High Exposure

Any user can be a dolt - Be it LEO, mil, or civ. Those photos are a demonstration of a software issue (training and leadership), not a hardware one (equipment). At least the cop with the Eo Tech realized there was a problem and has his BUIS up. Also, a small nit-picky point of order, the NYPD cop with the backwards Aimpoint is not a SWAT Cop but is an NYPD Emergency Services Unit (ESU) cop. Their unofficial motto is "SWAT we're not".

I agree and prefer the T1. However the PRO is just as capable. For most users the extra cost of the T1 over the PRO models, the juice is simply not worth the squeeze. Personally, the weight savings and lower profile of the Aimpoint Micro is worth the extra cost.

Did you say Motor boat? You old sailor you! Sorry, couldn't resist

1) Yes the reticle is personal preference. I personally find the Eo Tech to be cluttered. On the timer, I am consistently faster and more accurate with the Aimpoint than the Eo Tech by a good margin. 2) FOV is a non issue with an unmagnified RDS. With both eyes open (the proper way to use a RDS, and shoot at typical CQB distances) the FOV is the same. Whether you have nothing in front of your eye, an Aimpoint, an EoTech or any other RDS, your view will be unobstructed by the optic itself. If you mean to say that the EoTech has a larger viewing window, then yes, you are correct. But the size of the viewing window doesn't matter. [baron Munchhausen] Your "reality", Sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say I have no grasp of it whatsoever! [/baron Munchhausen] Firstly, and this is nitpicking, but the standard EoTech has a 1MOA dot with a 65 MOA ring around it (yes I know there are multiple reticle patterns, but I am unfamiliar with any that consist of a 4MOA dot) Second I covered the FOV thing above - and by the way, what is your opinion of what is "more suitable" for CQ based on? Done a lot of FISHing have you? Trained for some serious DA or HR missions? I have never felt I'll equipped going on jobs with my Aimpoint. With the Eo Tech... Well, let's just say trying to find batteries and install them in an Eo Turd in the dark, in the back of a van doing 90, on the way to a possible hostage rescue sucks. Having those batteries go down as you enter the basement of the target house sucks even more. Third, most of the Cops I know use Aimpoints (those that don't either were given the Eo Techs or mandated to use them) and I have yet to find a disadvantage to the Aimpoint after 5 years and multiple units. The EoTech, on the other hand, I have found many disadvantages of after 7 years and a few units: The EoTech has an auto shut off (who wants their optic to shutoff without being told too). If you turn it on with the "-" switch it shuts itself off after 4 hours, if you turn it on with the "+" it turns itself off after 8. I work 12 hour shifts and while that rifle is in the rack of my radio car the optic needs to stay on. I don't want to have remembe to turn it back on after 8 or 4 and I surely dont want to take any time to turn it on before engaging an immediate threat. That is one more step before I can fight back, and that is unacceptable. I never turn my Aimpoints off. Ever! The EoTech has abysmal battery life compared to the Aimpoint (~200 hours vs 50,000 hours on the T1). If you use your optics a lot, and I do, the saving in the costs of batteries alone over a few years equals a new optic. The T1 I have had the longest has cost me $10 in batteries over the 5 years I have had it. I swap the batteries for fresh ones every January, but I could probably gotten away with a longer interval since the optic was still up and running when I swapped the batteries. I can put fresh batteries in my EoTech never turn it on and in 3 weeks, the batteries are dead - this tells me that I have to either store the batteries outside the optic, taking even more time to install them and then turn the optic on if I need my rifle, or I need to swap the batteries out every 1.5-2 weeks. Neither is acceptable for a fighting rifle in my opinion. The EoTech has shoddy engineering of the battery compartment. I have seen many old style units (models with the battery compartment parallel to the barrel/recoil impulse) fail when the springs in the battery compartment and their rubber bushings failed. I have also seen many new style (models with the batty compartment perpendicular to the barrel/recoil impulse) fail when the battery ruptures because CR123 batteries were not designed to handle the repeated force of recoil in along that axis. You should not need a supply train of parts to keep an optic going. Some special military units use them. Great. Got it. They have the resources and supplies to keep them running with dedicated armorers and multiple units assigned to them. I do not and neither does my job. My experience with EoTech has shown me that L3 has terrible QC/QA and I can not afford to give up my optic for 3 weeks for repairs every time it $hits the bed. Finally, and these are personal opinion, I do not like the busy reticle, the EoTech units are bigger and heavier than the T1, they sit lower on the rail and they take up more real estate, and their controls can be counter-intuitive. No worries bro. And like I said, good luck with whatever optic you go with.

The pressure cooker as an IED component is not new. It has been used in all the 3rd world s#!tholes around the globe for quite some time and is a staple in the Jihadist Terror 101 priod of instruction. As reported earlier, the attempted bombing at Times Square in 2010 had a Pressure Cooker IED involved. This has all happened before and it will all happen again.

Asked and answered so much, that NJ NICS issues now has its own sub-forum here. All your answers lie within: http://njgunforums.com/forum/index.php/forum/159-nics-issues/

Why do you think you can't smile in your DL or Passport photos anymore?

These types of pressure cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan and one of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker. As far as cordite, I don't think it has been used in gunpowder since WWI but am not 100% on that. People always speak of "smelling Cordite" after a shooting. In my experience, it is just what people call the smell of burnt gunpowder even though it is not an accurate description of the ingredients in modern gunpowder.

The "tube" on an Aimpoint does not act like the tube on a typical magnified optic. If used properly - both eyes open, focus on the threat, superimpose the dot over the target - you do not see a "tube". You see a blurry black 1 dimensional circlen in your peripheral vision. Even after thousands of rounds through multiple rifles, subguns, and shotguns topped with RDSs (Aimpoint PRO, TI and M4s, EOTechs, Trij RMR and MS03, Insight MRDS, and a C-More) I couldn't tell you what my optics looked like while aiming, other than to tell you I saw a red dot. If you are paying attention to the body of your optic instead of concentrating on putting the dot on the target and manipulating the trigger straight to the rear you are doing it wrong.

No, you wouldn't... Just FYI: http://mobile.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/04/15/bomb-experts-offer-analysis-based-on-details-from-boston-marathon-explosions

Cool design, except for that thing about putting empty mags back in your magazine pouches... Why would I want to put an empty mag back in a pouch where you train to draw fresh mags from in order to save a half second? That's just asking to draw an empty mag when when I really wanted a full one. Here is a better TTP - transition to your blaster to save your life, or just let the empty mag fall out of the magwell as you speed reload. Retaining empty mags should not be high on the priority list while you have some jerk trying to kill you. If you have time/distance/cover/support then you can take the .5 seconds and go to your dump pouch with an empty. Otherwise dump that mag in the floor and pick it up after you are a winner. If you are tac-loading or reloading with retention (swapping a partially full mag for a full mag) and time is of the essence because you are in a gunfight, you are wrong. You should be pressing that trigger and emptying that mag to solve the immediate problem, not topping off. I see no use for this product as advertised other than to build training scars as you keep the range nazis happy with a clean deck with no mags. I would be very curious to see the rusumé of the Marine that developed this. I know a Marine that will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair because of the stupidity taught in the Marine Corps about placing empty mags back in pouches.

Nuke it from orbit

According to the video the first explosion occurred at 4 hours and 9 minutes into the race. According to this website: http://www.runtri.com/2012/01/boston-marathon-average-finish-times-by.html The 2012 Boston Marathon had an average finish time of 3 hours 50 minutes for men and 4 hours and 18 minutes for women. My guess on the timing is simply that statistically there should be the most runners at or near the finishing line between 3:50 and 4:18.

I am not a bomb tech but I have played with a lot of explosives while learning to build explosive breaching charges with some high speed guys. A few observations: Most victims seem to have suffered lower extremity injuries and amputations leading me to believe the explosives were ground placed static IEDs and not a PBIED. Going on the assumption that they were ground based, I see no craters in any of the photos of the aftermath which you should see if it was a high explosive like Semtex. This indicates to me that it was a low explosive/heaving charge. (However, they could have been HBIED stashed in the storefronts so the craters would not be seen) There was a boom, not a crack, when the IEDs went off so the primary pressure wave was subsonic also indicating deflagration of a low explosive vice the supersonic detonation you would expect from a high explosive. I am guessing something much less "sexy" then Semtex - a high explosive requiring a blasting cap or other form of primary explosive to detonate. My guess is it is most likely smokeless powder or something home brewed like TNT+PETN.

The standard US Army RDS is the M68 CCO - known commercially as an Aimpoint M4. Yes. And almost everyone in this thread seems to be telling you that. The EOTech and Aimpoint optics are identical in their operation as a RDS. There is no "comfort" involved. Open eyes, put dot where you want bullet to go, press trigger. They are optics built for rifles, not new dress shoes. If your mind was already made up, why ask for opinions? Sometimes you don't get the answer you are wishing for. Good luck with the optic. I hope whatever you choose suits your needs.

Not my lawsuit. Don't live in CO. I am neither a victim or a lawyer. Just reporting what I heard from friends in CO. However, in my mind there is "assumption of risk" and there is "specifically targeted" due to company policy. Does personal responsibility and adult decision making factor in? Absolutely. Do the victims have a case? Maybe Should be interesting.

So you are choosing inferior equipment based off of a training issue that can be rectified in 10 minutes with a toilet paper tube?

Please 'splain... Style?

I believe the lawsuits being threatened are not over being hurt, but over the fact that people were targeted/victimized specifically because of a "Company policy" that was counter to CO State Law. They are suing the Movie Theater, not the Govt.

Yes

This line of thinking made some waves after the shootings in the movie theater in Aurora CO I seem to remember that there was speciation he picked that movie theater out of all the others in the area specifically due to their "No Guns/Gun Free Zone" Policy as that allowed him unrestricted access to victims that could not fight back. If that turns out to be the case, I would expect to see lawsuits after the criminal trial is completed.

I have never shot steel cased ammo in my guns. I shoot what I consider to be quality ammo and I have never had an ammo related malfunction. But, I am a training junkie and I take a lot of carbine courses ( I shoot around ~ 8k rounds a year in training, teaching, and quals) from a lot of different trainers. I see a lot of shooters with a lot of different ammo take these courses - Civilian, Military, and LEO. I have never seen a rifle used in a high round count course ( > 1000 rounds over 3 days) not have repeated malfunctions when the shooter is running steel cased ammo. In all of the classes I have taken, regardless of the POI or the instructor, there is one common occurrence that I can guarantee. If there are any shooters running steel cases ammo there will be extra downtime and extensive instruction on malfunction reduction - Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type Ate, bolt over base - you name it, they will experience it as I will get to learn at their expense. I am not saying that brass cased ammo can not give you problems. Far from it. I have seen plenty of popped primers, stuck cases, bullet setback, inverted primers,etc... from all the different brass ammo lots that start with an "X" ( which nub the way means the someone elae already rejected that lot of ammo for QA/QC reasons). I have even seen a whole case (500 rounds) of Speer .223 with no flash holes in the brass for the primer to ignite the powder! What I am saying is that the occurrence of ammo related issues is disproportionately higher with those shooters using steel cased .223/5.56.

Yeah he is. I had two stages where I logged a miss on a scoring run - Jersey Blaster and Smoke and Hope. I was just pushing way to fast and out-driving my headlights big time. But if you never push yourself to failure, you don't get any better. The CT guys were interesting. They seem to be "comp shooters only" with no real interest in self defense. It is merely a sport to them. I had a hard time trying to relate to their take on the whole thing. I feel stupid but I never even thought of "training" the stages. I figured everyone was like the guys in my crew - just shoot the match. My end goal of shooting in these comps is training/practice to engage multiple targets under simulated stress (timers and abusive friends are helpful for inducing stress) using the tools (holster, gun, ammo) that I depend on daily. My brain is telling me that gaming it will defeat this purpose. My heart wants to win.

Sweet, Thanks Alec. It was good seeing you at the comp. Thanks for letting me try your TR8. It is now high my list to pick one up. I am happy with 4th in Pistol Iron - shooting full power ammo in a stock Glock 35 from a triple retention holster I am not happy with last in carbine open though.... Also, here is the video the guys from CT were taking at the match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O03pnv7lxk&feature=youtube_gdata_player After talking with thise guys for a bit (the guys in the green jersey's) they actually set up and train for these stages. Does anybody else set these up and practice them or do you just shoot them in the comps themselves?

Sinners and Saints Heat Collateral Way of the Gun Proof of Life (hostage rescue scene) Tears of the Sun (clearing the village) Ronin Spartan (terrible movie, excellent gun handling) Thief (with James Caan) Open Range