@@civilianuseonly The new products from Aimpoint have become quite good, but I will readily admit that my prejudice against them is still there, even though it's quite irrational at this point.
@@civilianuseonly I mean... If you got hit by an IED, 70% of your stuff and even yourself would be a casualty regardless so it killed his optic which, in retrospect, isn't hard to understand why.
Unless you tell me that he dropped his gun with the optic on it and it broke just from a 1ft drop then that's a shit sight. Getting it demolished by an IED is normal as hell.
1) Thank you for your service
2) I've always considered the fiber optic on the ACOG to be a weird addition, but after what you said about having a battery shortage make me appreciate that feature more. Trijicon really was thinking ahead of its time.
ACOGs have found themselves somewhat relevant second hand. A lot of airsoft guys get them used and my friend has one on his AR-15 that he got from his father.
Never forget there was a point in Rainbow 6 Siege’s history where ubisoft’s main method of balancing operators was giving them or revoking their access to acogs
to be fair if it wasnt for players putting so much value into them it would have stopped being the case....
Sieges whole lifespan?
Still a thing sorry man
When Jäger had a real gun that doesn’t shoot peas, and it had the acog on it.
@@PROFESSIONALCRASHOUThis gun doesn’t shoot peas ur aim is just not that good
Here's a tip from a Marine grunt for using an ACOG. Put a small piece of electrical tape over part of the fiber optic on top of the scope to control the brightness. The more of it that is exposed, the brighter the reticle will be.
Somebody is going to come in here like “OOOOOOOH that’s why there’s tape on there”
@@Shimotivater Have seen this being done, and works very well
It blows my mind how many people don’t know that
@@boom-ln5ew It is a small piece of info you would only really know if you're a gun nerd, or someone who was issued one
Rah rah
8:22 Making an optic so good people are being accused of cheating (war crimes) IRL is probably the biggest flex anyone in this industry can make.
The same thing happened in the Battle of Belleau Wood iirc. Germans thought that the US was sending in some kind of American special forces sniper unit, Americans thought their troops were just executing the Germans at point blank, turns out it was just Marines being really good at shooting over long distances.
@@MarioTheLiopleurodon Yes, but you also didn't mention WHY they thought they were executing them: the Marines were JUST getting that many headshots.
But we keep forgetting the thousands of other war crimes the USA commits because they could never do anything wrong, only big bad Russia is a war criminal
And then get accused of war crimes in a game
@@ThermiteThonk We're just that good lol
I’ve used ACOGs, LPVOs, and an eotech with magnifier in real life. ACOG felt like having aimbot. The eotech was the most fun to use. Lpvo gives the most range but is heavy and difficult to use quickly, also foggy weather blurs the lens fast. They all have pros and cons. I’d recommend the eotech with magnifier tho.
Tell that to Trijicon who completely discontinued ACOG's.
Love the eotech sights but can't say the same about the g33. But would like to try other magnifiers
lmao eotech is trash vs ACOG
@masterterrorman Lmao what? Eotechs are fantastic. Also ACOGs aren't really that amazing, they have no eye relief and a small field of view. I have a feeling you don't know what you're talking about
@@mattfernandez5821 cope the eye relief is the biggest excuse ive ever fucking heard. "dont know what im talking about" okay not like I was a Marine or anything
300 million dollars to find out that a gun is more accurate with a scope on it and yet i still cant get an ACOG for less than 1000$!
Pain
They're available used for less than $1000... in the USA
I got a nearly brand new one for $750
Both of you speak lies on the interwebs. Lying is bad, m'kay
@@Castigar48 I’m not lying, you just have to dig deeper than gunbroker
Ah yes, the "Assault Rifle Scope™"
"RIFLE COMBAT OPTIC"
RIFLE COMBAT OPTIC*
Assault Rifle Scope™
Assault scope
@@koimanananawithout the rifle? Just throw the scope at the enemy’s? 😂
I think that one of the primary reasons why the ACOG is not very popular in video games is because what it really excells at is allowing assault rifles to effectively engage at medium to long range and in quite a few games, the ACOG with 4x magnification is the most powerful optic for assault rifles.
The problem here is that in a video game you can just switch to a DMR/Sniper rifle without any logistical issues and given that these weapons are usually flatly better then assault rifles at medium to long range, you'd almost always take them over an assault rifle. And since picking a DMR/Sniper often pretty much forces you to engage from longer ranges, you are heavily incentiviced to pick even more powerful optics than the ACOG, which DMR/Snipers almost always have access to.
So, in conclusion, the ACOG is great at making assault rifles relativly viable at longer ranges, but assault rifles are most often outcompeted at those ranges while the best weapons for said ranges have better optics available.
In insurgency sandstorm, you can absolutely reach reach out to medium ranges with an M4 with an acog and can even reach out to long range with an M16 with an acog. Always dedicate 3 of my points to getting an acog on my M4 along with a smoke nade launcher.
@Ember34 Yes, in Insurgency: Sandstorm (and a few other tactical shooters with emphasis on realism) the ACOG is one of the better optic choices on rifles because of the very effective (and realistic) ability to fire at close range without aiming, de-emphasizing optics for closer ranges, but I meant across shooter games generally.
(Although a marksman rifle or Sniper are still preferable if you plan to fully lean into long range shooting, but that may just be me)
With few exceptions, FPS games are more CQB than real life engagements. How many times in Iraq or Afghan did people use a x1 sight system, very few because the vast majority of engagements took place at 300 - 600m which is why we practice single shot and rapid fire at those ranges with x4 systems. Yes there is a place for instinctive shooting but in my experience these rarely involved the use of any sighting system as speed of engagements and peripheral vision trumped accuracy of placed shots.
There are some maps in RoN i use an ACOG style of sight but its only ARMA that has modeled actual warfare accurately.
Shudders in old Jaeger.
This is probably a bigger reason tbh
I think a big reason as to why the ACOG was so dominant in Siege was because it was in a sweet spot of having a 3x magnification, later reduced to a 2.5x Magnification, which although it can be challenging, is still usable in close ranges. If the Siege ACOG was perhaps a 4x or 4.5x Magnification, it would be easier to spawn peek yes, but substantially harder to use in close quarters encounters. I am not saying they should change it, but it is interesting to think about
God I love it, I've play for so long l it just feels most natural to use, i use it whenever I can except on Russia guns where I use Russia version as that's what I'm used to as well.
10:08 in most games, it makes your gun “heavier” or less reactive, and most games like Call of Duty games, are fought closer in on smaller maps. I bet that the most played map in black ops 6 is the 15th remake of nuketown.
> I bet that the most played map in black ops 6 is the 15th remake of nuketown
CORRECT
3 constants in this world: Death, Taxes, and Nuketown being the most played map in the COD entry it's in
would be stakeout if you could run it 24/7
I play with an FN FAL with an acog sight, so satisfying to do headshots
It's a franchise where it's current playerbase are tik tok teenagers who CRY for muh slide cancelling and saying some crap like "realism doesn't equall fun" as if the 21st cod of the century is fun to begin with
My only gripe with the Acog is that Trijicon keeps the monopoly on 4x magnification prismatic optics, like I 90% sure they sue everyone that tries to put their foot in the market.
Sig Bravo 4, discontinued.
Leupold Hamr 4, discontinued.
Primary Arms 4x Prisms, discontinued.
ITs actually just they had a monopoly for most of the time prisms were popular. (early 2000's)
Prisms are really only very popular in military infantry, civilians use LPVO's or other magnification solutions and special forces follow suit with their own solutions. But that isn't the market for popularity
The HAMR had its own issues with its small aperture and the others generally all fall into this reasoning:
Other optical solutions are cheaper or more reliable.
as in the ACOG.
Also Leupold is just on crack with their prism sights lol. Even their red dots change every couple of years as they throw ideas at the wall.
Not to say the acog is perfect, it has brightness issues mainly. But if you want a compact light and durable scope in a life and death situation. The acog just works. Feel free to min max your LPVO nv compatible setup though
Youre wrong its because the ACOG is just that good lmao
All those just didn’t sell well. They are just a market leader. Lawsuits are public record too chief, there was no lawsuits, just no sales
There's at least 1 that isn't discontinued, the ELCAN SpcterDR 1-4x. I'd argue that it's actually a better optic than the ACOG, though it is kind of fugly.
@ it is not better lmao way less durable
Played with one IRL just recently, they’re really fun. One thing I don’t like about the way they’re depicted in video-games is how obnoxiously large they are on screen when you ADS. I don’t feel like it’s that bad when I used it IRL.
That effect is something very hard to do right in video games due to how in real life due to the eyes focusing on the target it blurs out the optic body due to your other eye not being obstructed. Very few games implement that feature, and even less do it properly.
yeah, if you aim with both eyes open you don't really see the optic housing. Games need to blur out the outside of the scope or make it transparent when looking through it to get it more realistic looking
One of the worst parts about ACOGs in games
@@123asap6 It's not like it even can be implemented "properly" given the inherent limitations of graphics rendering. Even if you can simulate two eyes in VR, you're still looking at two screens with 2D images rendered onto them. Without true 3D, you can't render looking through an optic realistically and have to use approximations.
Modern games generally suck at blurring the edges of sights where your eye wouldn't focus on IRL
It would be a pretty interesting mechanic if a game would implement optic imposed rendering (2 eyed vision) similar to how some games render scope picture in picture
I think delta force games ("delta force xtreme" comes immediately to my mind) used to sorta do that kind of aiming, by basically moving zoomed retice/optic to the side of the screen (sniper optic view for instance), leaving normal crosshair on center of the screen.
It wouldn't be that hard. They just need to make the weapon ~50% translucent, maybe with some ghosting effect from the other eye's perspective if we're going the extra mile
in VR these work very well, you have to aim yourself with the optic or iron sight, that makes people really careful about when to aim and how to aim.
@@Bytional h3vr comes to mind, best virtual gun/gear sim I can think of
@@Dia.dromes its a great game but there lots of room for improvement, see anton's inability to finish things before moving onto other things
Ah yes, the P90 with a REVERSED ACOG from SCP: Containment breach
i hate you why did you make this information known
Its the GOCA :3
@@MemeReviewerGOCA sounds like some Brazilian knock off brand optic.
huh, I never realized it looks like a reversed acog lol
ever since SCPCB the acog is the ONLY attachment i use on P90's
PLEASE READ IF YOU WANT TO BUY AN ACOG:
Don’t be deterred by the price. Don’t buy cheaper. Don’t buy anything that looks like an acog that’s not made by trijicon. Make sure you research the optic as there are so many options for so many applications. Understand that most are built for the 5.56 round and are based on barrel length. It is one of the best options. The TA02 is probably the best option to date. If you have the money make sure you look into its competitors like the specter DR Elcan. Also 4x magnification is so versatile. It’s valuable and completely useable from 0 to 400 yards. The recitals trijicon offers are so simple to understand. Paired with a piggyback red dot it is one of the most effective tool. Just make sure it’s right for your specific application.
@@adamanderson3334 The 1.5x is my dream optic
Scopes are illegal in my country to "make the hunt fair for the animals".
Bs we all know that it's to protect our corrupt politicians.
It is important to note that those Marines under investigation were due to headshots made during the battle for Fallujah, which specifically had lots of close quarters combat.
Edit: i say this because the video says it's no good for close engagements, but then mentions its lethality in a battle that was mostly close engagements. Sort of a contradiction.
But imagine being in a call of duty game and you peek just enough to not occlude your reticle from in back of a room of a building. In FPS this usually means you're really exposed since the line of sight actually comes from the top of your chest and not your head, but in real life a person like this would be exposing only a few inches of target at 25m. Try hitting something like that when you're being shot from all over and you need to first detect where they are shooting from.
@neglectfulsausage7689 i mentioned that because he said the ACOG is not good for close distance fighting in real life, yet the best example of its lethality was literally in a battle that had the most intense close quarter combat since Vietnam
@@protoman1214 It sounded like a counterpoint to the argument of long range acog good headshots and the short range combat claim could be a nod to the argument it was executions. I was trying to make sense of the probable reason for why acog would get headshots in a built up area.
@neglectfulsausage7689 yeah, I can see that. Probably didn't make that clear.
But I used an M16 with an ACOG in the Marine Corps. definitely not optimal for CQB, but the issue isn't so much with the ACOG, it's more so with the length of pull (fixed buttstock) and the long barrel (20" vs 11.5-14" on most CQB setups)
Our table 2 rifle qual is at 25 yards and under and getting your sight on target was still very fast with practice.
@@neglectfulsausage7689 Might be something more trivial, like insurgents having little to no training, and poor understanding of supression, teamwork, and use of cover and concealment. To put it bluntly, sticking their heads out of cover in predictible spots, and no one distracting Marines watching these spots.
8:40
Partially also responsible for this was the fact that a lot of combatants were only peeking out their heads and very limited portions of their upper bodies, making the head preferable to if not being the only target they had.
imagine making a sight so reliable and accurate that it just becomes synonymous in gaming with any sight with a zoom anywhere from 2x-4x
Another notable game where the ACOG shines is in Squad, where factions that get ACOGs on their rifles (US Army/Marines, WPMC) do really well and medium to long ranges, even beating out their own marksmen/snipers in reaction speed and flexibility. It's more or less the best AR scope in-game besides the Specter sights that the Aussies get.
Yes! I was about to comment something similar
Yeah and it's a nightmare playing without one lol.
Irons only teams are pain incarnate
its criminal that not a single clip in the video is squad
I prefer the British/Canadian sights over the American ones tbh, Aussies are pretty OP alongside the Turkish elcans.
Would love to see a video like this on the Elcan Spectre in games too. What's interesting is that games rarely implement the biggest appeal of it, which is that is can quickly be switched between 1x and 4x, but most games that feature it strangely just use it as a fixed magnified optic like the ACOG
I would recommend watching Hop's review on the Elcan Spectre. It's titled "The Optic Nobody Likes Enough to Keep." And he... lays out the myriad of issues and problems with it. And it explains a lot. I kept seeing Spectres constantly being resold on the secondary market and the prices were looking pretty good. I almost bought one myself until I started looking at reviews and saw his video. Instant nope.
@matchesburn I have actually. That's where I first learned about it
Squad has that variable optic mechanic for the Australian Defense Force and the Turkish Land Force
Escape from Tarkov allows you to switch between 1x and 4x but after all these years you still can't mount a reflex on top of the optic even though the mount is depicted in game, and even has a slot on the modding screen. I guess you can't have it all!
Payday 2 does the 1x-4x thing but with the fixed backup irons instead, I guess it’s close enough tho, but would be cool if it actually used the 1x magnification setting
These videos really remind me of the Ahoy weapon series, which are by far some of my favourite videos on yt. Keep it up man!
ah es the duplex round, what The Fat Electrician called "every shot is worth twice the XP"
I still remember in COD4:MW 2007 until COD MW3 2011,the ACOG have unnecessary Nerfs such as:
-increased recoil.
-Decreased recoil Centerspeed.
-cannot steady your aim when you use ACOG on Snipers.
Due to these nerfs,most COD4-MW3 Multiplayer META Attachments on their full auto guns are just suppressors because it remove muzzle flash to make it easier to see where you shooting at.
And also,i still remember Rxqe cannot Aim Down Sight with ACOG because he's holding left shift key/steady aim button at 2:02 in this video 👇.
ruclips.net/video/deFNdVsXHvg/видео.htmlsi=0RwsXCvyMn2jsI0b&t=2m02s
It's worth noting in COD 4 it increased damage on the first sniper you get.
@@deathtrooper2048 ... Only to get countered by juggernaut like any other snipers in COD4.
@FarhanSaid.... Yeah, but without jugg it's a one hit to anywhere in the body and a lot of people only use stopping power.
ACOG really works nice in VR, especially one simulated it well (eg.H3VR), most other optical if you miss the eye position, it's pitch black, but ACOG still gives you the red dot so your eyes can still superposition it on target.
Still, if you don't have physical stock, it's more likely you miss the eye position than IRL.
yeah 100% agree FN SCAR with ACOG in Onward slaps
The ACOG in 4x zoom, is ideal for 200-400 meters, which is about where 5.56mm begins to peter out if you reach much farther out anyway.
The ACOG is also fantastic as it needs no battery to be illuminated, as it can run off ambient light. Reticule too bright? Just slap a bit of tape over part of the accumulator.
I really wonder why they limited the zeroing in tarkov to 200 for this one with such a zoom leve, but it's probably due to other balancing reasons.
I had acog in my rk62, it was satisfying asf to use.
5.56 has an effective range out to 500+ meters for aimed fire and an effective area fire range of 800 meters. Now if we're throwing different barrel lengths into the mix then that's a different story
@@HappyFunTimeslmao keep in mind that the accuracy of the rifle and the shooter also factor in.
The ACOG has always been a pretty popular scope in battle royale games, like PUBG. Since gunfights often happen at medium to long range, having a versatile sight with 4x magnification is really helpful. Granted, you do have access to higher magnification scopes with variable zoom, the ACOG is well rounded and works well on pretty much any weapon in the rifle category.
The vast majority of games do not have engagements in ranges that make ACOG and other medium-long sights the most reasonable option, especially with automatic weapons. Shooter aiming controls make it difficult to fine adjust the aim in the way that ACOG sights would necessitate in closer ranges, and the average monitor/TV makes spotting targets in realistic ranges much more difficult. Most games also set players on automatic weapons as the default, and the recoil produced by their shot when combined with the intended range for these long range sights require much more finesse and tactical planning by the player.
Slower, tactical games like CS and R6S usually still have these sights seeing prominent use due to the slower pace, tighter aiming and area clearing mechanics, and milsims will obviously feature them more often due to the much, much longer ranges that engagements take place in.
It's a question of how the design intended for real life use doesn't translate well to the conventions of the FPS genre set since the days of DOOM and Unreal Tournament. Why would you reasonably use weapons and sights intended for ranges of hundreds of meters with slow moving targets, when the average COD map is about that range size in *length* with MUCH faster enemies?
I love the Advanced Combat Rifle trials!
"We're gonna run trials to make our soldiers more accurate. no budget, go crazy.
SOME TIME LATER
"Hey turns out all these guns are cool and all but making far away things look closer makes it easier to hit them. SO thanks for the proposed rifles but we're just gonna add zoom and call it a day."
Truly a US military moment
My best friend's TA110 was the reason why I went out and found an Elcan SpecterDR 1-4x
Not an ACOG exactly, but it's my favorite prism sight of all time
TA-01 owner here, which btw IIRC made it's first trip back to Trijicon to have it's dead iridium rectical replaced last year after it finally died "after 12 years", (note: that's 2 years past it's normal lasting life, as they are guaranteed to last 10 years).
It was placed back on the same BCM uppered, DPMS lowered M4 it was removed from and it's zero check'd - after this check, (which required zero adjustment, and how they managed that I haven't a clue) from the 800 yard range off the back porch at the farm here - I duplicated a benchrested shooting feat this ACOG/AR Rifle combo had done many times in the past. I fired 5 rounds of Black Hills factory boxed MK262 Mod1 (77grn SMK) @ the 700 yard steel target and these 5 rounds went into a sub-5 inch group, just as stated above. (note: this is 100 yards past the 600 yard lowest stadia line in the TA-01) - and the rifle itself had only a Rock River Arms 2 stage NM trigger and a permanently attached Vortex G6 FS to it's 14.5" bbl as non-stock parts, the rest of the upper was all factory BCM and all DPMS lower. (okay it did have the Enhanced BCG from BCM when purchased)
I own the full spectrum of optics from Leupold Tactical Mil-Dots to Nightforce/Vortex/Schmit-Bender hunting scopes to the old M68, M2s to the T1 Aimpoints and even the EOTechs, as well as few cheap TRUGlo red-dots - Leupold Tactical scopes set atop all my LR custom built rifles, but the Trijicon ACOG any variant is in a league of it's own when it comes to combat optics.........., in the humble opinion of this old retired NRA "F" Class comp shooter.
One of the other benefits of the acog is the integrated rangefinding capabilities of the sight and points of aim for 100m 200m 300m 400m amd 500m respective to the width of the target in relation to the chevron and declenation lines. Most games weapons are hit scan or completely ignore this aspect of the optic, the only one I've played that gets it right is squad.
Americans never really got the BDC reticle stuff down as good as the rest of the world. Primary Arms is the leader in that field however but they still pull heavy inspiration from the Russians.
this is pretty much a perfect video, nice and long (not too long). explains everything well. great voice to listen to, great talking speed. and everything you talk about you support with videos so its even easier to understand. 10/10
the acog has been my favorite sight since I started playing fps games with gun attachments, i never liked high zoom scopes and the basic red dot for a lot of games don't gel with me, so when i unlocked the acog in cod for snipers it felt amazing to not be overwhelmed by the zoom and still have enough to actually see at a distance.
edit: the okp-7 red dot rules though
I have a replica ACOG scope from a Amazon that I use for airsoft and I love the thing, it’s helped me to get so many extra hits on people from a longer range without having too much zoom like a sniper rifle.
Awesome video as usual.
Oh and do yourself a favor and go into Sandstorms settings and enable PIP scopes. It's under "Settings" -> "Video" -> scroll down and in the "Advanced" part you can find "Scope Setting" select "Picture-in-picture". It will take some FPS but i think it's more than worth it.
Very important, and that makes it into a real simulation of how the optics work.
I think one big factor in ACOGs not being popular in games is how the fact that most games render magnified optics all wrong. Most games “cheat” magnification by simply zooming the entire screen rather than rendering both a magnified and unmagnified image simultaneously. This often causes a really disorienting effect every time you aim down sights. Also, in order to maintain graphical fidelity, a lot of games only give the ACOG 2-2.5x of actual magnification, rather than the real life 4x.
We still use these things to this day. I qualified with the ACOG on my M16A4 in boot camp back in 2018, 6 years later I still qualified with it. Got attached to another unit for a MEU deployment, they gave us M4s and sure enough they had ACOGs ontop as well. When we got to Okinawa and zeroed our ACOGs, I was putting 5 shots in a group the size of a Japanese 500 Yen coin at 25yd without even being properly zeroed yet. My M4 was basically just a laser pointer once I adjusted it and got my zero, I mean it was pretty much like cheating with aimbot.
I'd love to try newer rifles and optics, but if I can't then I know I can trust my life to an M16A4 or M4 rifle with a Trijicon ACOG on top.
The ACOG ran so the Elcan Specter could walk
-The ELCAN C79 was already running for a while-
Another important factor as to why ACOGs are not as effective in games: Recoil and sensitivity. When you are zoomed in, most games will significantly slow down your sensitivity as well as decrease your FOV. This isn’t an issue for slow firing weapons like bolt-action sniper rifles, since you only fire a single shot and can wait for the recoil to reset before taking the next shot. But on automatic rifles, this combination on decreased sensitivity and FOV make the recoil much more difficult to control compared to when using 1x sights.
also, most combat in most cames is close quarters or at least on not much longer ranges that 100m, while most combat irl happens at much longer ranges
10:55 - The dominant eye still sees the target, but being able to still keep the left eye open gives you better situational awareness. And makes it so you don't get tunnel vision and can more easily spot targets popping up in your peripheral.
I've found that Arma 3 is a game that interprets ACOG sights the best. The game by default usually involved engagements between 75-500 meter distance fights, meaning using iron sights or even holographic sights puts you at a disadvantage over using a magnified sight. The ACOG sights give you perfect magnification for those ranges, and thanks to the lack of health regeneration there won't be the issue other games have where if you don't kill with a small burst of rounds you won't be finishing off your opponent.
On top of that, the ACOG sight in Arma 3 allows for point shooting, effectively giving you a "Braced" stance with your gun, allowing for accurate fire without peering down your scope, thus giving you the accuracy of aiming, with the clarity of no magnification whilst still giving you the downside of no sight to incentivize the use of red dot sights.
I had a red dot on my M4 in the Army for the longest time. Once my unit converted the M4s into M4A1s, we suddenly got a bunch of ACOGs. Honestly, I liked the ACOG more than the CompM4 red dot. Despite the M4A1 being a 14.5" barrel carbine, I performed better at the range using the two eyes open method of aiming. Don't get me wrong, the CompM4 CCO is great when you're kicking in doors and doing CQB stuff, but I was a 19kilo tank crewman. Chances of me actually going door to door are pretty slim in the first place anyway. Then again, if I need to shoot at anything with my rifle on the battlefield, either something is wrong or my tank is broken.
It's kinda funny how first optic sights were basically a telescope strapped to a weapon
And Acog is in its principle, a half of binoculars set strapped on top of a weapon.
this guy is obviously not a jäger main
I find the section of R6S being one of the few videogames where optics were know to be stupid strong just as intended to be pretty funny, at the time it was well know to be a pretty hardcore game that was not welcoming to new players due to the amount of map knowledge required and how punishing spawn peeking was. The two main culprits of the outrage were Bandit and Jager, both of them defenders with access to an assault rifle that could equip an ACOG and also "speed 3", the highest movement speed for operators.
What made those two particularly frustrating to deal with was them being speed 3 meant they could easily maneuver across the map during the preparation phase, then they would use their higher caliber pistols to shoot a single bullet hole into the window boards and use the tiny hole to spot enemy players right as they spawned and dome them from maximum distance thanks to their magnified optic. As mentioned in the video, removing the ACOG from their attachment list was one of the first measures taken to prevent spawn peeking. The second however was preventing bullet holes from being actual "holes" that could allow vision through cover, now if you shoot a bullet hole the game will only render a black texture forcing players to bash boards open thus making them much more visible to enemy players if they want to peek outside.
I do find myself culprit of ignoring the ACOG in most game however, while the mention of it being clunky for close quarters and outclassed for long range in videogames is true. Another small thing to consider is how the ACOG is popularly depicted using a Chevron reticle while many other options use a cleaner dot reticle for a clear target view or have a full crosshair for better alignment with the environment.
Great video as usual, you're the new Ahoy it seems.
Just found your channel and wanted to watch a bunch of these videos to realize this is like your 5th in this format. I think you’ve found your calling, please keep it up!
Would love a video on the desert eagle
5:14 ”using the same material as at-15’s are made out of” aluminum? Guns aren’t made of magic metal
In afghamistan I used an Aimpoint red dot as my first optic on a battle rifle. It worked, but one time after falling off a hesco wall, it lost zero and had to fall back to irons. next deployment I was issued the acog. It was a big change, and I didnt like it on my M4 and thought it was overkill for my needs. After 3 months I was able to swap for an EO TECH. That was the "hot optic" in 2007-08. The picture crarity was not as good as the acog. after the first firefight, I stitched back to the acog and that stayed as my optic of choice until i got out in 2014.
Now my civilian rifles have un magnified red dots, and my 308 has a 4x acog.
well it is in the game "escape from tarkov" but you can only zero it to 200m there while it has a single high zoom level, so there is no point in using it most of the time. I'm also not sure if it works differently from other optics in that game honestly but since durability is not an issue I would say it behaves the same.
edit: I just realized that the reason for the scope being a lot smaller in tarkov is what you have mentioned, lots of tarkov players use the vudu scope because it offers a nice and big scope area with small borders for the housing which also covers most of the screen I would say. Prhaps that is why it is less used in Tarkov, because the ACOG only covers a small portion of the screen and for the most part players prefer larger "scope area" if you catch my drift. But I do appreciate the developers detail in making it overall cover less of the screen to pay homage to its origins
I have been shooting from a rifle with red dot sight. The the best feature is that you do not have to have your eye perfectly aligned with the sight to hit the target. If it is zeroed-in correctly, its just "the bullet goes where the red dot is". I found it absolutely fascinating when I used it for the first time.
the acog may have a small eyebox, but with enough familiarization and repetition, its a non issue unless youre shooting in odd positions. also hard to show in video, the field of view and glass quality is amazing. i may be biased since this is the optic i learned to shoot on, but if i had to take a rifle to war tomorrow, id want an acog on it
I love these videos so much, they seem heavily inspired by the old xbox ahoy videos on prominent weapons in games, and they’re so good, please never stop these
This optic was essential in IRQ in 2005. I dunno much about vid games, but this thing is legend. And STILL top 5 best in use even today. (real life)
It's always cool doing the proper aiming method and seeing the reticle floating a few inches away from my muzzle like some kind of video game HUD. Also cool seeing a zoomed-in circle in front of my rifle.
With over 3K hours in Squad, I love the ACOG
Cod 4 music at the start is iconic!!
Wow I didn't notice that until now. The fact that games typically just zoom in with the housing still visible instead of rendering the zoomed-in image within the housing.
Humans: normally have 2 eyes, so you can see through and around the sight. Video Games: let’s make the ACOG take up 1/4 of the screen so nobody wants to use it.
Seriously, just give it 50% opacity. You should be shooting with both eyes open.
I actually use to use the ACOG on my scout snipers on COD back in the day because having peripheral vision when sniping out in the open is invaluable. Made it perfect for covering objectives anywhere. If there was a bomb we needed to defend, a flag, or just a commonly used corridor, if I was there with my ACOG scout rifle, nobody was getting through. It was actually my favorite sniper build ever just because of how flexible it was on the battlefield just because of the ACOG. The only weakness I found was often my back was exposed making me an easy flank target if you could ever spot me. But a claymore to fixes that
Bro this thing was my go-to in bf4. On every dmr and lmg, and on most of my ar and even a few carbines. It’s got the clearest picture and highest magnification. I use it in the division 2 on my dmr and in insurgency sandstorm. In every modern game I play I use the acog all the time. In bf4 especially you put an acog on an lmg, I love the LSAT especially, a bipod, heavy barrel, you have a full auto dmr with a 100+ mag. It’s hilarious to use
After watching the whole video your style kinda reminds me of Ahoy a little. Your voice especially. You use a lot more footage but the layout of this was very similar to his Iconic Arms series. I enjoyed this video good work👍
What a great optic. Im good with iron sights, always shot at least 38/40 on popups, but with an ACOG I feel like a superhero. I was troubleshooting a lane my guys were complaining about targets not falling when hit, so I had another NCO with binos next to me. With the ACOG I knocked down targets before he knew they'd popped up. Fantastic sights.
Will u talk about ELCAN Spectre?
The Trijicon ACOG TAO1 4x is an awesome sight, the glass is the best quality for perfect clarity and turning on the red recital works in low light as well as day light, its fiber optic light gathering in day light and in very low light. When not 100% black out, I can see almost to 100 yards. At 5:45 is a Canadian ELCAN sight, not as good as the ACOG.
ive owned dozens of acogs! They are some of the best optics EVER!
Im a Siege player and want to give more insight on Acogs in the game
When the game launched, the defenders had plenty of Acogs, half the defending team had Acogs, one of them having it on their secondary SMG, (the SMG-11)
slowly, most of these Acogs would be removed, first Smoke lost his, then Bandit and Jager, This left Rook, Doc, and the later introduced Echo, later along, Maestro got an Acog on his LMG, which would later be removed because 81 bullet high powered LMG with an Acog was way too good on defense.
and even later on, the last Acog I remember off the top of my head would be on Kaid's TCSG (which would later be reused on Goyo with the Acog.)
a bit later, they would rework the optics system, addingg the 1.5 and 2.0 scopes. if Im remembering the technical part of it, the 2.0 scope was basically the Acog, but the Acog was moved up to a 2.5 scope.
Rook, Doc, Kaid, and Goyo, would keep their 2.0 scopes during this time.
then recently, at the begining of this year (2024 for future reference) they reworked sights AGAIN, its now only 1.0 and 2.5, and "telescopic" (3.0 or 3.5 I forget) scopes, and so Holos and Acogs rained supreme.
However, Ubisoft wouldn't let the 1.5 scope, and the 2.0 scopes go to waste, so now, the 1.5 scope got moved to a 2.5 scope, keeping its casing, and the 2.0 scope moved to a telescopic scope, there were small conversations about whether the 1.5 scopes casing was better than the Acog, however I see most players using the Acog, most likely because they increased the size of the graphic inside the scope so much that getting a clean shot is difficult, Acogs are more ever present than ever, especially since odd operators have them, like Tubarao's DMR having a Acog, despite him being completely broken, Goyo having a Acog on his Vector, which is straight evil from the developers, and even Echo gaining his Acog back.
Thats all I got, might be wrong in some areas, was a kid when the game released so I wasn't keeping up that much.
I can't use red dots so Prism optics like the ACOG are the only short range optics that I can use.
@@Razor-gx2dq Prism optics are God's gift to us astigmatism havers
You might already be familiar, but Primary Arms makes some pretty great affordable prism sights too, and even a few 1x options as alternatives to red dots for people with astigmatism
@@Sam_Pillay The SLX 1x I have has served me very well
@@Sam_Pillay i like my slx 3x but the eye relief is absolutely abysmal. not sure if all magnified prisms are like that.
I served in the army and was blessed to have ACOGs in our arms room, I had tape over the 95% of the fiber optic on top never had an issue with day light making it too bright, God I loved that sight
Look at sky: inspect wepon. Perfection.
You can also use electrical tape and fishing glowsticks.
Snap the glowstick and lay it on the fiber optic part of the ACOG, then tape over it to cover the glow stick, and voila, functional illumination for the ACOG in night ops...
As someone who only plays shooters like Tarkov(spt) and Stalker Anomaly nowadays, that's the baseline optic I will always use.
It's not very good in Stalker Gamma with 3DSS, at least with default 3DSS settings, since 3DSS blurs magnified optics when using NVG. Gamma's going to have 3DSS integrated by default in future versions too. I'd rather have a night vision scope, a Leupold LPVO, and an RMR hotkeyed than use an ACOG.
i swear this video just assumes that only games like cod exist.
Yeah, the ACOG is a really busted optic for Anomaly
Another factor to mention is the simple fact that ACOGs are only effective with controlled single shots or short bursts in semi-auto. Full-auto that thing, irl or in game, and the thing is a nightmare to look through. Since a vast majority of games have a medium to long range hits-to-kill of 5-10 shots for assault rifles, it's no wonder people switch to bolt-action sniper rifles that accurately shoot and kill in 1-2 shots. This is as opposed to real life where 1-2 well placed hits from an assault rifle easily disable most infantry.
Acog = My favorite scoup
With or without the Killflash attachment?
MY MOST FAVORITE OPTIC SIGHT!
XD
Thanks A lot!
Love the cod4 soundtrack
And bf3
@@F-5E3_Tiger_II Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 too
Recently the Marine Corps Adopted the VCOG (Variable Combat Optical Gunsight) and it is mounted on the M27 IARs that were currently issued, the ACOGs were still in use but the Majority Now Used in the Marine Corps's Rifles were the Trijicon VCOG.
15:20
Insurgents: Why wouldn't you guys fight fair and use iron sights like a real man?
In Squad, having an ACOG is game changing.
Opens the video with Siege. I remember when Siege first came out that you would be team killed if you didn't use it
I use the ACOG in literally every video game its in, and i recently got excited when i unlocked it for my M416 in 2042 and SFAR-M GL, few other optics in gaming get me excited like that.
I use the ACOG a lot in BO6. Probably the best mid-range sight in the game.
Surprisingly not awful in that game
In my 6 years in the army I almost exclusively used the m68 red dot. It had like 15 brightness settings and if you sighted it on the lowest setting you could see with it could make your m4 damn near laser accurate at 100m.
Only got to shoot with the ACOG a couple of times, they were reserved for sgts and above due to low supply.
i remember one of my NCO's telling me the proper way to sight one was to put the cheveron ontop of the target like a hat. Never made sense to me.
2:20 never let a french person hear your pronounciation of gascoigne.
Tf they gonna do, surrender...
Yeah like in Afghanistan @@StaticM223
not showing cod 4 is heart breaking
I still use this on my M16 on BF3
Based
I use it on my LWRC M6A1-G
A big reason of their struggle in fps games is also that games like call of duty tend to give ACOG sights a slower ads (aim down sights) time than red dots or iron sights. In such a fast phased game, being able to aim faster and shoot earlier than your opponent is a huge advantage.
Acogs also magnify the "recoil" of your guns, which means you have to pull down the mouse further in order to compensate for the recoil compared to a red dot or iron sights, making you less accurate when shooting fully automatic.
I just like Chevrons.
Another thing that comes to the close range engagements in games is that most games just lower the fov when looking through the optics.
Which is not at all how a real scope works. It only magnifies what is in the scope, but not the surrounding.
So not only do you get the big optic frame on your screen, you also lose peripheral vision.
Some games use picture-in-picture to draw a magnified area in the scope, like it works in real life, and in those higher magnification optics are much more usable. Especially for marksman setups.
HOLOGRAPHIC EOTECH NEXT????
It was a ritual for my buddies to pass me the 2x/acog equivalent in apex, I used to clutch and tear through squads with that bad boy on a p20. Something about the shape of it just helped me lock in better than a traditional crosshair or red dot.
God i could immediatly recognize the cod 4 sound track in the beginning, brings back memories.
OST Charlie Don't Surf brings back so many memories
Why? The answer is simple: the optic is constantly misrepresented and thrust into game designs that do not allow for such an optic to shine. At all. In short, the devs didn't care, they just put it in their game because they wanted to entice players with the option. Even though their questionably designed game has no room for it. Again, the devs don't care.
I was in a fishing tackle shop here in Ireland (they're the only places you'd get guns, accessories, hunting stuff and targets) and I was talking to two guys about guns, I had told them I bought an acog specifically for an airsoft gun to create a replica of a gun from a game, I showed them the model and one of the guys laughed and said he uses that exact model acog in the Irish army.
can Victoptics be mounted on an actual firearm and still hold a zero?
Probably not, hence why its marketed as an airsoft optic ya cheap ass
another thing in rainbow six is that a headshot is always an instant kill while you might require A LOT of body hits for the same kill
especially on defense you usually have weaker SMGs while in attack you can get heavy rifles or even medium caliber machineguns, so if you are playing on defense with a 9mm modified glock carbine and a 19 round mag (mozzi used that), and your enemy uses a 30cal soviet machinegun with a 100 round belt you can only wish to hit the head to win the gunfight, you drop the enemy with 5-6 body shots while the enemy drops you in 2
people focus too much on hiding from enemy fire and the head is the only body part you always have to expose to see your enemy
this means that the acog alongside high fire rate is very good at hitting the enemy heads on defense
just say aluminum lol 5:22
I’ve never seen a game portray an ACOG correctly.
The eye relief is very small, so you need to put your eye right up on it. But when you do, you get a massive field of view. In games, it makes it look like you are looking through the tube of a drinking straw. The optic housing looks large around the main view. This is specifically the opposite of how it looks IRL.
The field of view is so large that it’s like looking through a red dot but with magnification.
7:17 game name?
ground branch
I had no idea having both eyes open did that with the reticle, I wish more games would simulate it. Though I guess it wouldn't look like it does in person, so maybe that's why they don't. I'm not a gun person but now I want to look through an ACOG in real life just cause I'm curious lol. I've always liked them in games despite the chunky housing.
I want to say sorry for playing Jager in Rainbow 6 from 2015 to 2018. Y'all didn't deserve it
Nah not sorry for that