Reflex Sights; Aiming to Please



Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2009

by Stephen Fischer
Clearly Optics

Reflex sights, also called holographic sights, offer a great alternative to rifle scopes, laser sights, and red-dot sights. They get their name by the way the work; that is, by shining a light beam onto a reflective lens to indicate the location of the target. While looking through a reflex sight, the beam appears to be on the target like a laser sight. This is how the term holographic came to be.

A Reflex sight is used primarily in tactical and self-defense shooting but can also be used for varmint hunting. They use a reflective lens to project a target indicator into the vision of the shooter. This indicator is most often in the form of a red dot but can often be in other configurations, such as circle-dot, crosshair-dot, and combinations thereof. The color can also vary and is most typically red, green, and amber. The light source is generally a LED or laser light. There is some question as to whether a laser-based reflex can cause eye damage and I'm not in a position to make a determination one way or the other. That will be up to you to research. Depending on the type of reflex, they can be used on pistols, rifles, or shotguns. A typical reflex offers a magnification of 1; that is, they don't have any magnification.

Reflex sights have an advantage over lasers in that they don't produce a target-side signature. The laser beam can have advantages in the intimidation factor in self-defense situations but they can also alert an unsuspecting target and allow a person to hide when you'd rather keep them in your sights. Lasers can also startle the target when varmint-hunting. The advantage of laser sights is that they allow the shooter to "shoot from the hip," which can be extremely helpful in self-defense.

A big advantage of reflex sights is unlimited field-of-view (FOV). With certain reflex sights, it is possible to aim with both eyes open. This makes it easy to track a moving target or multiple targets. When using them in this manner, you sight using your dominant eye and focus on your target. The lens fades in your sight picture and the reticle appears to be on the target. It takes a little practice but, you can easily learn to shoot with both eyes and will have a hard time going back to using rifle scopes in near-range situations.

Another advantage of reflex sights is that the eye doesn't need to be perfectly aligned with the front and rear iron sights or with a riflescope. This helps for rapidly acquiring a target and for shooting in unconventional positions. An interesting experiment is to mount your reflex sight and place the rifle in a shooting vice. Then move your head around as you look through the sight. You'll see that the dot follows your eye and stays on target. There may be some aberration on the outer edges of the lens, especially for lower quality sights but in close quarters, that aberration is negligible.

Reflex sighs come in a wide range of price and quality; which generally translates to a range of "This is cool" to "Wow!" They are made by such top names as Trijicon, EOTech, and Burris Fast Fire. You'll have to decide which is right for you. Are you considering combat-like situations where service and reliability is tantamount or are you looking for something just for plinking or varmint hunting? Are you looking for something of heirloom quality or something that can provide a few years of useful service and then you don't care if you have to replace it? Not sure of you'd like a reflex sight? Then spend less and upgrade if it suits your fancy.

Stephen Fischer is a Profesional Geologist, Martial Artist, and avid Outdoorsman.  He is the Owner of ClearlyOptics.com.  Clearly Optics provides Discount Rifle Scopes, Laser Sights, and Binoculars.  Mr. Fischer is also passionate about individual rights and personal responsibility.
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