M1A4ME wrote:I guess my experiences and what I call "fun" and "serious" is different from a lot of folks.
My SIG 556R is not for fun or plinking. I put an aimpoint on it (finally). The Aimpoint will not allow me to get the accuracy from this rilfe a standard scope will allow. Yes, with the scope the rifle has shown (at 25 yds.) accuracy as good as most of my AR15's.
A red dot - is a red dot. The dot covers a certain sized area. All the time. A 4 MOA red dot, like my aimpoint, covers 4" at 100 yds., that's 8" at 200 yds., 12" at 300 yds., etc. The cross hairs of a regular scope don't hardly cover anything at those ranges.
Yeah, I heard/read you can sight your aimpoint in so the target is on the very top of the red dot. But remember, a rifle bullet is not a laser. The bullet rises and the bullet falls. At points of the trajectory where the bullet is below the line of sight you must cover the target with the red dot. If it's a truck maybe that's not a big deal. If its a groundhog or crow you understand the problem.
If I was building a rifle for plinking (plinking is fun and practice) I believe I'd put a regular rifle scope on it. Then I could "hold over" at longer ranges and not hide the target if it was a smaller target. Part of the fun of "plinking", if you have access to some place to shoot beside a rifle range, is seeing how small a target you can hit or how far away you can hit it. At home (WV mountains) we've used bees, flower stems, hickory nuts, weed blossoms, butterflies, pieces of gravel set on a bigger rock or tree stump, or that crow out there in the tree "way off".
And a rifle scope doesn't have batteries that go bad. Yeah, the aimpoint I have has about a 7 years battery life at a low setting even if I left it on all the time. The cheaper red dots only last a few days if left on by accident.
I hear a lot of good things about the Nikon AR series scopes. I bought a P223 to try out but it ended up on my son's AR15 so I can't speak much about it other than to say he likes it. The price was about $150 for the P223 in 3X. They also make variable power scopes. The P223 is the cheaper line while the M223 series is more expensive.
Good luck with whatever optic you choose.
M1A4ME please don't take this as an insult, but it sounds like you are looking for a reason to not like the Aimpoint. It isn't fair to compare a red dot to a magnified scope. That would be like comparing a minivan to a pickup, both have a purpose but it isn't 100% the same. If you want an accurate comparison, compare a the red dot to iron sights. With a good quality sight like an Aimpoint or Eotech, if you can see the dot, put it on the target, the round will hit the target. It doesn't matter where the dot is in the tube or "window", eye relief is not critical. I can't say the same is true for the less expensive options out there, I don't have any experience with them.
Your arguments, sound so much like listening to Soldiers and Marines argue why their M4 is better than the M16A4 and vice versa. The statistics show that on Army rifle qualifications, scores improve with the use of the M68 Close Combat Optic (CCO), originally the Aimpoint Comp M2, now the Comp M4. The Army has focused on the shorter ranged fight, because that is what statistics have shown usually happens. Fighting in Afghanistan has forced some rethinking to that. Marines meanwhile continue to focus on longer range shooting, that is why they are sticking with the M16A4 equipped with a 4X ACOG. They routinely shoot at much longer ranges than the Army, out to 500 meters. When it comes to marksmanship I would give the Army the edge on the short range fight and the Marines at the longer ranges.
My own observations on the range using them is a lot of older Soldiers doubted them and shot poorly. Soldiers with more limited shooting experience or were traditionally poor shooters, placed faith in them and they shot much better. Doubting folks who would shoot 30-32 out of 40 with irons would only hit 20-25, the others would go from 20-25(23 was minimum to qualify, many had to shoot twice) to 30 hits the first time out with an Aimpoint. Hits went up on the 250 and 300 meter targets because sight alignment wasn't an issue.
Dot on target, breathe out, squeeze. I had a Comp M2 in my M4 in Iraq and one mounted on an M240 machine gun on the 5 ton truck we had. I put a battery in each right before we hit theatre and they were still in them when we came home. Eotechs do have a much shorter battery life, as in hundreds of hours versus the thousands for the Aimpoint.
I personally would recommend staying away from an inexpensive optic especially if one of the rifle's roles will be home defense. You can usually pick up a new Aimpoint Pro in the $400 range and one of the Eotechs in the $500 range. Used can be had for much less but come with their own risks. As far as battery life goes. I advise doing the same thing as smoke alarms, change them when time changes. If they use AA batteries, just use the removed batteries in the TV remote the next time they need replacing. If the rifle doesn't have a defense role, by all means go with some magnification, but trying to engage a target in the house with 3X9 scope in a house at 20 feet would be very challenging or a point and shoot engagement, which takes a lot of practice to master.
You just have to ask yourself, is he telling you the truth based on knowledge and experience or spreading internet myths?
