USMC03
06-13-07, 07:52
This winter all of my AR's when through a metamorphasis, as I'm constantly figuring out what works best for me.
I was running Surefire 961C's in LaRue mounts on the many of my guns. The 961 is the full sized 9 volt Millinium light. The Short Dot is a heavy optic, heavy in the sense that when it's in your hand you feel confident that you could pound nails with the optic (literally) and not damage it. I found that chaging out the 961C's for Surefire 6 Volt Scout lights made a big difference in how the gun balanced and how it effected the weight of the gun. Trimming a few ounces "here and there" adds up, as does adding a few ounces here and there.
Another modification to this gun is the addition of the LMT SOPMOD stock. I had tried this stock a couple years ago and it was a decent stock, but didn't feel that it was worht the price they were charging. Late last fall (2006), I put the LMT SOPMOD stock on one of my duty guns and ran it for a while. I really warmed up to the SOPMOD. I don't know how I ever lived without a rubber buttpad. Ergonomics were perfect. Longer length was perfect. Cheek well was perfect. Footprint of the buttstock was perfect. There was literally nothing that I didn't like about the LMT SOPMOD. Of all the M4's that I had that had VLTOR's were chaged out and a LMT SOPMOD was added.
I took purchase of a two Schmidt and Bender (Gen I) Short Dots in May or June of 2006, what is written below is what I posted in late July, these were my initial impressions of the Short Dots.
Keep in mind that what was posted below is from using the optic for a month or two. I have now used the Short Dots for close to a year. I have used them in a couple rifle matches (Zak Smith refers to the rifle match in his article in Guns and Ammo "Book of the AR15" that is on news stands now.....distances from 3 yards to 425 yards), training at work, SWAT call outs, practice / training on my own, in Pat Rogers' EAG Tactical Carbine Operator's course, etc.
I found that my experiences over the last year with the S&B Short Dot solidified what I wrote on July 31, 2006:
I recently upgraded the optics on my duty LE6920's.
Over the years I have been in search of the "perfect" optic.
In a SWAT setting 75% of the missions are CQB and the other 25% can range from permiter work, to overwatch on a VIP detail, to searching large warehouses or schools, etc.
SWAT missions can often be dynamic in nature. One minute you can find yourself on a permiter trying to see if the barricaded gunman standing in the window has a gun or a cell phone in his hand, and the next minute you're being picked up as part of the entry team. On other missions you may find yourself sitting across a large parking lot covering a buy / bust operation, the bad guy goes mobile and now your part of a vehicle take down.
In short there are times where an electronic red dot rules the day and other times where a magnified optic is more desirable.
I have tried magnifiers, a few variable powered optics, etc, etc, etc. I had issues with everything that I tried.
A couple requirements that I have in any optic that I use for duty:
-Lit reticle that can be seen in bright day light (this knocked out some optics like the MR/T M2 1.5-5)
-Very little distortion on the lowest power (this knocked out most optics that had the lowest setting at 1.25x and higher)
-Have close to the same speed with the optic as I did an Aimpoint.
I have tried most of what is on the market and after doing much research (thanks to the Lightfighter members who took the time to answer my many questions) I settled on the S&B Short Dot and after training with it for the last month I'm very satisfied with it:
Not perfect, but damn close:
The entire thread can be seen here: http://lightfighter.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9046084761/m/8941079552
I took the S&B Short Dot off of one of my Colt LE6920 (with 14.5" heavy profile SOCOM M4 barrel) and put it on this gun. The reason for doing this was two fold. First the M4 profile barrel is obviously lighter than the SOCOM profile barrel and the Short Dot is a very heavy optic. This amounted to a lighter over all package.
The second reason is the Colt that this Short Dot was having some elevation issues with this Short Dot. I wouldn't say that the gun has excessive elevation, but I am using a tall front sight post on the gun. When this Short Dot was on the Colt I could zero the gun in without a problem, when I removed the elevation knob to reset the knob (ie. put the knob at "0" after it was zeroed at 100 yards). After resetting the external elevation knob I would screw the top back on the elevation knob and re check zero. The zero would be a good 6" - 8" low. What was happening was the internal knob was so high that when I screwed the top of the external knob it would touch the internal knob and turn it.
Initially I though there was a problem with the Short Dot, but after a lot of trouble shooting I found out that it was the gun. Moved the Short Dot over to the LMT and haven't had any problems. I never though it was the gun as I've had Aimpoints and ACOG's on the Colt and never had a problem with elevation.
LMT M4:
-Factory LMT
-14.5" M4 profile LMT barrel
-Gem-Tech Bi-Loc flash hider perminately attached (Thanks Kel [])
-Gem-Tech G5 suppressor
-LaRue 7.0 rail system
-Tango Down rail pannels
-Tango Down vertical foregrip
-Short Dot (Gen I...non locking turrets......Gen II has the locking turrets)
-LaRue SPR-E
-Troy Industries Dual Apeture BUIS
-Tango Down Battle Grip pistol grip
-KNS non-rotating hammer / trigger pin set
-Blue Force Gear VCAS Sling
-Magpul Enhanced Trigger Guard
-LMT SOPMOD stock
-Surefire M600 Scout light with clicker tail cap and incandesent bulb
-LaRue Tactical Scout light mount
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02140.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02141.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02145.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02146.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02144.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02143.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02142.jpg
Semper Fi,
Jeff
I was running Surefire 961C's in LaRue mounts on the many of my guns. The 961 is the full sized 9 volt Millinium light. The Short Dot is a heavy optic, heavy in the sense that when it's in your hand you feel confident that you could pound nails with the optic (literally) and not damage it. I found that chaging out the 961C's for Surefire 6 Volt Scout lights made a big difference in how the gun balanced and how it effected the weight of the gun. Trimming a few ounces "here and there" adds up, as does adding a few ounces here and there.
Another modification to this gun is the addition of the LMT SOPMOD stock. I had tried this stock a couple years ago and it was a decent stock, but didn't feel that it was worht the price they were charging. Late last fall (2006), I put the LMT SOPMOD stock on one of my duty guns and ran it for a while. I really warmed up to the SOPMOD. I don't know how I ever lived without a rubber buttpad. Ergonomics were perfect. Longer length was perfect. Cheek well was perfect. Footprint of the buttstock was perfect. There was literally nothing that I didn't like about the LMT SOPMOD. Of all the M4's that I had that had VLTOR's were chaged out and a LMT SOPMOD was added.
I took purchase of a two Schmidt and Bender (Gen I) Short Dots in May or June of 2006, what is written below is what I posted in late July, these were my initial impressions of the Short Dots.
Keep in mind that what was posted below is from using the optic for a month or two. I have now used the Short Dots for close to a year. I have used them in a couple rifle matches (Zak Smith refers to the rifle match in his article in Guns and Ammo "Book of the AR15" that is on news stands now.....distances from 3 yards to 425 yards), training at work, SWAT call outs, practice / training on my own, in Pat Rogers' EAG Tactical Carbine Operator's course, etc.
I found that my experiences over the last year with the S&B Short Dot solidified what I wrote on July 31, 2006:
I recently upgraded the optics on my duty LE6920's.
Over the years I have been in search of the "perfect" optic.
In a SWAT setting 75% of the missions are CQB and the other 25% can range from permiter work, to overwatch on a VIP detail, to searching large warehouses or schools, etc.
SWAT missions can often be dynamic in nature. One minute you can find yourself on a permiter trying to see if the barricaded gunman standing in the window has a gun or a cell phone in his hand, and the next minute you're being picked up as part of the entry team. On other missions you may find yourself sitting across a large parking lot covering a buy / bust operation, the bad guy goes mobile and now your part of a vehicle take down.
In short there are times where an electronic red dot rules the day and other times where a magnified optic is more desirable.
I have tried magnifiers, a few variable powered optics, etc, etc, etc. I had issues with everything that I tried.
A couple requirements that I have in any optic that I use for duty:
-Lit reticle that can be seen in bright day light (this knocked out some optics like the MR/T M2 1.5-5)
-Very little distortion on the lowest power (this knocked out most optics that had the lowest setting at 1.25x and higher)
-Have close to the same speed with the optic as I did an Aimpoint.
I have tried most of what is on the market and after doing much research (thanks to the Lightfighter members who took the time to answer my many questions) I settled on the S&B Short Dot and after training with it for the last month I'm very satisfied with it:
Not perfect, but damn close:
The entire thread can be seen here: http://lightfighter.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9046084761/m/8941079552
I took the S&B Short Dot off of one of my Colt LE6920 (with 14.5" heavy profile SOCOM M4 barrel) and put it on this gun. The reason for doing this was two fold. First the M4 profile barrel is obviously lighter than the SOCOM profile barrel and the Short Dot is a very heavy optic. This amounted to a lighter over all package.
The second reason is the Colt that this Short Dot was having some elevation issues with this Short Dot. I wouldn't say that the gun has excessive elevation, but I am using a tall front sight post on the gun. When this Short Dot was on the Colt I could zero the gun in without a problem, when I removed the elevation knob to reset the knob (ie. put the knob at "0" after it was zeroed at 100 yards). After resetting the external elevation knob I would screw the top back on the elevation knob and re check zero. The zero would be a good 6" - 8" low. What was happening was the internal knob was so high that when I screwed the top of the external knob it would touch the internal knob and turn it.
Initially I though there was a problem with the Short Dot, but after a lot of trouble shooting I found out that it was the gun. Moved the Short Dot over to the LMT and haven't had any problems. I never though it was the gun as I've had Aimpoints and ACOG's on the Colt and never had a problem with elevation.
LMT M4:
-Factory LMT
-14.5" M4 profile LMT barrel
-Gem-Tech Bi-Loc flash hider perminately attached (Thanks Kel [])
-Gem-Tech G5 suppressor
-LaRue 7.0 rail system
-Tango Down rail pannels
-Tango Down vertical foregrip
-Short Dot (Gen I...non locking turrets......Gen II has the locking turrets)
-LaRue SPR-E
-Troy Industries Dual Apeture BUIS
-Tango Down Battle Grip pistol grip
-KNS non-rotating hammer / trigger pin set
-Blue Force Gear VCAS Sling
-Magpul Enhanced Trigger Guard
-LMT SOPMOD stock
-Surefire M600 Scout light with clicker tail cap and incandesent bulb
-LaRue Tactical Scout light mount
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02140.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02141.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02145.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02146.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02144.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02143.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s206/molsen2295/USMC03/LMT%20with%20Short%20Dot/DSC02142.jpg
Semper Fi,
Jeff