Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on the EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight. (See the Gear section.)
Books:
Undergrounds in Insurgent, Revolutionary and Resistance Warfare: Second Edition (U.S. Army Special Forces Reprint)
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Building a Log Cabin in Alaska in Four Months: Using the trees from two acres of land
Movies:
Here is the sequel to a movie that I mentioned in this column last year: Idaho: The Movie 2 . The scenery is breathtaking.
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The Ballad of Lefty Brown. A well-made western, filmed on location in Montana.
Vlogs and Instructional Videos:
Note: I am continuing to shift the emphasis of my video links away from YouTube, since they have recently announced a strongly anti-gun policy. Please bookmark Full30.com and visit there often!
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Ian McCollum: AZ2G – SCAR 17 “Heavy” – Stage 1 – Introduction
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Mr. Guns N Gear: Geissele URG-I USASOC Upper Receiver First Shots
Gear:
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Designed long after their notorious recalled model, EoTech is back on track with this great sight: EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight, EXPS2-GRN HWS 65 MOA Green Ring w/2 Green Dots
Make a Suggestion
Want to suggest Recommendations of your own? Then please send them to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
Re: EOTech weapons sights.
I was one of those people who bought these several years ago in the belief that they were the cat’s pajamas. Living in the Redoubt we experience temps from -30 to +95 and need our firearms to perform in every weather condition imaginable. After hundreds of rounds trying to keep these optics zeroed I was relieved to see that it was not me, and that they were offering a full refund – which I immediately took advantage of. Certainly they had to know that their optic did not hold its zero at different temperatures!
Frankly, EOTech left such a bad impression that I will never purchase another one of their products. As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Never EOTech again.
A lot of us don’t have $1200 to spend on a weapon sight, how about some cheaper options, Yes i know the argument ” how much is your life worth ” but money goes only so far.
I really like the Sig MRO red dot. Think I paid $500 for mine, and its compact, has 1/3 co-witness with the iron, and actually was nats-a$$ on target out of the box.
apparently it’s so common for Eotech reticles to go dim(can’t see it in bright daylight) that it’s listed as an option to select on their return authorization page. I was given a code for 50% off of a new sight instead of full replacement. If anything happens to this one I’ll be done with Eotech for good.
Been happy with a Holosun. I’ll just have to see how it holds up.
my opinion on eotech knowing about the point of aim shift in there reticles, is they absolutely knew this was occurring. It has to do with the physics of a hologram. and the expansion coefficient of the hologram media. what i remember from college (i have a AAS in laser electro optics) is the interference pattern from to coherent sources of light (laser beam that has been split) create an interference pattern that is recorded on the film. this allows you to take any part of the film and still produce a complete picture. the film expands and contracts with temperature causing the diffraction angle to change, resulting in the shift in aim.
I have deep reservations about spending any money with a company who covered up something like this and then sent our troops in harms way with no warning.
on there site they now post info on the thermal shift and warn that thermal drift will cause the sight to lose zero even after the sight returns to ambient temps. this of course is just my opinion, and it has been several years since i worked with lasers. your mileage may vary.
Anonymous: I agree about the steep price of many optics but going too cheap will make you regret it too. Stay away from UTG, unless you like aggravation. If you do like hating your optic then I’ll be happy to make you a deal on a 9×32. Currently I’m trying Vortex, but unfortunately the other saying that is very true is “pay once, cry once”. It’s finding that acceptable, elusive middle ground between my champagne taste and my beer budget that frustrates me the most. ACOGs are definitely stratospheric to me.
My Son used his ACOG in Afghanistan for a year. It came home beat up, scratched and filthy. It NEVER changed zero. As he told me “you can reach out and touch someone with it”.
Mention is made of switching from youtube to Full30.com. Do you know of a way to download and save videos from there?
I can save youtube videos by going to http://convert2mp3.net/en/
They won’t work on full30 videos.
Sig Romeo red dot sights are inexpensive and are high quality. You can pick up a Romeo 5 for around $170 and a Romeo 4 For about $200. I have a couple of them and they are on the same level as Aimpoint IMO. The battery life is similar and the MOTAC feature that activates the optic as soon as the rifle is picked up is extremely handy. Bottom line is they work, they have a lifetime guarantee and they don’t cost as much as a nice rifle. Plus Sig has a good reputation.
The Sig Romeo sights are made by Holosun. I have and use 3 EoTech sights, Two 512’s and 1 XPS 300BLK. Never a problem with any of them. I have added two 3x magnifiers this week. They don’t cost $1200 dollars…
I’ll add that ALL sights of this type have some Thermal shift. After the EoTech debacle Trijicon admitted that their sights also had a small amount of thermal shift. Of course they never said anything about it untill EoTech was in trouble. I’ll go with a company that is willing to step up and offer ANYONE that wants a return AT FULL PRICE no matter how old or abused. Even though 99% of the users never had any problem with thermal shift at all.
Rick,
Yes all red dot sights have some thermal drift in them, but the EoTech sites had more problems than just thermal drift. That was just a “catch-prase” that all of the old sights problems got lumped under.
The most well known trijicon sights (ACOG) did not have thermal drift issues, but their holographic sights did. Because their site did not have the other issues that EoTech had, the thermal drift was basically insignificant. It is not a fair comparison to claim that EoTech’s problems (now fixed) were the same across the board on all manufacturers. EoTech had a significantly worse problem and they did not address it until they were sued. Their new site appears to be free of the major problems and the thermal drift should be on-par with other holographic sites. Just to recap, EoTech’s major problem had to do with moisture on the reticle, not thermal shift, though the thermal shift was the catch phrase that leaps from everyone’s tongue.