Belgian Sighting Device - Gen II?

[Erick Gelhaus]

Question for you all -

With the M16A1/A2 family there existed the ability to attach an item (Belgian Sighting Device) to the rear of the carry handle. Via an angled lens (smoked glass) it allowed a coach / instructor to see what sight picture the shooter had.

Last weekend my NG unit was assisting a number of small support units in their M16A2 zero & qual ranges. One shooter was just not getting the sight picture. No way, no how. Hand done drawings, purpose designed GTAs, demonstrations, etc ... none of it was working. (He needed glasses & no he did bring them with him) And none of us brought a Belgian sighting device with us - doh!

My question is - given the amount of red dot sights & BUIS that are out there - has anyone figured out how to "see" what the shooter is seeing for a sight picture with these. Any mechanical solutions?

Or is there even a need for this?

[Failure2Stop]

I have never used the type of device you describe. I have heard of them, but never used them.

That being said- with a diagram and explaination of sight alignment and sight picture it is less than necessary for me to see what the shooter is doing. As long as they are doing the same thing every time and focusing on the front sight, it doesn't matter if the front sight is perfectly centered. As long as it is in the same place every shot, they will be fine.

In my experience, more issues are caused by poor trigger control, unstable positions, and lack of consistency than anything else.

If you really want to see what the shooter sees, just make cut-outs and have the shooter over-lay them on a target. Cheap method to achieve the same results.

The FBI has glasses with a tiny camera in it so the instructors can see what the shooter sees. It's a pretty neat, but really expensive, way to achieve the same results as having the cut-outs or pictures.

[Erick Gelhaus]

To clarify ... this was not a trigger control issue. Using the beam hit @ 25yds, the laser would rarely appear on the reflective target (12"x16" +/-). Showed the shooter the drawings, diagrams "hey, sarge, I got it" followed by continued non-appearence of the laser. Same for when I had him draw out his "sight picture."

When the shooter was in a prone supported, the muzzle was in an indirect fire trajectory. Demonstrating, modeling, diagramming did not work. My bad for leaving the Belgian device at home.

My train of thought on this is that "somewhere" there are more personnel like this who will have the same problems with optics.

Thank you for your input.

Erick

[Failure2Stop]

Did you test-fire?

Usually I do if someone is oddly effed up. I have identified incorrectly mounted optics, broken optics, and shooter stupidity with this method. :D