decision time

n1ckh

n1ckh

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I've got my 1st skirmish this sunday :) providing my rifle passes the chrono (it says 350 fps out of the box) I can't make up my mind

Do I use -

Iron sights

Red dot sight

Scope sight

I have my red dot sight combined with iron sights for best of both worlds but i'm just as good with a scope

I'll take my scope aswell just in case we're assigned a specific task but I can't decide which to put on my rifle

 
I am yes, there's 2 of us going, it'll be the 1st time for both of us

I'll be bring my

M4

Shotgun

2 pistols

 
see you there, me and a few mates are making the drive up from Exeter.

 
Excellent

you'll tell me from everyone else as I'll be in combats with my TRF on my right arm, blood group and recognition patches on my chest rig

 
Most manufacturer 'on the box' claims of 350fps are kind of: '350fps when downhill, with the wind behind it, and with an ideally weighted BB...', so I'm sure it will pass the chrono test under 350. I bet it will be more likely to chromo at around 325ish.

Difficult to acquire targets quickly with a scope, so not always ideal for a fast-moving skirmish, easiest to aim accurately with open iron sights, but slightly quicker to get 'in the general direction' in order to rapidly return covering fire with a red dot sight. Red dot sights can be a bit off-putting sometimes in bright conditions, so if it has a green dot mode, put it on that.

Much of the time in a skirmish, you'll be using something like an M4 as an assault rifle in the truest sense of its name, i.e. someone fires short full auto bursts to keep their heads down whilst someone else tries to move up in order to get in grenade range, or in a position to create a vicious crossfire to allow some of your people to final assault the enemy position whilst they are pinned down and then nail them with CQB weaponry, or your assault rifle on full auto. In those circumstances, pinpoint accuracy isn't actually as important as getting shots to hit in the general area, so it pings off stuff all over the place and makes people duck for cover, and it always does make people duck when a crapload of BBs doing 300+ fps start bouncing around their position.

Unless you have some decent quality quick-release mounts for your scope, which ensure it goes on there in an exactly zeroed position you've previously set up, it will be difficult to ensure your scope is zeroed when you put it on on the day, without some time to check it, which you may not have. So if it were me, I'd stick the Red Dot sight on, zero that in, then see how you get on with it at the skirmish, and then if it's not suitable, just take it off and go with the iron sights.

anyway, whatever you decide upon, make sure you have fun, which is the main thing.

 
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Cheers chock

From my cadet days, I'm used to iron sights and then the SUSAT from my army days

Its a shame no ones designed a sight that can flip between normal and magnified :( unless they already have

 
n1ckh said:
Cheers chockFrom my cadet days, I'm used to iron sights and then the SUSAT from my army daysIts a shame no ones designed a sight that can flip between normal and magnified :( unless they already have
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There's the Aimpoint Magnifiers for that. They work in conjunction with a red dot or holographic and can flip to the side when not in use.

 
Ooooo, I'll have to check those out :)

Can the front sight be remove from the G&G M4 raider ??

 
the new standard optic for the SA80 is variable, ELCAN Specter DR; 1x-4x zoom

though they're just over $2k a piece... not really airsoft suitable :)

 
jcheeseright said:
the new standard optic for the SA80 is variable, ELCAN Specter DR; 1x-4x zoom

though they're just over $2k a piece... not really airsoft suitable :)
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The OS is the L85 standard optic, DR is a different model.

In response to the OP though, any full blown scope is massively overkill for an average AEG, even ACOGs and stuff have more zoom that we require them for. In reality 4x zoom is used to engage out to 600m lol, we barely shoot 50.

Red dots are the way forward, for all situations. They're quicker and easier to sight in than irons, they often have better adjustability and they're easily accurate enough to zero reasonably well on an airsoft gun.

If you're going to use a zoom, it'll be more use for scouting things out and checking that the lump of log you think might be someone's head, is actually a person's head. It doesn't really offer you that much over a red dot in terms of ease to hit the target.

 
Thanks guys

I'll stick with my red dot and iron sights :)

I'll stick my scope on my sons sniper rifle when I've ordered it for him

 
my scope is 6 - 24 x 50 and is far too much for my AEG so it is really only useful for spotting. My rear iron sight had to be removed for the scope so I cant switch in game even with hand tightened screwing. Not that i can get a true shot in an outdoor site anyway. You can see that using the scope because it allows you to see precisely where your bbs are going

 
I could always use as a hand held spotter sight

 
Airsoft-Ed said:
The OS is the L85 standard optic, DR is a different model.

In response to the OP though, any full blown scope is massively overkill for an average AEG, even ACOGs and stuff have more zoom that we require them for. In reality 4x zoom is used to engage out to 600m lol, we barely shoot 50.

Red dots are the way forward, for all situations. They're quicker and easier to sight in than irons, they often have better adjustability and they're easily accurate enough to zero reasonably well on an airsoft gun.

If you're going to use a zoom, it'll be more use for scouting things out and checking that the lump of log you think might be someone's head, is actually a person's head. It doesn't really offer you that much over a red dot in terms of ease to hit the target.
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That's me told! We're still rocking SUSAT :(

 
They look pretty similar lol, the OS is a little sleeker and more boring looking, and it makes it seem like there's a huge empty space under it because there's no lever to flick between 1-4x mag.

Doesn't help that a lot of the Brit Forces impressionists are just compromising and buying the DR for their L85 Afghan builds, even though they're wrong. Just helps circulate the incorrect info. I don't think many people actually realise that there are multiple different types of Elcan Spectre.

I'd love to know more about the micro red dots the OS models have fitted on them, I imagine they're still Docter sights, but the little case thing they're put in looks enormous.

I always thought it was funny they called it a Light Weight Day-sight, when light is the absolute last thing it is.

 
I've found my happy middle ground as far as optics go by using a vision king shot dot scope. good fun and not overly stupid and looks pretty sleek as well.

Also managed to get it on ebay cheaper than the ACOG i used to use!

 
Telescopic sights are fun on an airsoft sniper rifle, but sniping is more of a novelty in airsoft skirmishing than a truly practical way to engage targets, the reduced range of airsoft means that unless there is a choke point such as a narrow bridge, gateway or something like that, simply weaving left and right through some trees as you advance, would likely defeat most airsoft snipers with ease and have them reaching for their shorty AK in no time at all.

Thus the fifty quid knock off copy of a PSO-1 which is on my A&K Dragunov, nice and expensive-looking though it is for such an inexpensive thing, is only really a souped up 4x26 cheap scope in an housing which looks like a PSO-1. And although it does have the iconic sloped stadiametric rangefinder engravings on it, which can also be illuminated, the likelihood of there even being someone far enough away on an airsoft site to make that make any sense at all, let alone the notion of hitting something that far away (1,200 metres), makes it only sensible to regard that scope as a nice novelty rather than a practical piece of gear, and it's true of the iron sights as well, which are also calibrated all the way up to 1,200 metres.

 
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Either way, I'm sticking with what I know and that's my iron sights :) I've got red dot for CQB work (which I've also done as part of my job in the infantry)

My son really wants a sniper rifle and a side arm (something like a glock) so I'll get him that, my other son wants to be like me with an M4 and side arm

Haha this going to get expensive :)

 
Glocks, M4s etc? Sounds like you are starting your own Coalition Army :P Still, at least with Airsoft, you can at least guarantee the ammo will be compatible

 
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