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 second Fibre-Optic, non-battery red-dot sight on the market that required both eyes to be open so that the Red Dot on a black field was "projected" forwards onto the image of the target viewed by the opposite open eye. The first optic on the market to use this technology was the UK Single-Point Sight, which was employed on 75 of the 150 US Airforce GAU-5/5 "submachineguns" (AR15 Carbines) used in the famous 1970 Son Tay Raid to free US Prisoners of War from a camp located not far from Hanoi, North Vietnam.

The Occluded Eye Concept sounds more complicated than it actually 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 were exported worldwide in a variety of mounting solutions. The OEGs are a very simple, rugged and lightweight design with no moving parts aside from the elevation and windage adjustments. 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.

 

[jjohnwm]

I had one many moons ago, and it contained no tritium, strictly a fiberoptic element; thus it needed ambient light to function. It worked okay, although its dot brightness was not exceptional, certainly not the equal of today's better designs. There was only a short section of exposed FO tubing at the front which limited the amount of light that could be collected and routed to the dot.

This was a pretty cool little item back in the day. Some people simply couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of keeping both eyes open while shooting and allowing their brain to superimpose the two images, which is the only way this design works.

It was pretty groundbreaking stuff; complaining now, 50+ years later, that it was no good because it didn't work in pitch darkness seems a bit silly. It worked way better than any of its competitors...because back then it didn't have any.

Edited to add: I just noticed that comment about these things still being manufactured. Amazing! That retro model that mounts with standard scope rings is cool; I'd be tempted if somebody had them in Canada...hmmm...

 

[Repper]

I for one sure like reading your write ups Bartok! Seeing your collection as well of course. Thank you for all of these threads you make.

I really miss the cloning days……….I should have built a few more…The problem is the time it took to find the parts always makes you feel like you have 5 builds on the go, and the nostalgia all but eliminating common sense cost considerations! lol

 

[Suther]

Those are such cool sights for the nostalgia and history alone. Haven't gotten to play with one yet though. Thanks for sharing some of the history on these.