aimpoint battery life and advice for good red dot?

[crunchiespg]

im going to be buying a 12g shotty for use in the woods and would like a good quality red dot.

now i know aimpoint are good, and checking their site the micro H1 looks good, but is the battery life correct? it says 5 years continuous? is that true?

if so im amazed, the ones i used to use on a UK police MP5 were dead if we left them on by mistake for a few days..

is aimpoint a good buy? if so where is a good place to buy one? ideally id like something i can leave on all day, and then if i need the shotty in a rush i dont have to worry about turning the sight on..

any other suggestions?
thanks

 

[F22_RaptoR]

I have an aimpoint comp ML3 coming in the next week or two!

From what i remember (on the H1, without night vision settings), on setting 8 out of 12 it will last for around 50,000 hours. On setting 12/12 it will run for 3.5 years or so continuously on


I guess the technology is in the "ACET" or "Advanced Circuit Efficiency Technology". They use VERY advanced LED's that consume very little power.

The Micro series uses the same dot as the Aimpoint M4 (which on the M4 is a 2moa dot) except with the shorter tube length the dot appears bigger. The M4 gets around 80,000 hours of run time, which is over 9 years . Apparently from what i hear, the battery drain is so minimal, that the battery will drain as fast with the dot on, as it will with the battery just sitting there "idling".



If getting an optic with "always on" being a big factor (like me, im putting my aimpoint ML3 onto a shotgun, my benelli M4 ) then you really cant beat an Aimpoint

If your looking for one, try Target Sports (where i got mine from), Socom Supply, and TSE (The Shooting Edge). All are sponsors for this site , and have them listed... If they're in stock is a different story!

The T1 is the military version with night vision settings (and is like 650-700 dollars or so) and the H1 is the "civie" version which isn't as water proof, and doesn't have night vision. You can also get the R1 which is silver.

The H1 and R1 will run ya around 450-500 dollars or so plus shipping.



They're worth it! built like tanks, and have extremely good runtime!

 

[drvrage]

What does it look like to see through one? How does the aimpoint work with BUIS?

 

[F22_RaptoR]

Since it doesn't have any "magnifying" lenses, as long as you can get BUIS's to be visible through the scope body, you can use them fine! Now on a shotgun, getting iron sights that work are a little more difficult, because they are usually low profile.

Even with my Docter Optics red-dot sight (which is much lower profile than my Aimpoint is) on my Benelli M4, theres NO WAY i can use the iron sights. Which is why i got a QR mount, so i can dump the optic if it fails.


If your using picatinny rail Iron sights, or something on an equal height level, co-witness will work very nicely. Most people prefer lower third (so that the iron sights are in the lower third of the glass) and then for flip-up iron sights, a lot of people use absolute co-witness, where the red-dot is in the same height level as the iron sights, so you dont have to adjust your cheek weild.


Heres some pics from AR15.com. I'll try to get some plain, and co-witness pics...

Heres an EOTech looking through iron sights. Its ALWAYS gonna ba fuzzy in pictures, VERY hard to get in focus shots.

But basically, when your looking at your target, the iron sights are gonna be out of focus, and the dot is going to be perfectly in focus.

this is a good one:

If you wanna see more, go to this page on AR15.com. they got lots of neat reticle pictures here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=18&t=264481&page=1