Aimpoint T-1 POI shift?? (Green Eye Tactical Bans T1 RDS)

[Green Eye Tactical]

Has anyone contacted Aimpoint and made them aware of this problem with their sights? I'm sure they would be concerned to learn about this. What has been their response?

I purposefully didn't contact any manufacturer to avoid any perception of bias, and haven't hear a peep.

Keep in mind- this isn't an Aimpoint thing. The T-2 did great. And there were other models/brands that produced results far worse than the T-1. I would love to hear their take on it though. I mean- one of EoTechs models we tested did far worse than the EXPS series.

[Coal Dragger]

Thanks for your work on this Green Eye Tactical.

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but is it fair to say that for any optic, be it RDS, Holographic, or scope you should try to make a consistent cheek weld every time you need to make a precise shot or shoot a tight group? This is something I try to do personally and usually have no issues with parallax, but I make it a point to get my eye directly centered behind the optic. Also an astute observation on shooting glasses or glasses buggering up consistency depending on lens angle of the glasses.

[Green Eye Tactical]

Thanks for your work on this Green Eye Tactical.

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but is it fair to say that for any optic, be it RDS, Holographic, or scope you should try to make a consistent cheek weld every time you need to make a precise shot or shoot a tight group? This is something I try to do personally and usually have no issues with parallax, but I make it a point to get my eye directly centered behind the optic. Also an astute observation on shooting glasses or glasses buggering up consistency depending on lens angle of the glasses.

I think it is fair to say but not always possible or practical either. A consistent cheek weld is simply using an anatomical index point to get you close to the same alignment, but it doesn't equal consistent alignment. So, just as with iron sights, you still must visually center your axis of vision with the reference relative to the weapon direction. I have seen this to be very difficult for most shooters to do consistently because they are attempting to keep, for example: a 2MOA dot in the consistent center of a 20mm aperture. That creates a lot of "white space" between the dot, that comparatively sizes at 0.787402 inches for the aperture and 0.16752 inches for the red dot. You could relate that to iron sights by contemplating as to whether it would be easier to perform consistent grouping with a tight sight radius or a open sight radius. So, basically the limitation here is us- the shooter and our visual limitations to keep the dot perfectly in the center. Considering that- how sensitive a piece of equipment is to our physical limitation should, I think, be a useful (but not the only) piece of information when evaluating equipment for purchase and application.

[Coal Dragger]

Gotcha. I do admit that it is more difficult to find the optical center of a red dot sight and keep the dot in it, than it is for me to do the same thing with say a low powered variable optic like my NXS 1-4X24, or other magnified optic. As you point out a consistent cheek weld doesn't equal consistent correct eye to sight alignment, however this is a training issue.

In an ideal world we could all take the time to get into perfect positions to allow ourselves to get a good NPA and get our eyes perfectly lined up with the optical center of our glass of choice. This of course is not always possible and it is up to the shooter to understand the limitations of their weapon and sights when less than ideal shooting positions and body interface to the weapon aren't ideal. If I'm whacking targets at 25 yards shooting quickly, moving around, shooting in awkward hastily assumed positions I expect there to be some degree of parallax issues with optical sights. As long as the deviation is not too severe I can accept is as the cost of going faster when the situation calls for it.

When it's time to shoot groups or zero if the shooter won't practice fundamentals of building a solid position with good NPA, making sure they are lined up with the glass, and making sure they check this and apply it for every shot they will not shoot as well as a guy who does. You and I both know that when it comes to making tiny little groups, even when using very accurate rifles with very good glass and very good ammo that your eyes can lie to you so to speak. Yep your eyes tell you the sight picture is the same as your last shot, but if your position shifted, that round will deviate a bit sure as shit no matter what the sight picture looked like. Even from a benchrest I've noticed this.

[Green Eye Tactical]

For those who have had issues viewing the Dropbox file- I finally got the Red Dot parallax test up on the website. Enjoy.

https://www.greeneyetactical.com/201...ight-parallax/

[Torquetard]

Has anyone contacted Aimpoint and made them aware of this problem with their sights? I'm sure they would be concerned to learn about this. What has been their response?

I feel like they might have known, hence the T2 w/ better glass

[Singlestack Wonder]

I feel like they might have known, hence the T2 w/ better glass

Besides the glass, the front lens was re-angled to allow for a less angular reception surface for the dot emitter in order to make the dot appear circular vs. an oval when using magnifiers.

[Green Eye Tactical]

I finally got all my IT issues straightened out and got my video/photo libraries back up. Just got a quick cut of some of the movement I videoed:



https://youtu.be/81X4dWcIM5c

[Mysteryman]

Just a tidbit of info I found from Trijicon regarding parallax and their MRO sight.

"Like all reflex-style optics, the Trijicon MRO is parallax-free when the dot and target are reasonably well centered in the optic's field-of-view, but when the reticle and target are substantially off-axis, there will be some parallax. The off-axis parallax performance of the MRO meets or exceeds that of other reflex sights of similar size."

https://www.trijicon.com/na_en/support/faq_MRO.php

MM

[Naphtali]

This is a non-issue. I own or have owned multiple EoTech models, as well as multiple Aimpoint T2s and Comp M4s's. ALL OF THEM DO THIS ABOUT THE SAME. I have to take care when I sight all of them in that I keep the dot in the center of the sight. If I accidentally drift toward one side (i.e. I'm not paying close enough attention), it will shift the POI maybe 1" at 50 yds. So I'm scratching my head, and then I realize what I just did.

Again, every RDS does this. Put any in a vice and you can replicate this for all of them. It would matter if you were taking a long-range shot and were calm (and were unaware of this issue, therefore letting the dot drift around in the sight), but if you're shaking / nervous / getting shot at (and not prone or on a bench rest), you're not going to be a 2 MOA shooter in that situation anyway unless you have had enough near-death combat experiences to be relatively cool with the thought of your own death (in addition to being an exceptionally talented shooter physically).

Which I very much doubt applies to any shooter at these courses. Heck, I'm not a 2 MOA shooter if I'm shooting from a standing position on my calmest day, and I do surgery under a microscope for a living.

As someone said previously - if you ban the T1, you have to ban every RDS on the market now for doing the same thing to basically the same degree.