DarkLordOfOptics
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SeeAll Sights
A solution looking for a problem
September 27, 2024

I was at the range again...

It appears that I start many of my posts with that phrase.  I should probably stop making that disclaimer.  At this point it should be abundantly apparent that I spend a lot of time at the range.

I always have a good reason.  I cleaned the barrel of my muzzleloader yesterday and needed to make a couple of fouling shots before I go hunting tomorrow.  Since I was there anyway, I figured I should do some tripod shooting practice, so I brought one of my ARs with me.  It is an unusual AR since it has a very unique AlSiC wrapped barrel.  AlSiC (Aluminum Silicon Carbide) is an interesting material that can be tuned to perfectly match thermal expansion of whatever it is wrapped around.  It has an incredibly high thermal conductivity coefficient, so it absorbs heat very fast and sheds it equally quickly.  There was a company looking to make barrels where isntead of carbon fiber, a thin steel barrel is wrapped in AlSiC.  The project did not pan out (they vanished on me at some point), but they did make me one barrel.  It has an intereting property in that it seems to exhibit very little POI shift with heat.  It is not the most accurate barrel I have, but it is accurate enough and it is consistent.  It runs a little on the slow side, but it works.  Somehow this rifle ended up being the test bed for the Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44, which happens to be one of my favourite precision gas gun scopes, so I shoot this rifle a lot.  So much so that I think I am going to go swap out the Bootleg Camlock handguard currently on it for the 12" Q Honey Badger handguard I have.  For what it is worth, while I really like the adjustable bolt carriers from Bootleg, their Camlock handguard is a wobbly, bendy, slidy piece of crap.

There are many excellent handguards on the market.  I tend to default to the ones from Q more often than not, but I have several I like from BMC, Aero, MI, etc.  They are all good.  They all work.  Bootleg's Camlock does not stay put.  The engagement of the handguard to the barrel nut is poorly designed.

Moving on...  after hitting the 220 yard plate a couple of times with the iron sighted muzzleloader, I decreed it "good enough to take a shot at a mule deer on an off chance I see one" and switched to the AR-15.

With cheap 55gr ammo, I keep my practice to within 450 yards or so.  The range where I shoot has conveniently placed a bunch of plates at ~430 yards for me to practice on.  I verified zero from the bench (I move stuff around so much, that it is good practice) and transitioned to shooting off of a tripod.

For some reason, I have a very hard time taking a good picture of this reticle handheld.  I'll have to get my fixtures out.  Either way, the above pictuer was taken on 21x and the hangers you see at the bottom left quadrant are at !430 yards.  The illumination is on max setting and is visible but not nuclear on a bright New Mexico day.  Only the main stadia are illuminated, which I like.

Part of routine practice is to shoot offhand using both the primary optic (on low power) and secondary optic.  That's when it dawned on me that I have never really talked much about the SeeAll Sight that I use for redunduncy on a few guns.

https://www.seeallsights.com/

It is a weird looking thing that sorta straddles the gap between iron sights and red dot sights.  It found its home somewhere in that "no mand's land".  It works and it is probably a better option than irons, especially under challenging light conditions.  However, modern red dot sights walk all over it.  Still, I have several of these, which brings up an obvious question: why?

There is really one main reason: they are cheap.  If you check on them through the year and have a little patience, you wil stumble onto some sort of a half off sale.  If that happens late at night after you have been exploring some of the finer qualities of your bourbon collection, you might end up with half a dozen of them.  Ask me how I know.

The sight is very simple.  It is, essentially, a block of greenish edge glow material, a reticle etched on it and a simple lens to project that reticle to your eye.  Some also have tritium for night time use.  They have a couple of picatinny mount versions and a couple of direct mount versions (RMR and RMS).  I have a tleast one of each.  Keeping them properly mounted seems to require a good amount of loctite, but once everything is set up, they stay put and stay zeroed.

The one you are looking at is the RMR base one sitting on Swampfox' rather excellent offset mount.  

Here are the strenghts and weakness of this thing in a nutshell.

 

Strengths:

-small, light, cheap

-focus on the target, not on the aiming point (like on a red dot)

-no batteries

-forgiving of eye astigmatism

 

Weaknesses:

-open design that does not do great in inclement weather

-you bisect the target with the top edge of the sight, so the bottom half of the sight picture is blocked

-eye position is not terribly forgiving (kinda like the irons)

-accuracy with these is tricky

 

If you are setting up an offset optic to use as a primary sight at close range, this is not a good option for you.  

If this is mostly something to get you a little redunduncy, it is not a bad option.  In practical terms, I struggle shooting with this thing beyond 100 yards and I am much happier with it inside of 50.  I can shoot it relatively quickly, but it is distinctly slower than the red dot.  I do not see any speed advantage with this thing over irons unless it is pitch black.  If there is enough light to see the target, there is enough light for the irons and for the SeeAll sight.

Now, if your eyes have a hard time focusing on the front sight, the SeeAll Sight might work a lot better for you. 

Before you all rush out to buy one of these, do keep in mind that you can pick up RS-15 from Primary Arms for $120 right now.  https://alnk.to/9buj4aU  RS-15 is a vastly superior sight to the SeeAll.

However, if you stumble onto a sale where SeeAll sights are going for a $100 or so around Black Friday, it might not be a bad idea to pick one up.  Perhaps, it will agree nicely with your eyes.

Taking a photo of a proper sight picture with this thing turned out to be pretty difficult:

They do have a couple of decent picture with the two available reticle on their website.  

Once I get some of my fixturing set up, I'll take a couple of better pictures and update this post. 

Either way, I know that my take on these sights is a little bipolar.  On one hand, in the grand scheme of things, I am really not a fan.  The way I shoot offhand, I like to drive the gun onto the target and that works very well with red dot sights and not very well with irons or the SeeAll sight.  On the other hand, I have a lot of guns. I like having backup optics on them.  SeeAll Sights do work.  They are wonky, but they work.

 

 

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Vortex Defender XL Green

This is the second time Vortex' Defender XL crosses my path. I was very impressed with the original red dot version, so I was curious to see how the one with the green dot works for my eyes.
To get the details, see the attached video.
The cliff's notes version is that I am just as impressed with this one. In terms of collimation quality and parallax control, it is quite exceptional.
https://alnk.to/881BEV1

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Primary Arms HTX-1 US Made red dot sight

I've had this RDS for a bit over two months now and I am beyond pleased with it.
Despite some spirited abuse, it keeps soldiering on.
https://alnk.to/1C9z5dw
It is a very nice RDS and being fully made in the US does not hurt either.

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Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44 Wrap-up

This scope comes up a lot since I really like the configuration. It is time to do a final wrap-up of it.

It is one of my favourite scopes on the market today, especially for the money, since I naturally lean toward general purpose-ish designs. Still, while the 3.5-21x44 Stryker is relatively compact and light, it still clearly leans toward the precision side of things, which suites me very well.

https://annexdefense.com/optics-and-optic-accessories/delta-optics/

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I was a bit confused at the beginning but this is a new Model looking at the turret compare to old LH2-10x40,
Any news on this ?
https://www.amazon.com/Vortex-Optics-Razor-Second-Riflescopes/dp/B0FBMNTW52?th=1

Updates, deals and new review items: PLxC RDB, Zeiss Tripod, etc

As the week is coming to an end, I find myself in an unusual place: home.

I plan to be home between now and September 1st when I have to go to Israel for ten days, returning on the 11th (dayjob stuff).

For the last couple of months, between family vacations, work and a couple of matches, it seems like I only spent enough time at home to check zero on my 6.5CM Fix and head out again (it has not shifted, thank you Area 419 mount).

I have a lot to do during the next two weeks, but I will try to take some pictures, film some footage and release it as I go along. I can edit videos on the plane or in Israel just about as well as I can at home.

While generally, I am very picky about what I accept for review (given my bandwidth limitations), I do have a few new things here worth talking about.

One is Primary Arms new PLxC RDB 1-8x24 LPVO. It is essentially a version of the original FFP PLxC LPVO except with different reticle illumination technology. The new model utilizes diffractive reticle illumination (same style ...

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Steiner C35 Gen2 Mount
from Annex Defense

The production version of the Annex Defense's mount for the Steiner C35 Gen2 thermal Clip-on is finally here.  At $1600 (when this is published), the clip-on is an absolute steal.

I've had it for a few days, but, me being the good old paranoid me, I spent some time shooting with it before posting anything.  I had a couple of days with it prior to last weekend's match in Montana and a couple of days after.  Another to pop it on and off a few times and get a couple of hundred rounds of 6.5Grendel through the gun to see if anything shakes loose.  So far so good.

The C35 Gen2 clip-on is sitting on my 6.5Grendel AR as a part of a long running "Only One" project that I have.  It pairs perfectly with the Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42 scope.

Here is what comes in the box from Annex Defense:

The order in which the whole thing comes togethe is pretty stragihtforward:

-slide the thermal washer onto the threaded interface extending out of the back of the clip-on

-spin the mount itself onto the threaded interface (the mount is threaded on the inside) until it can go no further

-rotate the mount so that the clip-on is properly lined up to the picatinny clamp

-once you are happy with the alignment, use the three nylon tipped set screws (you'll need an allen wrench for that) to lock in the position of the clip-on in the mount.  You need very little torque on the set screws.  They are there for one reason and one reason only: to keep the mount from spinning when you tighten the timing nut in the next step

-spin the timing nut onto the threaded interface of the clip-on to lock the mount in place.  You should not need the timing nut wrench, but one is in there just in case.

Here are the pieces laid out in the order in which you will need them.

When you are done, it should look like this:

Note that the mount normaly comes with two T20 screws.  I am using two thumbscrews instead, since I am popping the mount on and off all the time.  It seems to be staying put with the thumbscrews just fine.  I am hoping Annex will offer the thumbscrews as an option.

It is not quite an equivalent of a QD mount, but we needed something with an extremely low profile clamp to fit under scopes with fairly large objectives.  As is, the mount works with most scope that have objective lens diameter of 50mm or less.

I am using with with Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42 and the two work together exceedingly well.

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Scoping Gas Guns
an interesting question that acme in via PM

I received this question via a private message and thought it was interesting enough to answer it in some detail.  I have been thinking a lot about appropriate optics for gas guns recently, so this came it at the right time.

 

Here is what I ahve been messing with last few days:

 

Above: 18" WOA barrel 5.56 AR-15 with Burris XTR PS 5.5-30x56 on it.

Below: 22" Satern barrel 224Valkyrie AR-15 with Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44 on it.


For obvious reasons, I am not posting who asked the question, but what I'll do is send him a link to this article, so that he gets an answer and we might have a good discussion.
Here is what I received:

Had a question for you
I have a Knights Armament SR25 6.5CM with a 14.5" barrel - I plan on shooting 100 - 600 yards at targets at 100 yd intervals
I am favoring the TT 315P with an Aimpont Acro mounted on top -( see you liked the TT315M) - would that be enough magnification?
I saw the SB SB 5-20 which offer more top end - I like the turrets on the Tanget and tooless Zero - what are your thoughts between the 2?
If I stayed 400 and under - how do you see the TT315P with the Acro Red dot against the SB 1-8 Short Dot (saw your review on that)

There isn't really enough information in the question for a simple answer, so let's consider a couple of options.

What is the gun for? 

For shooting medium range (out to 600) with occasional close range use?  If yes, go with a conventional scope and offset or piggybacked RDS.

For shooting at close distance with occasional med/long range use? If yes, so with a nice LPVO like the above mentioned S&B Short Dot 1-8x24 https://alnk.to/3J8vlFv.  It is quite capable at long range, but where it will really knock your socks off is up close and personal.

The question of what is enough magnification is pretty personal.  For me, 3-15x is plenty, but I shoot a lot off of the tripod and off of barricades which likely influences my decision.  For that, my 3-15x50 TT315M Tangent works great and 6mrad of elevation is plenty.  https://alnk.to/gVNkUXB  175gr #08 out of a shoter tube will drop in the 5 to 5.5mrad range at 600 yards.

For a dedicated long range semi-auto, other than the looks, there isn't much downside to a larger scope, which is why I set up Burris' XTR PS on the 5.56 AR pictured above.  It is for my son to learn to shoot at distance and to us in next year's BOTC match.  https://alnk.to/gp33YuR

If I were setting up an accurate semi-auto and wanted a high mag scope for it, I would likely lean toward March 4.5-28x52. https://alnk.to/dLjHgjh  It is compact, relatively light and very good optically for any use other than the dead of the night (for which we should be using clip-ons anyway).

S&B Short Dot is a very nice scope, but March is a newer design and, other than the lowest light, has an edge in terms of image fidelity and stray light control.

TT315P Tangent is a veyr ncie scope and toolles turrets are appealing.  However, there is a weight penalty to that.  For me, that was not worth it.  I ahve 5-25x56 and 7-35x Tangents and those toolless turrets are spectacular.  However, in a 3-15x50, I am quit ecomfortable with simpler 6mrad per turn knobs on the TT315M.

 

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A morning with a chronograph

When I tell people that I am using Hornady's factory ammo for matches, I get occasionally surprised looks.  Occasionally.  Most of the time, I get fairly condescending looks from handloaders who would not let a factory round pollute the chambers of their precision rifles if their lives depended on it.

To be fair, if I had the time, I might be reloading as well.  I might be able to do better than modern factory ammo, but the truth is that I am not a quarter MOA shooter, so a lot of that would be lost on me.  The UKD matches I fidn most interesting can be done by a competent shooter with a 1MOA gun.  I am working on that first part.  I reload when I have to, but if I can get factory ammo that's not outrageously expensive and that shoots well, I will go with that every time.

I looked around and realized that I have about 600 rounds of Hornady 147gr 6.5CM factory ammo from two lots.  400 rounds from one that I will use during the match later this month.  The remainder I will likely use up practicing prior to that.

I woke up early and snuck out to the range while my family was still asleep earlier today.

I set up in the 100 yard tunnel we have.  I took my four shots to zero with the lot I plan to use for the match.  Then I fired a six shot ~0.7MOA group.  That's accurate enough for my purposes.

Here are the chronograph results:

It is slow, but accurate and consistent.

Then I shot a five round group of Hornady 147gr ammo from the other lot.

Both of those lots are not too shabby for factory ammo.  POI was within 0.2mrad between the two lots, all laterally.  

 

I had some other ammo on hand, so I fired two five shot groups with Berger 144gr hybrid target ammo and Sako TRG 136gr.

Here is what I got for five rounds of Berger:

That's not a ton of statistics, but it is a data point.  The group was ~1.1MOA

 

Here the data for the Sako TRG 136gr ammo:

This ammo showed some mild pressure signs, but not too significant.  

Again, this is not a ton of data, but Hornady is looking pretty decent here.

I'll repeat the zero retention and consistency tests a couple more times between now and June 18th when we head to Wyoming.

I might pick up a couple more boxes of Hornady 147gr from a different lot to get some more data.

More to come.

 

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