It so happens that looking at what people discuss on various internet forums turns out to be exceedingly informative, especially if you are looking for something to dig a little deeper into. Ideally, I look for various nonsense ideas that I can try to dispel, but this case. I simply want to point out something that does not get enough coverage. This actually popped up in a discussion with another writer/blogger behind the scenes. He is working on a podcast episode with an exceptionally well respected and experienced shooting instructor (I'll post the link to the podcast when he publishes it) and somehow our conversation touched onto the value of redundancy in your optics set up.
It happens to be the subject I have been thinking about anyway as I continue exploring different ways to set up optics on AR-15s and other semi-auto rifles.
I have different rifles set up in a myriad ways so that I can cycle between them and get a feel of how they work, how much additional training is required to get all the different sighting options involved, etc.
For example, here are a few different configurations I am currently running:
-LPVO with offset Zero Bravo iron sights
-red dot sight with flip-to-side magnifier and folding BUIS
-holographic with flip-to-side magnifier and offset SeeAll sight
-prismatic with piggybacked micro RDS
-prismatic with offset micro RDS
-MPVO with piggybacked RDS
-fixed 10x scope with offset micro RDS
-precision scope with offset RDS
I keep on hearing the discussion raging between different sighting systems that is really focused on speed, but not nearly enough is said about redundancy.
Why would you add an offset RDS to an LPVO for example? We can have a nice discussion about speed, of course, but if you have a secondary sighting system, you might not be entirely dead in the water when (note I said when, not if; eventually everything breaks down). It won't even have to completely go down.
On modern LPVOs with ultra bright reticle illumination, battery life is measure in tens, sometimes hundred of hours.
With modern high quality red dot sights, I can comfortably leave them on for a year or more an not worry about batteries.
The next logical step, though, is how far do we want to take it? If you follow this line of thought you can end with a 6 pound AR that has 12 pounds in scopes on it, with a primary optics, secondary optic, tertiary optics, etc.
This is a topic I am going to develop a little further in the next Guns Of The Dark Lord video (I did not forget about it), but this attempt to get a little extra redundancy without too much weight is one of the reasons I am increasingly using Crimson Trace's weapon lights that are also combined with lasers. As a standalone weapon sight, a laser doe not do a whole lot for me, but it is a close range back up aiming method that I can get without a weigh penalty. More on that in the CMR-301 review.
This weigh consideration is also the reason I am looking so closely at the current generation of micro prismatic scopes. With compact 3x models from Primary Arms, Burris or Vortex I can have a 3x/1x set up with an offset RDS that is 10 ounces altogether with mounts.
With Vortex's 5x Gen2 Spitfire and piggy-backed RDS, I have 5x and 1x at my disposal with total weight of ~12 ounces.
Am I being paranoid? I am not exactly going to war here, so probably yes, but that does not mean I am wrong.
The way I look at this, the primary sight, be it a prismatic, LPVO, MPVO or fixed power scope varies depending on the specific rifle and what it will be used for. However, the back up sighting set up can (I hope) be more or less the same across the board and what I am stumbling around trying to converge on what exact configurations is optimal for me.
What do you think, gentlemen?
