Professional Soldiers ® - View Single Post

FearTheCats · 01-07-2007, 23:08

Brian, great to see you here. I get my gear intel at 10-8 Forums (where I've been lurking forever, someday I'll scan my ID and ask to be let in). When I bought my patrol carbine last year and had enough ching to get any optic I wanted, I knew from 10-8 that I had to move heaven and earth to find a Short Dot. I'm only a part-time auxiliary deputy and have to come up with my own equipment, and I'll only need a rifle once in the next 20 years probably, but that one time, I'll really need it. I had to call literally a dozen Schmidt & Bender dealers to find the only factory-new Short Dot in-country last August, and I'm glad I did.

It works very much as advertised and the only problem is that when it goes from a cold car trunk to a warm humid building, the lenses fog over as would any scope. No prob--just use the sling to lever off the LaRue SPR-E, flip up the iron, and drive on. At first I had my Short Dot in a regular SPR, but my Neanderthal eyebrows were colliding with the scope tube, so I went with the -E. I've mounted and dismounted probably 50 times without losing zero.

I have the CQB reticle with the mil dots, actually hashes, in the center. With 11 illumination detents on the rheostat, the red dot is visible in any light. 8 is the default setting, 7 is better for night, 9 for bright day. I looked through a Nightforce 1-4x in daylight and could hardly tell which part of the reticle was supposed to have been illuminated. Not so with the Short Dot--you can see that dot anywhere. With the dot off, the reticle itself is good to go during daylight, or at night with my SureFire 910 white light.

I'm no LE sniper, and 82ndtrooper is right that precision marksmen are better off with Rem 700s etc. (very few departments have or can afford a $9,000 H&K PSG), and my carbine is a Smith M&P-15 M4gery with the service-grade chrome-lined barrel--not the epitome of tackdrivers. However, in our rural county, SWAT is what you do to flies when you are trying to sleep. Whoever's on duty must handle whatever goes down, with whatever is in the patrol car. So, I occasionally work on head shots at 100m, at low and high magnification, dot on or off, with both duty loads and match loads. Especially with the latter, I'm confident that if Johnny Jihad shows up with a bulky vest, I can interrupt his train of thought while staying out of range of flying nuts and bolts.

I took Larry Vickers' basic carbine class in October and my Short Dot helped me fire quickly while actually HITTING STUFF, which Larry seems to feel is important for some reason. He is also the one who pushed S&B to give us the Short Dot in the first place. When we backed up to the 100yd line, he acknowledged that those who had irons, EOTechs, Aimpoints etc. might be at a disadvantage to those who had scopes, but that's life in the big city. I agreed, as I cranked the ring to 4x. One of the other guys took a long look through my Short Dot and exclaimed in wonder, "it's so CLEAR!" That's the best thing you can say about a piece of glass.

I can live with the weight because I know it adds to durability and waterproofing. Only two picky things would I change: keep the dot small at all magnifications because on 4x it covers too much space, and extend the auto dot shutoff to 12 or better yet 24 hours so I can turn it on at the beginning of the shift and know it'll be there later. As it is, I have to remember to tell the deputy I'm riding with to "whoa, pop the trunk, I gotta turn my scope back on." Sight alignment and trigger control works with any sight, but you're only as good as your equipment allows you to be, and I'll take all the help I can get.

01-07-2007, 23:08	#7
FearTheCats Asset Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bladen County NC Posts: 24	Brian, great to see you here. I get my gear intel at 10-8 Forums (where I've been lurking forever, someday I'll scan my ID and ask to be let in). When I bought my patrol carbine last year and had enough ching to get any optic I wanted, I knew from 10-8 that I had to move heaven and earth to find a Short Dot. I'm only a part-time auxiliary deputy and have to come up with my own equipment, and I'll only need a rifle once in the next 20 years probably, but that one time, I'll really need it. I had to call literally a dozen Schmidt & Bender dealers to find the only factory-new Short Dot in-country last August, and I'm glad I did. It works very much as advertised and the only problem is that when it goes from a cold car trunk to a warm humid building, the lenses fog over as would any scope. No prob--just use the sling to lever off the LaRue SPR-E, flip up the iron, and drive on. At first I had my Short Dot in a regular SPR, but my Neanderthal eyebrows were colliding with the scope tube, so I went with the -E. I've mounted and dismounted probably 50 times without losing zero. I have the CQB reticle with the mil dots, actually hashes, in the center. With 11 illumination detents on the rheostat, the red dot is visible in any light. 8 is the default setting, 7 is better for night, 9 for bright day. I looked through a Nightforce 1-4x in daylight and could hardly tell which part of the reticle was supposed to have been illuminated. Not so with the Short Dot--you can see that dot anywhere. With the dot off, the reticle itself is good to go during daylight, or at night with my SureFire 910 white light. I'm no LE sniper, and 82ndtrooper is right that precision marksmen are better off with Rem 700s etc. (very few departments have or can afford a $9,000 H&K PSG), and my carbine is a Smith M&P-15 M4gery with the service-grade chrome-lined barrel--not the epitome of tackdrivers. However, in our rural county, SWAT is what you do to flies when you are trying to sleep. Whoever's on duty must handle whatever goes down, with whatever is in the patrol car. So, I occasionally work on head shots at 100m, at low and high magnification, dot on or off, with both duty loads and match loads. Especially with the latter, I'm confident that if Johnny Jihad shows up with a bulky vest, I can interrupt his train of thought while staying out of range of flying nuts and bolts. I took Larry Vickers' basic carbine class in October and my Short Dot helped me fire quickly while actually HITTING STUFF, which Larry seems to feel is important for some reason. He is also the one who pushed S&B to give us the Short Dot in the first place. When we backed up to the 100yd line, he acknowledged that those who had irons, EOTechs, Aimpoints etc. might be at a disadvantage to those who had scopes, but that's life in the big city. I agreed, as I cranked the ring to 4x. One of the other guys took a long look through my Short Dot and exclaimed in wonder, "it's so CLEAR!" That's the best thing you can say about a piece of glass. I can live with the weight because I know it adds to durability and waterproofing. Only two picky things would I change: keep the dot small at all magnifications because on 4x it covers too much space, and extend the auto dot shutoff to 12 or better yet 24 hours so I can turn it on at the beginning of the shift and know it'll be there later. As it is, I have to remember to tell the deputy I'm riding with to "whoa, pop the trunk, I gotta turn my scope back on." Sight alignment and trigger control works with any sight, but you're only as good as your equipment allows you to be, and I'll take all the help I can get.
FearTheCats is offline