Original Aimpoint

[Jake'sDad]

I remember reading in Gun World magazines in the late 70s and seeing pictures of shooters installing the early Aimpoints on PPC style K frame revolvers in the Bianchi Cup matches. The whole rig was huge, I bet it was heavy, but soaked up the recoil of those puny .38 spl loads.

I had such a setup and yes it was heavy. I still have the sight. Even the early ones were put together pretty stoutly, so I wouldn't be surprised to find a lot of them still working.

[mskdgunman]

I had one of these early Aimpoints mounted on my very first AR-15 I bought back in 1987 in Jax. It was the shit back in the day. I wish I knew what happened to it. I figured it got lost in one of a dozen moves. I still have the AR but it's been through some changes since then

[denn1911]

I didn't know that AimPoint has been in business since 1975 either. My first red dot was an AimPoint, which I purchased in 1996. They've come a long way, and Micro's ride on my rifles now.

[KrampusArms]

Anybody have a picture of this thing mounted on a rifle?

[sinlessorrow]

Very coll OP, i had no idea aimpoint had been around so long.

I think the DOD is now on the 3rd or 4th generation of M68 optics. We should be on something like the M68A3 by now.

Last I heard the Army started with the M4, and have now moved to the M4s.

[MistWolf]

I'm curious--if the Mk2 was the first red dot in 1975, what was the Mk1?...

As I recall, the first Aimpoint was a tube with a fiber optic in it which gathered ambient light to make the dot. You had to shoot with both eyes open. One eye picked up the red dot and the other picked up the target (the sight blocked the view to the target) and your brain merged the two views into one with the dot floating on the target.

I am a battery-phobe when it comes to firearms. My first Aimpoint is an H1 which I bought almost a year ago and I am very satisfied with it's performance and very impressed with it's battery life thus far. Aimpoint technology has certainly come a long way

[2Sharp]

I do think that those sights weren't Aimpoints, i think they were Singlepoint sights.

The first sight available commercially were the Aimpoint Electronic.
Look here:
http://www.aimpoint.com/about-aimpoint/history/

And almost repeating myself I did pick up one of these too a few weeks ago. I haven't tried it out yet though.

I have been thinking about mounting it to my M1A but the mount I have won't let me mount it without changing out one of the attachment screws.

Old skool is nice

As I recall, the first Aimpoint was a tube with a fiber optic in it which gathered ambient light to make the dot. You had to shoot with both eyes open. One eye picked up the red dot and the other picked up the target (the sight blocked the view to the target) and your brain merged the two views into one with the dot floating on the target.

I am a battery-phobe when it comes to firearms. My first Aimpoint is an H1 which I bought almost a year ago and I am very satisfied with it's performance and very impressed with it's battery life thus far. Aimpoint technology has certainly come a long way

[Jake'sDad]

Just be aware of the battery differences between the early Aimpoints and more modern ones. They don't use CR123's, though if you try hard enough, like a buddy did, you can shove them in to one. Good luck getting them out....

This thread's got me thinking about putting my old school Aimpoint back on an SP1. Think I'll have to do that.

[sinlessorrow]

The aimpoit website has every aimpoint eer made on it.
http://www.aimpoint.com/products/dis...ct/Electronic/

[2Sharp]

Just be aware of the battery differences between the early Aimpoints and more modern ones. They don't use CR123's, though if you try hard enough, like a buddy did, you can shove them in to one. Good luck getting them out....

This thread's got me thinking about putting my old school Aimpoint back on an SP1. Think I'll have to do that.

Good point, the CR2's works but you need a small conductive spacer as they are somewhat too short.

Just do it