ARMSON Ocluded-Eye Gunsight (OEG) - 1970's First Red Dot Sight......

[Bartok5]

I recently mounted a 1970's South African Armson Company Ocluded-Eye Gunsight (OEG) on my HK93 Rifle. The mount of the OEG is specific to HK Roller-Locking rifle, carbine and submachinegun Receivers, so will fit the HK G3/91, G33/93 and/or the MP5/94. The Armson OEG optics were the very first of the Fibre-Optic, non-battery red-dot sights that require both eyes to be open so that the Red Dot on a black field is "projected" forwards onto the image of the target viewed by the opposite open eye.f It sounds more complicated than it is! The concept is really quite simple and works reasonably well once "muscle memory" is established for the different role of each eye. The Armson OEGs were marketed as new tech during the 1970s and early 1980s and was exported worldwide in a variety of mounting solutions. The OEGs are a very simple, rugged and lightweight design with very few moving parts. Here is mine:

 

[zupermann]

I remember those and always wanted to try one. Apparently the dot element decays over time (?), but you could send it to Armson for recharging.
Have no idea if they'd still be in business or who is doing that (if anyone).

 

[apex survival]

I'm much too young to remember this tech being rolled out, but believe a friend has or had one in the past. I do remember checking it out at one point but haven't thought about this sort of sight for years. Pretty cool piece to have actually!

 

[I Dont Care About You]

I remember those and always wanted to try one. Apparently the dot element decays over time (?), but you could send it to Armson for recharging.
Have no idea if they'd still be in business or who is doing that (if anyone).

I had one I used to run on an AR carry handle mount. It's a good system, rugged and easy to use. I had mine for a long time, long enough for the tritium lamp to decay off to nearly nothing. The problem, in Canada, is there is no way to get the thing recharged as you can't ship radiological materials across the border.

They still make these sights. https://www.armsonusa.com/armsonoeg.html

 

[I Dont Care About You]

The Armson OEG optics were the very first of the Fibre-Optic, non-battery red-dot sights ..... The Armson OEGs were marketed as new tech during the 1970s and early 1980s and was exported worldwide in a variety of mounting solutions. The OEGs are a very simple, rugged and lightweight design with very few moving parts. Here is mine:

My memory is that the sight is entirely powered by a tritium lamp and does not use any fibre optic elements.

If yours is still visible, it must be relatively new production as the tritium lamps are only good for about a decade. I bought mine around 1989.

Update: Just checking out their website and they list these things as being "non-tritium". My guess is the tritium lamps became an issue due to their limited lifespan and so they figured out a non-tritium fibre optic way to light the dot. The problem with that being the things won't work in the dark.

I see they offer a tritium upgrade on some? sights.