SHOT 2013 Optics, Sights, Mounts, NVG & IR

[PrimerMedia]

Everything and anything related to targeting.

I got a chance to talk to them, and the product makes a lot more sense now that the purpose has been explained, so I redact my skeptical first impression.

After speaking with the owner of Tracking Point, it makes sense.  The movement of the sight picture that happens once you designate the target, is simply the system performing drop calculations bringing the reticle to the center of the screen.  The whole purpose of this system is to enable shooters of any ability to make make a shot at any distance on the first try.  It's basically the Nissan GTR of guns, it does all the work for you, and makes you look like you know what you're doing while requiring no skill from the operator...

It's great if you have lots of money, but personally, I'd rather spend $4000 on a decent rifle with glass, then spend $14000+ on lots of training and ammo so I can know how to hit targets at 1000+ yards with skills instead of relying on technology.  

Some of you might have already seen the Tracking Point XactStystem, which gives a shooter "Fighter-Jet Precision in a Firearm."  http://tracking-point.com/precision-guided-firearms

Well, I didn't get the point of it when I first read about it, and I'm still not sure what the point is after shooting it.  It just seems like an expensive parlor trick.  You basically use a button by the trigger to designate a target (on the demo model they had at the range, once you tagged a target the sight picture moved of the designated point of impact (you're looking at a video image, much like the Elcan Digital hunter).  I can only assume this was for demonstration purposes, as it makes no sense for practical applications, or it's what happens when the system does calculation for ranging.), once the desired target has been dedicated, you load the trigger and the reticle goes from blue to red, indicating that the weapon will fire, when the reticle is once again brought over the designated point of impact, it fires.  Make sense?  Because I just don't understand why you wouldn't just take the shot if you already had an opportunity to push a button and designate the target...  

At first I thought there might be some application for snipers who need to track a target, but I don't see any real advantage to just holding over a target and just pulling a regular trigger when it's time to go.  I could see this being useful for a spotter/shooter team, if the spotter was able to iundependitaly designate targets; but for now I think this is a solution in search of problem.  Maybe it's just lost on me, so feel free to enlighten me.

At least it makes you feel like a major bad-ass, because it looks cool...  This is just a skeptical first impression, I'm going to stop by their booth to see if they can make a believer out of me with a little more insight into the theory of the product.

[PrimerMedia]

CAA had their new AQC-1 sight out at the range.  Getting behind it reminds you of a EOTech, but it offers bunch of additional features.  The best feature is probably the auto-off function, which puts the system to sleep once it senses inactivity for more than 30 minutes, and then the sight will re-activate once it's back in motion.  I was also told that is will have a visible or IR lasers.  To better enhance the co-witness with the reticle, when you use the locking turrets to make sighting adjustments, it automatically brings the lasers into the alignment too.

The sight also gives the user a choice of three reticles (personally I never find this useful), which can be toggled from a pressure pad.  I don't get why they chose to make a pressure pad function for this, as I've never heard of anyone wanting to change reticle mid-fight?  The pressure pad can also activate the sight and adjust brightness (which I suppose could be useful); honestly, I don't see the use in a pressure pad with an optics user interface.  Anyway, you can always leave it at home...

Overall, the sight makes a good first impression, and I'd be curious to see how it stacks up against other optics in it's price range ($650ish) with a through side-by-side field test.   

[PrimerMedia]

The Trijicon SRS isn't new this year, but it's far from common.  These things are the last word in red dot sight for the moment.  I was not disappointed, Trijicon really delivered on all their promises with this one.

 


The nickel boron version of the RMR looks good.

[GunLink]

Some of you might have already seen the Tracking Point XactStystem, which gives a shooter "Fighter-Jet Precision in a Firearm."  http://tracking-point.com/precision-guided-firearms

Well, I didn't get the point of it when I first read about it, and I'm still not sure what the point is after shooting it.  It just seems like an expensive parlor trick.  You basically use a button by the trigger to designate a target (on the demo model they had at the range, once you tagged a target the sight picture moved of the designated point of impact (you're looking at a video image, much like the Elcan Digital hunter).  I can only assume this was for demonstration purposes, as it makes no sense for practical applications, or it's what happens when the system does calculation for ranging.), once the desired target has been dedicated, you load the trigger and the reticle goes from blue to red, indicating that the weapon will fire, when the reticle is once again brought over the designated point of impact, it fires.  Make sense?  Because I just don't understand why you wouldn't just take the shot if you already had an opportunity to push a button and designate the target...  

At first I thought there might be some application for snipers who need to track a target, but I don't see any real advantage to just holding over a target and just pulling a regular trigger when it's time to go.  I could see this being useful for a spotter/shooter team, if the spotter was able to iundependitaly designate targets; but for now I think this is a solution in search of problem.  Maybe it's just lost on me, so feel free to enlighten me.

At least it makes you feel like a major bad-ass, because it looks cool...  This is just a skeptical first impression, I'm going to stop by their booth to see if they can make a believer out of me with a little more insight into the theory of the product.

http://www.westford86.com/SHOT_2013/Tracking-point/_MG_8644.jpg
http://www.westford86.com/SHOT_2013/Tracking-point/_MG_8649.jpg

I got a chance to stop by the booth today to talk to the guys and give it a try; I plan on putting a writeup about it up on the blog.  It seems like a pretty neat system, doing all the calculations you need to make long-range shots (wind, drop, pressure, temp, humidity, inclination, range, Coriolis effect, etc).  It's definitely a nice rifle with some pretty smart kit parked on top of it, but one would have to be a very enthusiastic enthusiast to shell out the $18,000-$23,000 price tag for it.

[PrimerMedia]

IOR had some nice new offerings.  Most interesting was their new 1-10X scopes.  You can get a 2 focal plane (right), or a first focal plane (left).  The FFP version has a great illuminated dot, so it's a good alternative to the expensive short dot offerings out there.





And this ?-52X beast with a 40mm tube.

[PrimerMedia]

The Nightforce B.E.A.S.T. is sweet!  For those that don't know, it's a FFP 5-25 with all kinds of great features (more than I can remember).



With the flip of a switch, you can go from course adjustments to fine adjustments.

[PrimerMedia]

Schmidt & Bender had lots of amazing glass on hand.





Their 1-8X short dot is very cool.  When you roll it past 1.1 to CC, it becomes a parallax free red dot.



They also have a great new 5-25 compact tactical scope.





S&B also has a new Stratos line of hunting scopes with three illumination modes.

[PrimerMedia]

Trijicon bling.  NP3 coated scopes...  And that ridiculous titanium .308 was in their booth.



Some big tall sights for red-dots

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Browe scopes might look a lot like Trijicon, and that's because they are sort of kin.  The founder of Browe was a senior executive at Trijicon before striking out on his own.

I really like the Browe scopes, they have a battery instead of relying on an illumination source with a half-life of 10 years that's expensive to replace; and they reticle has phosphorus in it, so it will glow (quite bright) for hours if you simply shine a flashlight into it for a few seconds.



They also have a non-illuminated scope coming out.

[PrimerMedia]

Kahles new K 624 i tactical scope.  This is a FFP 6-24X with a 56mm front Obj. lens.




There is a lot going on here...  Where you would normally find a parallax adjustment is the illumination control.  The parallax is right under the elevation adjustment; and that red button, it indicates something, google it...  Despite the fact that this scope isn't the most intuitive for most users, the quality is top notch, I'd gladly run one of these (after a more through tutorial) in place of an S&B or US Optics.

[PrimerMedia]

Not much of anything new at Leupold, but they did say that there will be an illuminated version fo the Mk6 coming soon.

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US Night Vision makes some really nice night vision, as the name would imply.  But that wasn't the interesting new thing at their booth, it was all the adapters they are making to mount popular electronics on optics, including night vision.








This one is still a prototype, but it's by far the most interesting of their lot, as it won't interfere with the regular use of the optic.

[PrimerMedia]

This is by far the most exciting thing (for me personally) that I saw at SHOT.  Moro Vision will be making the "Astro Scope" a Gen 3 auto-gated tube that mounts right in-between your body and lens, so need to mess with ineffective adapters for PVS units.  The picture quality out of this is phenomenal, they showed me some pictures taken with the unit; there is no vignetting.  This will come in Canon and Nikon flavors, with some others in the works, I think.

[PrimerMedia]

How about an accessory rail for your spotting scope?  Spuhr has you covered.



This has to be the most tacti-cool spotting scope ever.