By Cameron Hopkins
It was big and rectangular, appeared fairly heavy and resembled a black brick. What the hell is that thing on his gun? I squinted to better see the revolver Brian Enos was shooting during The Barricade Event at the 1984 Bianchi Cup. His S&W .38 Special sported one of the first Aimpoint sights, and Enos won the match. There must be something to this brickish black thing.
Indeed there was, a glowing red dot obviates the need to align iron sights: Simply put the dot where you want the bullet to strike and press the trigger. In the same match, Mr. Enos went on to shoot 505 steel plates in a row on The Falling Plate Event, finally throwing one into the berm on purpose because he was running out of ammunition.
“That’s cheating,” sore losers groused. “He didn’t have to aim.”
Well, yes he did, it just was much easier with an Aimpoint even back then. And the Swedish sight company has improved the technology significantly, miniaturizing their signature sight, extending battery run-time and simplifying the mounting method. I’d have to weigh my old black brick, but I’d guess it’s heavier than 20 or so of Aimpoint’s newest ACRO model.
The Aimpoint evolution was gradual and included some unusual designs, my favorite being the one with a battery compartment off to the side. It looks like a warp drive engine on the Starship Enterprise.
The one thing that really propelled Aimpoint forward, at least in the early days, was competition shooting. After first proving its accuracy and reliability at the Bianchi Cup, an Aimpoint then had the audacity to show up at the Steel Challenge, a pure speed match … and win! Next came IPSC shooting where a red-dot was such an instant success, it caused all sorts of grief with rule-makers trying to keep a level playing field with iron sights. (They ended up creating a new “Open Division” for guns with red dots.)
From handguns, the Aimpoint moved to rifles, which was more of a stretch because it’s a non-magnified optic, not so popular with hunters. Ah, but we don’t shoot driven boar in America as they do in Europe. Shots are close and fast at running targets … just where a red dot excels.
Since the early days, I’ve killed a Cape buffalo with an Aimpoint on a .458 Win. Mag. and I’ve cleaned The Falling Plates with one on a S&W Model 25 revolver. A Micro T2 adorns my AR “house rifle” as one does my favorite Ruger Mk. III plinker. I hit a bottle cap at 50 yards on a dare, first shot, with that Ruger. I couldn’t have done it without an Aimpoint … nor could’ve Mr. Enos.
