Adding “Optics” to Your Guns

Talk about coincidences.

Last friday we did a branch range day; I brought not only the daily carry piece, the 1911 .45, but the AK clone with the red dot sight (aka Vlad the Impaler) and the S&W M4gery. I wanted to double-check the 50m zero on the first, and put some long overdue rounds through the second.

I put Vlad on a rest, and sure enough I was hitting right where I wanted at 50. I had no problems at all with acquiring the dot in the sight, consistently and easily. (Remember that the sight is mounted far forward.) Now, when I went to the S&W to do some offhand snap-shooting at 25, a strange thing happened. I couldn’t acquire the sight alignment and sight picture the same way every time. In fact, I could barely see the rear sight clearly. Why? Despite the fact that I was shooting with iron sights, I had acquired a set of “optics” since the last time I shot it– that is, my glasses. Having progressive lens bifocals (go ahead and laugh) completely altered my ability to use the standard AR sights that I have been accustomed to since the summer of 1989. Needless to say, this was a revelation.

So, I was very interested to see this post and more to the point this post appear, as if by magic.

Lesson learned– when you add optics of any type to yourself or your gun, you need to take it out and put it through its paces as if you just took it out of the box. Be prepared for some changes, and work through them.