I was told by manufacturing engineers for industrial electronic tools, the AA battery is the most ubiquitous form of portable electrical power supply in the world. You can find AA batteries in Upper Volta (or Burkino Faso) or Outer Mongolia, and AA batteries are carried in the one store operated in Antarctica. So maybe that impacted Aimpoints thinking.
I agree, in a SHTF scenario. If any of your neighbors abandon their homes you can go inside and grab the first TV remote and you’ve got 10 years of batteries (if they’re brand new AA)
It honestly raises the question of why bother turning it off anyway. I'd replace the sight with whatever was the newest tech five years later and the sight would still be running
@@neilbodwell9172 My favorite stories are the dumb asses who try to sneak out past the fire watch and jump the fence to the airport, not realizing they’re about to get charged for not only a UCMJ violation but federal violations of trespassing onto the runway for an international airport.
A SWAT team tested the Comp M4 and found it to be the most durable red dot, far superior to the EOtechs. They went to far as to strap a flashbang grenade to the side of it, set it of, and there was no loss of zero. They really are amazing sights.
I was willing to put up with the Eotech because I liked the reticle over the plain dot. My unit lost a helicopter a decade ago & most of it’s crew. A year later the M-4s were returned to our unit. One of the burned M-4s had a Comp M-4. You couldn’t see through it but the red dot was still glowing bright.
NVG's, CCO's, PAS-13 thermals, PRC battery adapter modules, etc etc It took decades, but yes, we finally discovered that just universally using goddamn AA's was the right answer. We pack a foldable Goal Zero 20 watt solar panel and some rechargeable AA's in a charger attached to the roof of my vehicle specifically so we don't have to rely on the batteries coming out of Supply being fresh and holding a charge. The SDC issues like the grocery store, old stock first.
A work year is roughly 2000 hours. If you kept the red dot on for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, you wouldn't have to pop in a new double A for 25 years. That's crazy talk.
Now let's not forget that's 50k hrs at lowest setting. I'd knock that to one third to be ultra conservative ... so 8 years working week style, or just shy of 2 years if left on permanently ... that's still literally the shelf life of a fresh AAA battery. Ridiculous.
The sharper dot especially like the M5 has really shows up with a magnifier behind it, since you're magnifying the dot as well as the field the quality of the dot makes a difference. Point well taken about older Aimpoints still being viable. I have one of the original adjustable base style Aimpoints like in the first picture that I used at the 1986 Steel Challenge on a grip mount, and it still works just fine.
The sharper dot is definitely a trait that sets it apart from other optics. Even with a 4 MOA dot, once you understand where your zero is, that cear defined dot edge allows for much more POA consistency which makes a difference at distance. Here's one more Stroboscopic flicker. This is where an Led flashes while moving and you see multiple dots. Most cheap red dots like the SPARC II are probably lower than 400 flashes per second (.4 kHz) while the Aimpoint is much much higher around 1kHz (speculation). It's definitely the case that a continuous dot image is preferable to multiple dots however, to what extent you want that feature is digging into the minutia for sure.
The M4 has been used by the military for years (as the CCO M68) and has always used a single AA battery.The M4S relocates the AA battery to approx. the 4:30 position (from the perspective of the shooter) vs. the M4 where the battery is at 1:00. I acquired 2 M4 units 7 years ago. When I got them, I left both of them turned on at a mid level brightness and one killed the Duracell in a year while the other was still going strong. Still, 1 year is an impressive run time.
Bdkj 3e that could actually be a part of the stage to do it while you and all your gear is soaking wet. Imagine just how our troops do it overseas. Slug through a stream or river the continue the mission. Wet gear or no.
The Comp M5 was specifically designed in cooperation with the U. S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, actually. They really knocked for the fences on this one. Small details like the switch durability fit, the lens covers and the alkaline battery extreme life. The point of having the objective cover opaque and the eyepiece cover clear permits immediate employment of the sight as an occluded eye gunsight at ranges out to about 100 yds or so in a pinch and still have the lenses protected. Just great all around design and engineering. Fine size for use on all sorts of platforms.
I have Holosuns, I have rebranded Holosuns as Primary Arms, and I have an Aimpoint T2. There is a noticeble difference in quality. The question is do you want or need the difference. That's up to the user.
50k hours is almost 6 years running always on so you can basically turn it on and leave it. On a related note, I've got Mitutoyo digital calipers (10micron resolution, cheap ones are usually 100microns, which to be fair is good enough for calipers: it's not supposed to be a micrometer) that promise something like 25k hr battery life *when in use* (from a CR2032 cell) and storage battery life is basically the same as the self-discharge of the battery. Compare this to this to the el-cheapo ones that run down the battery in a month even when not actively used. The mitutoyo also keeps absolute zero when not powered on and other nice things (like not getting confused if you open it too wide too fast). Of course there is a major premium to pay, like ten times the price... but so worth it having a tool you know you can always trust to do exactly what it's supposed to.
Two notes on battery’s 1 lithium batteries are different from Lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries. As such, they don’t catch fire. 2 AA and AAA are form factors, so you could use lithium (the not catching fire ones) or NI-MH rechargeable.
You are correct, although our government and shipping regulations are run by people who likely failed high-school chemistry. If it says “lithium” it is a time bomb to them. And even that is ignoring the difference between different lithium-ion chemistries, protected batteries, high-current shutoff circuits and the many other factors that have prevented lithium-ion batteries from actually posing a danger for many years.
This is... not correct. Speaking as someone who has to design industrial electronics that don't catch fire or explode, Lithium metal batteries (such as LiSOCl2 and LiMnO2) absolutely can do just that. Just sitting on a shelf? Probably not... But some of the testing these batteries are put through (like short circuiting them at elevated temperatures) can have some really impressive aftermaths ("venting with flame" or just flat out explosions). Rechargeable LiIon batteries were originally used partially because they were safer than metallic lithium batteries. There are also AA and AAA sized lithium batteries that well exceed alkaline voltages and can damage your electronics, though they are not typically found in your local Walmart. Just use caution.
Comp M5 durability testing by Sage Dynamics scratched the body and bent the adjustment knob. The optic was still completely functional and adjustable. The impact test also showed the importance of having a good quality mount.
I got the M5s for my Scar 17s because I needed an optic that can take the forward and rearward jarring recoil that the Scar has been known to break. In fact the first scope I bought for my Scar 17 was a Vortex PST Viper which broke the etched glass reticle out of place. Which I sent to Vortex to repair then put it back on and broke again, lol. But also glad to hear other reasons I paid over $1k for a red dot.
I'm genially surprised with joke about ball bearing. It is known joke in Russia. About Russian person :-) Like, "Frenchman, German and Russian have been given two ball bearings each...»
Way too radical! Too different! The military procurement guys won't have it! I can hear the "reeeeeeee!' at the mere mentioning of such absurdity lol. Joking/not joking of course :)
SonsOfLorgar I have a setup like that and find it quite useful. Also, while any lens is subject to becoming dirty. I had the lenses of my magnifier become quite dirty when shooting low in the dirt when the magnifier was flipped to the side. Later in the stage when I flipped it back over to use, I had to stop and clean the front of the magnifier as it was almost opaque with dirt. So that experience kinda soured me on the magnifier, though I still use it sometimes. I’d just like to see the “king” of red dots make a compact integrated 1x/4x red dot.
I wish aimpoint would add more than just dot reticles. They're so precise and nice you can push the ranges with them far beyond anything sane, especially with a magnifier. If they'd do a T dot or anything to give you a little side to side and vertical referencing, it'd make them so much more useful at extended ranges. I don't think it'd compromise it either. I'd prefer to run one over my acog, but that referencing is so incredibly useful for me that it makes it difficult for me to drop my acog.
Be careful buying used Aimpoints. There's a lot of counterfeit optics out there. Also, some of the sights from airsoft guns are sold as the real thing. I saw a fake Aimpoint that had the laser inside the tube, taped in place with black electrical tape.
Good stuff. Aimpoint makes great stuff. This was a great video to help explain what sets the Aimpoints apart from other red dots. I had a chance to discuss their sights with the folks from Aimpoint and they can get into not just the technology that goes into these things, but the user interaction with the optic that absolutely blew my mind.
I love when you guys dget optics reviews and show us the sight picture through the camera! Maybe you can do a quick comparison vid to show us how “crisp” the dot is compared to other RDS?
If you don't want to pay full freight, both the Aimpoint PRO And the Carbine Optic are excellent sights also. You can leave them on continuously as battery life is one or two years respectively. Still better than any EOTEC which always seem to have dead batteries when you go to use them.
Great video, or excellent detail. This video offers more info than the manual that came with my Comp M5. I really like it, upgraded from the PRO. I like the fact that the controls are in the same place, it's just smaller. I just wish there was a way for them to put the battery compartment inside the mount. Make the body and mount a one piece design, use a spacer to make it 1/3 co--witness. It would make the body smaller, and the shooter's peripheral vision just a bit less obscured. OTOH, if they did that I'd probably keep my current M5.....
Curious if you guys will delve into the Holographic RDS's? They seem very effective and come with a lot of cool reticles (i.e. EOTech's "donut of death"). Of course, the Holosun with the etched ACSS reticle on their micro RDS's are amazing too. Mike, AKA Garand Thumb mentioned a lot of things Holographic RDS's offer in ways of say parallax shifts when shooting awkward angles and such. Plus very NV capable with the window they provide.
Next: photodiode for automatic brightness adjustment. It still amazes me that this is not more prevalent in military optics. Walking out of a dark house in to a bright environment and suddenly your dot just goes poof.
I didn't want gimmicky motion sensors, nor solar power. I wanted a red dot that is always on and ready to go the second needed which is why I went with Aimpoint for my AR. Got a T-2 and it has been one of the best purchases I've made. Now for my AK, which isn't my primary, life dependent, defensive rifle, I am considering an MRO, or stepping down to a Holosun or something.
As others have said, great video because you explained the what and the why. I don't think the folks at Aimpoint could have had a better pair do so, especially without the underlying gun guy machismo you get with almost every other gun and review channel out there.
I wonder how well the new Holosun Military-grade 7075-T6 IPX8-rated HS515CM will hold up? They were recently on-sale at Midway for $275. The lower-end HS515CU is 6061 and IPX-7 rated (Sig ROMEO series look suspiciously similar BTW) , which also has a 50K-hour battery life, so they probably now use the very same technology as Aimpoint. I would love to hear Ian's & Karl's further thoughts on that!
During basic training I had that issue with my M68. Everytime I shot it turned off and I'd have to smack it to turn it back on. I ended up using my back up irons that day and qualifying with someone else's rifle. Hearing that they worked to fix that problem with the electronics package is a kind of a relief. It may not be something that would normally happen in the civilian world but having lived the nightmare of your optic failing I never wanted to use a product of theirs again.
Which M68? The military stupidly applied that name to two different models - the Comp M2 and the Comp M3. In my experience, the M3 was a bit of an unreliable piece of shit compared to other Aimpoints.
Weight like always can be improved. It'll be interesting of they try and go to integrated magnification. The mil requests which forced them to become so excellent are now slowing their development down .
Yodastien The Comp M4 was released in 2007. Maybe Aimpoint updated it internally without changing the model number? Part of the change from T-1 to T-2 was a crisper dot under magnification. I wonder if they did the same to the M4 since it’s release without renaming it because the body style has stayed the same.
I've never understood people dismissing the large tube. I use both eyes, but why wouldn't I want better vision of the target with my dominant eye? A large tube can do that.
Aimpoint Micro on my KT Sub2K in my go bag. Go bag stays in truck locker in hot or cold temps. 5 years on and the red dot is flawless. The first battery still works.
I have a primary arms red dot here that is similar to the Aimpoint micro that sells for 700 bucks but I paid 89. on the last black friday sale. It works great, I leave it on all the time. It's hard to pay an extra 600 dollars for a red dot. I still prefer the Eotech laser holographic red dot and circle and no one can imitate those yet, but if you have a lot of guns, the 89. dollar red dot is a very nice option if you only ned a dot. My favorite is still the ACOG 5.5x with the RMR on top of it, but now you are talking over two grand with the mounts. Just make sure whatever you get, "looks cool", that's the most important thing.
I don't care WTF the military is doing about alkaline batteries vs. other types. With fully HALF the old partially-depleted Alkalines I've ever seen sitting around for any amount of time... RELIABLY putting out corrosive leakage: there's no fucking way I'm using alkaline batteries any more, in anything of ANY value (let alone THIS expensive), that has to sit un-used for any longer than a couple of weeks. Lithium-whatever type batteries catching fire? Apart from Samsung phones I read about last year (and Boeing 787s before that), I've only ever encountered that phenomenon ONCE in my life personally. That was a battery pack in a friend's cam-corder(?) in the analogue era. Three bloody decades ago. Corrosive Alkaline leakage destroying things? LITERALLY ALL THE DAMN TIME.
There are very few optics I would buy used that are beat to shit from deployments, and Aimpoint is one of them. I've found a used Comp M2/M68 CCO and Comp M4s on eBay that were absolutely beat up and got both for under $300, but they work just like when they were brand new. They may not look pretty, but they will continue to work when I need them to.
I bought a used compM4 back in Dec 14, put a battery dated Sept 2013. Here we are 6+ years later. Battery still good to go, but replaced it anyway. I can vouch for battery life on the compM4!
at around 12:00 the discussion about the water ingress rating and the high velocity water, that isn't really meant for dropping your scope out a helicopter into the high seas, but for when you want to pressure wash your rifle, scope attached because you wouldn't want to re-zero that. obviously. sorry I'm late to the discussion
The comp m4 is actually 80,000hrs with a AA. I own one and the last time I replaced a battery was 8-10 years ago. I just keep it on the dimmest setting that I can still see inside the house.
Continuing to make them a certain way just to maintain compatibility with existing platforms reminds me of how Ford kept making the Crown Vic *long* after you could buy one at a dealership because it was such a popular fleet car, and if they redesigned anything all the companies that made accessories for them would have to update things.
I wonder if the Primary Arm's micros that now also have a 50,000hr life, are piggybacking directly off of Aimpoint's LED tech, or if they head to go a different direction to avoid some kind of patent infringement? Also, another aspect of LED efficiency that they didn't address is that they are not on constantly. They cycle off and on at a rite faster than our eyes can perceive, they are actually flirting with the line where they are off equally as much as they are on. There has also been LED tech which in a laboratory environment, have been shown working at greater than 100% efficiency, which itself is kinda mindblowing
@8 minutes and 50 seconds, you mentioned the saying about a marine and a ball bearing, and I think you’d like the original version of it. If you lock a marine into a room with three bowling balls and left him alone for an hour, he’d break one, lose the second and get the third one pregnant.
I actually chose the Romeo5x for the reason that it takes a AAA battery instead of the CR123 or CR2032. I pretty much always have AAA batteries in my house. I do want me an Aimpoint though…. Just out of my price range at the current time.
I think Militatries look to things like Science fiction & these days video games for inspiration. In the future your Aimpoint might be able to know the difference between enemy & friendly soldiers. The friendly soldier will have some kind of chip woven into his uniform that the Aimpoint is able to register and display on scene for the user. The possibilities are endless as technology gets smaller & smaller.
Well, well. It was the battery life that I was worried about with the switch to AA. I've got an old Comp M2 with the double battery housing that hasn't been turned off for 3 years. They made them MORE durable? Dude, they get much more durable and they're doing to become literally bullet proof. The joke I know about Marine privates is that if you lock six of them in a room with three anvils, you come back an hour later and one anvil is broken, the other is pregnant, and the third is missing.
I have a holosun, and every single one of the screws on the mount broke when I dropped my rifle on the ground. So if you get a holosun, I would definitely replace the stock mount if you want a reliable solution.
2032 batteries are everywhere in the USA like wally worlds or just about anywhere else batteries are sold. My small aimpoint that is on my AK with the 2032 lasts a long time. All of my pistol RDS sights also use it. For large aim point units I have no experience.
Every IR tv or FW videos are such a fun to watch,, you do not need silly yoga pants to chill down 🖖🏼. I’m not from a gun country and i hear about the ‘reddot’ optics - can you make a video about the tool itself ?
By making the new model look like the previously adopted model, you can often avoid the threat of another manufacturer whining to their Congressional delegation and the GAO that a new contract competition should have been held. Sometimes they try to stretch too far and get caught, say with the XM8 carbine being claimed as part of the existing XM29 OICW program.
This is a niche problem, but living in Alaska sometimes shipping batteries can be a problem. It's not so much getting the batteries that's a problem, but getting told that I can't buy an electronic device because it comes with a little watch battery included.
Why would you need more? When your max range is 50-60m and you play for a few hours, you don't need a tiny dot nor do you need thousands of hours of run time. I went the extra mile and got a Primary Arms one and even that is way overkill. Generally speaking you don't want to invest a lot of money into something that can easily be shot out. In combat this is generally not an issue, since if your optic has been shot out, it isn't really going to be your main concern.
B.D.B. There are plenty of clone airsoft optics that don’t hold zero, eat battery’s. Don’t go bright or dark enough and randomly shut off during use. As well as malfunction during wet periods and have terrible glass. Yes Vortex, primary arms & holosun are ‘good enough’ for most people but what’s wrong with wanting nice things? :)
I was told by manufacturing engineers for industrial electronic tools, the AA battery is the most ubiquitous form of portable electrical power supply in the world. You can find AA batteries in Upper Volta (or Burkino Faso) or Outer Mongolia, and AA batteries are carried in the one store operated in Antarctica. So maybe that impacted Aimpoints thinking.
I agree, in a SHTF scenario. If any of your neighbors abandon their homes you can go inside and grab the first TV remote and you’ve got 10 years of batteries (if they’re brand new AA)
I believe they made it work with AA batteries because it was a military request.
50000 hrs = 5.7 years. Literally the span of WWII, almost exactly, of continuous runtime.
DopetheWind lol, when you put it that way it's nuts
Change the battery when you renew your drivers license
Nice.
Imagine the ad:
"Aimpoint Comp M5: Will last you all the way from Poland to Berlin!"
It honestly raises the question of why bother turning it off anyway. I'd replace the sight with whatever was the newest tech five years later and the sight would still be running
Three ball bearings: One is broken, one is missing, and one is pregnant.
lol
Having grown up in the San Diego area, and spent 12 years and counting in the army. Yeah...that's accurate.
@@neilbodwell9172 My favorite stories are the dumb asses who try to sneak out past the fire watch and jump the fence to the airport, not realizing they’re about to get charged for not only a UCMJ violation but federal violations of trespassing onto the runway for an international airport.
"Why is my knob loose?" A question I ask myself every day.
"I havent been beat my knob against the wall... for 10 years" LOL @ 10:34
Isn´t combat two way hunting.
Alaska is two way hunting
Sex is two way hunting
“The most dangerous game”
“Why is my knob loose?”
“I haven’t been beating my knob”
Best quotes in the video
"Even if this knob goes *bloop* and falls off"
A SWAT team tested the Comp M4 and found it to be the most durable red dot, far superior to the EOtechs. They went to far as to strap a flashbang grenade to the side of it, set it of, and there was no loss of zero. They really are amazing sights.
I was willing to put up with the Eotech because I liked the reticle over the plain dot. My unit lost a helicopter a decade ago & most of it’s crew. A year later the M-4s were returned to our unit. One of the burned M-4s had a Comp M-4. You couldn’t see through it but the red dot was still glowing bright.
NVG's, CCO's, PAS-13 thermals, PRC battery adapter modules, etc etc
It took decades, but yes, we finally discovered that just universally using goddamn AA's was the right answer. We pack a foldable Goal Zero 20 watt solar panel and some rechargeable AA's in a charger attached to the roof of my vehicle specifically so we don't have to rely on the batteries coming out of Supply being fresh and holding a charge. The SDC issues like the grocery store, old stock first.
A work year is roughly 2000 hours. If you kept the red dot on for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, you wouldn't have to pop in a new double A for 25 years. That's crazy talk.
5.7 years if left on 24/7
Now let's not forget that's 50k hrs at lowest setting. I'd knock that to one third to be ultra conservative ... so 8 years working week style, or just shy of 2 years if left on permanently ... that's still literally the shelf life of a fresh AAA battery. Ridiculous.
So leave it on and change the battery on your birthday.
I have an aimpoint pro that I left on for 4 1/2 years on the second to hightest setting. You dont need to change every year.
On the lowest setting aimpoints are still on. You can't turn them of.
The sharper dot especially like the M5 has really shows up with a magnifier behind it, since you're magnifying the dot as well as the field the quality of the dot makes a difference. Point well taken about older Aimpoints still being viable. I have one of the original adjustable base style Aimpoints like in the first picture that I used at the 1986 Steel Challenge on a grip mount, and it still works just fine.
The sharper dot is definitely a trait that sets it apart from other optics. Even with a 4 MOA dot, once you understand where your zero is, that cear defined dot edge allows for much more POA consistency which makes a difference at distance.
Here's one more Stroboscopic flicker. This is where an Led flashes while moving and you see multiple dots. Most cheap red dots like the SPARC II are probably lower than 400 flashes per second (.4 kHz) while the Aimpoint is much much higher around 1kHz (speculation). It's definitely the case that a continuous dot image is preferable to multiple dots however, to what extent you want that feature is digging into the minutia for sure.
The M4 has been used by the military for years (as the CCO M68) and has always used a single AA battery.The M4S relocates the AA battery to approx. the 4:30 position (from the perspective of the shooter) vs. the M4 where the battery is at 1:00. I acquired 2 M4 units 7 years ago. When I got them, I left both of them turned on at a mid level brightness and one killed the Duracell in a year while the other was still going strong. Still, 1 year is an impressive run time.
Desert Brutality 2019 will have a 200' Zipline into 8 feet of water. To test your optic :)
Bdkj 3e that could actually be a part of the stage to do it while you and all your gear is soaking wet. Imagine just how our troops do it overseas. Slug through a stream or river the continue the mission. Wet gear or no.
And the armored division will require you carry 5 kilos of batteries.
The Comp M5 was specifically designed in cooperation with the U. S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, actually. They really knocked for the fences on this one. Small details like the switch durability fit, the lens covers and the alkaline battery extreme life. The point of having the objective cover opaque and the eyepiece cover clear permits immediate employment of the sight as an occluded eye gunsight at ranges out to about 100 yds or so in a pinch and still have the lenses protected. Just great all around design and engineering. Fine size for use on all sorts of platforms.
I have Holosuns, I have rebranded Holosuns as Primary Arms, and I have an Aimpoint T2. There is a noticeble difference in quality. The question is do you want or need the difference. That's up to the user.
Murphy82nd I'll take a $300 holosun any day of the week.
I have a hundred dollar sig Romeo 5. I’d like to try an aim point or trijicon don’t know how much better it could be.
I appreciate the deep dive in depth analysis - the "why" behind the higher cost - cool guys! Thanks :)
50k hours is almost 6 years running always on so you can basically turn it on and leave it. On a related note, I've got Mitutoyo digital calipers (10micron resolution, cheap ones are usually 100microns, which to be fair is good enough for calipers: it's not supposed to be a micrometer) that promise something like 25k hr battery life *when in use* (from a CR2032 cell) and storage battery life is basically the same as the self-discharge of the battery. Compare this to this to the el-cheapo ones that run down the battery in a month even when not actively used. The mitutoyo also keeps absolute zero when not powered on and other nice things (like not getting confused if you open it too wide too fast). Of course there is a major premium to pay, like ten times the price... but so worth it having a tool you know you can always trust to do exactly what it's supposed to.
All I use are mitutoyo mics and calipers. The best.
I own two Comp M2s and one Comp M4. These red dots are absolutely my favorite workhorses and work flawlessly!
Two notes on battery’s
1 lithium batteries are different from Lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries. As such, they don’t catch fire.
2 AA and AAA are form factors, so you could use lithium (the not catching fire ones) or NI-MH rechargeable.
You are correct, although our government and shipping regulations are run by people who likely failed high-school chemistry. If it says “lithium” it is a time bomb to them. And even that is ignoring the difference between different lithium-ion chemistries, protected batteries, high-current shutoff circuits and the many other factors that have prevented lithium-ion batteries from actually posing a danger for many years.
This is... not correct. Speaking as someone who has to design industrial electronics that don't catch fire or explode, Lithium metal batteries (such as LiSOCl2 and LiMnO2) absolutely can do just that. Just sitting on a shelf? Probably not... But some of the testing these batteries are put through (like short circuiting them at elevated temperatures) can have some really impressive aftermaths ("venting with flame" or just flat out explosions). Rechargeable LiIon batteries were originally used partially because they were safer than metallic lithium batteries.
There are also AA and AAA sized lithium batteries that well exceed alkaline voltages and can damage your electronics, though they are not typically found in your local Walmart. Just use caution.
Comp M5 durability testing by Sage Dynamics scratched the body and bent the adjustment knob. The optic was still completely functional and adjustable. The impact test also showed the importance of having a good quality mount.
I got the M5s for my Scar 17s because I needed an optic that can take the forward and rearward jarring recoil that the Scar has been known to break. In fact the first scope I bought for my Scar 17 was a Vortex PST Viper which broke the etched glass reticle out of place. Which I sent to Vortex to repair then put it back on and broke again, lol. But also glad to hear other reasons I paid over $1k for a red dot.
I'm genially surprised with joke about ball bearing. It is known joke in Russia. About Russian person :-) Like, "Frenchman, German and Russian have been given two ball bearings each...»
Please tell the joke!
I hope Aimpoint will eventually make a true red dot scope that flips from 1x to 4x, that is fairly compact. Something in the same vein as the Elcan.
Way too radical! Too different! The military procurement guys won't have it! I can hear the "reeeeeeee!' at the mere mentioning of such absurdity lol. Joking/not joking of course :)
I bought an elcan before going to Afghanistan, those spectre dr scopes are awesome!
I got a elcan spectre dr 1-4x with a 5.56 bdc it,s vary nice built like a tank but it,s heavy.
Michael Warnock I got a the NATO ballistic crosshair for 5.56. It's awesome! Definitely worth the extra weight compared to other sights.
SonsOfLorgar I have a setup like that and find it quite useful. Also, while any lens is subject to becoming dirty. I had the lenses of my magnifier become quite dirty when shooting low in the dirt when the magnifier was flipped to the side. Later in the stage when I flipped it back over to use, I had to stop and clean the front of the magnifier as it was almost opaque with dirt. So that experience kinda soured me on the magnifier, though I still use it sometimes. I’d just like to see the “king” of red dots make a compact integrated 1x/4x red dot.
I wish aimpoint would add more than just dot reticles. They're so precise and nice you can push the ranges with them far beyond anything sane, especially with a magnifier. If they'd do a T dot or anything to give you a little side to side and vertical referencing, it'd make them so much more useful at extended ranges. I don't think it'd compromise it either. I'd prefer to run one over my acog, but that referencing is so incredibly useful for me that it makes it difficult for me to drop my acog.
Be careful buying used Aimpoints. There's a lot of counterfeit optics out there. Also, some of the sights from airsoft guns are sold as the real thing. I saw a fake Aimpoint that had the laser inside the tube, taped in place with black electrical tape.
Pretty simple fix, buy from optics planet.
@@Richardjohnson6969 I love opticsplanet!
The French Army just chose the Comp M5 for their new HK416 F rifles.
So far they have been issued with iron sights only.
That's so french to do so
Solid video! I found the reason as to why they started with a 30 mil tube fascinating. I am so glad I learned that. Keep up the good work!
Good stuff. Aimpoint makes great stuff. This was a great video to help explain what sets the Aimpoints apart from other red dots. I had a chance to discuss their sights with the folks from Aimpoint and they can get into not just the technology that goes into these things, but the user interaction with the optic that absolutely blew my mind.
Imagine what will happen when other illuminated sights that use very small and efficient LEDs. Will probably be a revolution for those sights.
Wonder if aim point will start selling the leds, they would turn a profit on the entire rds market without having to make budget optics
es yes, but the optics would be able to compete with aimpoint optics.
Aimpoint with a circle-dot when?
8:55 There's three ball bearings in the room: one's broken, one's stolen, and the other has jizz stains on it. ;)
I love when you guys dget optics reviews and show us the sight picture through the camera! Maybe you can do a quick comparison vid to show us how “crisp” the dot is compared to other RDS?
If you don't want to pay full freight, both the Aimpoint PRO And the Carbine Optic are excellent sights also. You can leave them on continuously as battery life is one or two years respectively. Still better than any EOTEC which always seem to have dead batteries when you go to use them.
Always happy to see a nice product from my adopted home town of Malmö!
"This is cool... and it makes a dot" Ooooh boy you've convinced me there, I'm buying one :D
Great video. The deep dive into the hows and whys of the Aimpoint development was fascinating and much appreciated. Good work as always gentlemen.
Thanks for the work that you put into In Range.
Very very outstanding video men. Clean language too. Thanks. Keep up the good work. Thanks a lot friend. SC Navy vet. 1965. 🇺🇸😊
Fantastic perspective. Clearly I don’t need one of these Aimpoints, but it’s great to know WHY they cost more.
Great video, or excellent detail. This video offers more info than the manual that came with my Comp M5. I really like it, upgraded from the PRO. I like the fact that the controls are in the same place, it's just smaller.
I just wish there was a way for them to put the battery compartment inside the mount. Make the body and mount a one piece design, use a spacer to make it 1/3 co--witness. It would make the body smaller, and the shooter's peripheral vision just a bit less obscured. OTOH, if they did that I'd probably keep my current M5.....
Curious if you guys will delve into the Holographic RDS's? They seem very effective and come with a lot of cool reticles (i.e. EOTech's "donut of death"). Of course, the Holosun with the etched ACSS reticle on their micro RDS's are amazing too. Mike, AKA Garand Thumb mentioned a lot of things Holographic RDS's offer in ways of say parallax shifts when shooting awkward angles and such. Plus very NV capable with the window they provide.
Next: photodiode for automatic brightness adjustment. It still amazes me that this is not more prevalent in military optics. Walking out of a dark house in to a bright environment and suddenly your dot just goes poof.
I think it’s mostly a speed and reliability thing. I’ve heard a few people say that the ones they’ve tried just aren’t quite there yet.
I didn't want gimmicky motion sensors, nor solar power. I wanted a red dot that is always on and ready to go the second needed which is why I went with Aimpoint for my AR. Got a T-2 and it has been one of the best purchases I've made.
Now for my AK, which isn't my primary, life dependent, defensive rifle, I am considering an MRO, or stepping down to a Holosun or something.
Da Bears nice, I think the mro would the one to go with; just saying.
mro is on par with aimpoint. dont get a holosun.
As others have said, great video because you explained the what and the why. I don't think the folks at Aimpoint could have had a better pair do so, especially without the underlying gun guy machismo you get with almost every other gun and review channel out there.
I wonder how well the new Holosun Military-grade 7075-T6 IPX8-rated HS515CM will hold up? They were recently on-sale at Midway for $275. The lower-end HS515CU is 6061 and IPX-7 rated (Sig ROMEO series look suspiciously similar BTW) , which also has a 50K-hour battery life, so they probably now use the very same technology as Aimpoint. I would love to hear Ian's & Karl's further thoughts on that!
During basic training I had that issue with my M68. Everytime I shot it turned off and I'd have to smack it to turn it back on. I ended up using my back up irons that day and qualifying with someone else's rifle.
Hearing that they worked to fix that problem with the electronics package is a kind of a relief. It may not be something that would normally happen in the civilian world but having lived the nightmare of your optic failing I never wanted to use a product of theirs again.
And here I thought back up iron sights were useless and obsolete! /sarcasm
Which M68? The military stupidly applied that name to two different models - the Comp M2 and the Comp M3. In my experience, the M3 was a bit of an unreliable piece of shit compared to other Aimpoints.
immikeurnot I think they also gave the m68 designation to the Comp m4 as well.
Please more optics reviews, if possible.
Weight like always can be improved. It'll be interesting of they try and go to integrated magnification. The mil requests which forced them to become so excellent are now slowing their development down .
"Why is my knob loose?" - Karl Kasarda, 2018
The comp m4 has been around for quite a few years
Yodastien The Comp M4 was released in 2007. Maybe Aimpoint updated it internally without changing the model number?
Part of the change from T-1 to T-2 was a crisper dot under magnification. I wonder if they did the same to the M4 since it’s release without renaming it because the body style has stayed the same.
Aimpoint: Buy once, cry once
1.7
Cheaper in Sweden
I've never understood people dismissing the large tube. I use both eyes, but why wouldn't I want better vision of the target with my dominant eye? A large tube can do that.
Aimpoint Micro on my KT Sub2K in my go bag. Go bag stays in truck locker in hot or cold temps. 5 years on and the red dot is flawless. The first battery still works.
I have a primary arms red dot here that is similar to the Aimpoint micro that sells for 700 bucks but I paid 89. on the last black friday sale. It works great, I leave it on all the time. It's hard to pay an extra 600 dollars for a red dot. I still prefer the Eotech laser holographic red dot and circle and no one can imitate those yet, but if you have a lot of guns, the 89. dollar red dot is a very nice option if you only ned a dot. My favorite is still the ACOG 5.5x with the RMR on top of it, but now you are talking over two grand with the mounts. Just make sure whatever you get, "looks cool", that's the most important thing.
Love the video and the information. The halo jump 40 mph slam into the ground for Desert Brutality killed me haha
The only thing I could request on the aimpoint is an eotech style ring around the dot.
Why, though? I've had Aimpoints, and I've had EOTechs... and the ring never mattered.
I don't care WTF the military is doing about alkaline batteries vs. other types. With fully HALF the old partially-depleted Alkalines I've ever seen sitting around for any amount of time... RELIABLY putting out corrosive leakage: there's no fucking way I'm using alkaline batteries any more, in anything of ANY value (let alone THIS expensive), that has to sit un-used for any longer than a couple of weeks.
Lithium-whatever type batteries catching fire? Apart from Samsung phones I read about last year (and Boeing 787s before that), I've only ever encountered that phenomenon ONCE in my life personally. That was a battery pack in a friend's cam-corder(?) in the analogue era. Three bloody decades ago. Corrosive Alkaline leakage destroying things? LITERALLY ALL THE DAMN TIME.
There are very few optics I would buy used that are beat to shit from deployments, and Aimpoint is one of them. I've found a used Comp M2/M68 CCO and Comp M4s on eBay that were absolutely beat up and got both for under $300, but they work just like when they were brand new. They may not look pretty, but they will continue to work when I need them to.
I've always been a sucker for the M4s
👍🏼 *GREAT* info‼️ I really want a PVS-14
I bought a used compM4 back in Dec 14, put a battery dated Sept 2013. Here we are 6+ years later. Battery still good to go, but replaced it anyway. I can vouch for battery life on the compM4!
Set a F-18A next to a F-18 Super Hornet. The size difference is astounding. Not the same plane.
Marky
Nope, they aren't in the least. It was a scam to get Congress to sign off on money for a new aircraft.
Wow tons of new perspective
at around 12:00 the discussion about the water ingress rating and the high velocity water, that isn't really meant for dropping your scope out a helicopter into the high seas, but for when you want to pressure wash your rifle, scope attached because you wouldn't want to re-zero that. obviously. sorry I'm late to the discussion
The comp m4 is actually 80,000hrs with a AA. I own one and the last time I replaced a battery was 8-10 years ago. I just keep it on the dimmest setting that I can still see inside the house.
Continuing to make them a certain way just to maintain compatibility with existing platforms reminds me of how Ford kept making the Crown Vic *long* after you could buy one at a dealership because it was such a popular fleet car, and if they redesigned anything all the companies that made accessories for them would have to update things.
Love these guys
I wonder if the Primary Arm's micros that now also have a 50,000hr life, are piggybacking directly off of Aimpoint's LED tech, or if they head to go a different direction to avoid some kind of patent infringement?
Also, another aspect of LED efficiency that they didn't address is that they are not on constantly. They cycle off and on at a rite faster than our eyes can perceive, they are actually flirting with the line where they are off equally as much as they are on. There has also been LED tech which in a laboratory environment, have been shown working at greater than 100% efficiency, which itself is kinda mindblowing
@8 minutes and 50 seconds, you mentioned the saying about a marine and a ball bearing, and I think you’d like the original version of it. If you lock a marine into a room with three bowling balls and left him alone for an hour, he’d break one, lose the second and get the third one pregnant.
I actually chose the Romeo5x for the reason that it takes a AAA battery instead of the CR123 or CR2032. I pretty much always have AAA batteries in my house. I do want me an Aimpoint though…. Just out of my price range at the current time.
Yeah that 1n battery or whatever was hard to find, but one time I accidentally left my aimpoint on for 10 months and I could still use it.
I think Militatries look to things like Science fiction & these days video games for inspiration. In the future your Aimpoint might be able to know the difference between enemy & friendly soldiers. The friendly soldier will have some kind of chip woven into his uniform that the Aimpoint is able to register and display on scene for the user. The possibilities are endless as technology gets smaller & smaller.
"Why is my knob loose?" - Karl, 2018
Well, well. It was the battery life that I was worried about with the switch to AA. I've got an old Comp M2 with the double battery housing that hasn't been turned off for 3 years.
They made them MORE durable? Dude, they get much more durable and they're doing to become literally bullet proof.
The joke I know about Marine privates is that if you lock six of them in a room with three anvils, you come back an hour later and one anvil is broken, the other is pregnant, and the third is missing.
I have a holosun, and every single one of the screws on the mount broke when I dropped my rifle on the ground. So if you get a holosun, I would definitely replace the stock mount if you want a reliable solution.
It’s funny to hear CR123 or 2032 as “specialty”
I love my aimpoint pro I have had ot for 2 yrs now and never shut it off and on setting 7 it has a 30,000 hr battery
Maybe I just had a bad factory cell but my Pro only lasted 2 years on 1/2 brightness. That's only ~17,000 hours
2032 batteries are everywhere in the USA like wally worlds or just about anywhere else batteries are sold. My small aimpoint that is on my AK with the 2032 lasts a long time. All of my pistol RDS sights also use it. For large aim point units I have no experience.
What I would like to have on my aimpoint would be a button that makes the dot really small just to make accuracy at a bit of distance easier.!
Aimpoint, the Glock of sights?
the prices of each are practically the same so if you were to choose one would it be the M4/M4s or M5?
Eric M how is the M5? I’ve thought about getting the T2 but still like the M5.
Every IR tv or FW videos are such a fun to watch,, you do not need silly yoga pants to chill down 🖖🏼.
I’m not from a gun country and i hear about the ‘reddot’ optics - can you make a video about the tool itself ?
By making the new model look like the previously adopted model, you can often avoid the threat of another manufacturer whining to their Congressional delegation and the GAO that a new contract competition should have been held. Sometimes they try to stretch too far and get caught, say with the XM8 carbine being claimed as part of the existing XM29 OICW program.
Heli insertion into a 2gun stage - when? :)
Will my available anti reflection device still work with the upgrade m4/m5? tnx. Great vid.
Great Review!
Thank you.
As for what Aimpoint will do in the future, we know the Acro is coming, and hopefully they'll take a shot at making a better Elcan.
The battery numbers Aimpoint gives you are really conservative. My Aimpoint T1 is nearing 90,000 hours on the original factory battery.
Great review , Thank you !
This is a niche problem, but living in Alaska sometimes shipping batteries can be a problem. It's not so much getting the batteries that's a problem, but getting told that I can't buy an electronic device because it comes with a little watch battery included.
Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing!
Aimpoint makes excellent sights 👍🏻
Love this channel. Great video
Hopefully what they will do next is significantly lower the price!
Great video. Thanks for the information. The amount of terrible optics used in airsoft is amazing.
Airsoft Action TV you're putting aimpoints on fucking AIRSOFT guns?
Why would you need more? When your max range is 50-60m and you play for a few hours, you don't need a tiny dot nor do you need thousands of hours of run time. I went the extra mile and got a Primary Arms one and even that is way overkill. Generally speaking you don't want to invest a lot of money into something that can easily be shot out. In combat this is generally not an issue, since if your optic has been shot out, it isn't really going to be your main concern.
B.D.B. There are plenty of clone airsoft optics that don’t hold zero, eat battery’s. Don’t go bright or dark enough and randomly shut off during use. As well as malfunction during wet periods and have terrible glass. Yes Vortex, primary arms & holosun are ‘good enough’ for most people but what’s wrong with wanting nice things? :)
Aimpoint did it again. Thumbs up.
How fortuitous. I was just spent an hour last night looking at red dot options.
Next step is CompM5S where the battery compartment is towards the bottom. :)
Thank you good sir for a new video🎩
I have the "Comp M4s" from "LaRue Tactical". Never used it.