Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles are ACOG's passé ?

I see they have a new LED lighting system series, I believe they are rugged however I am not sure they are very bright nor work well with weapon lights. Anyone buy these things anymore or are they passé. They seem pretty dim to me when examined in a store.

I have a 3.5-35mm I think. It has a horseshoe reticle, and since it is 3.5, longer eye relief. I have the tritium and fiber optic version, and the brightness is excellent. In my opinion, I would rather have a conventional scope. I think it was 1300 bucks, and I really don't think it is worth that optically. I imagine it could ride in a truck forever without losing POI, and possibly run over by the truck with out damage, but I don't handle mine in extreme environments. Right now it is back in the factory box on a shelf in my gun room. I don't think it is poor in anyway, but just lackluster.

with the amount of quality low power variables on the market, they just don't make as much sense

The prism style optic is reputed to be very durable, and I would guess that is why the ACOG made the cut for the military.

I've never had or used an ACOG, but I have a 5X prism sight from Primary Arms. It is clear and seems durable with few moving parts.



The variable power scopes are clearly more versatile.

Never used an ACOG- too rich for my blood. I am a big fan of the Aimpoints on the M4. Much cheaper and work really well. I do have a Trijicon Accupoint 1.25x4 on a lightweight 375 H&H and really like it.

People... well most everyone- confuse ruggedness of the housing, with ruggedness of the erector/prism. They’re actually not all the durable when it comes to holding zero, adjusting, etc. The military has quite a bit of failures with multiple versions of ACOGs.

Even without that- a fixed 4x scope with terrible eye relief and eyebox, mediocre BDC reticle, and horrible close range performance is not the recipe for success. They were a good option in 1998. In 2018 with $800 1-6x’s, not to mention $1,300 1-8x LPVs that destroy them in every single category.... not so much.

I like the ACOG and wish I still had mine. They work well for a all-around AR optic, not to mention being near bomb proof.

I'm with Formy.

After years and years of ACOGs, I remain under whelmed.

I have four ACOGs at present. One of them was just sent back and repaired within two weeks time without charge. Thank you Trijicon! It was a 1.5X -16mm with circle dot on top of a post reticle that I had acquired used. Of all the ACOGs I prefer this model and have three of them.. It is an alternative to my Aimpoints because I have an astigmatism which is worse some days than others and worse at certain times of the day than others.

The first sign that something was wrong with this particular ACOG was the fact that i noticed two dots where the center dot was normally crisp and defined before. Checking my other ACOGs, they did not exhibit the same two dots. Somewhat later and after the gun it was mounted on had been to the range, the circle dot ceased to be illuminated from about eleven O'clock to three o'clock. Off to Trijicon. This was the only time I have personally seen an issue with any ACOG. I suspect the prism was involved.

My other ACOG is a 4X model. Short, fairly light and certainly compact, but mainly purchased to fill a niche. Would I buy another ACOG? Well right now I am all ACOGed out. If I was starting out with my only AR? Maybe considering the two previously mentioned reasons but probably not otherwise. There are too many good LPVs now that steal their thunder regarding most uses by most people. My opinion. YMMV.

A LOT of students I have helped train in the last 10 years or so have had ACOGs
Probably about half. To be 100% honest, I am not that impressed with them for what they cost..

Not that they are bad, but when we run rifles courses and some students have ACOGs and others have fixed 3X and 4X scopes, the ones with the scopes always average better scores and shorter times. Not just a little either. About 20% is the average.

I have nothing bad to say about them, but not too much praise either. I would not kick at them at all, but for the price.

Buying $165 scopes and running them against ACOGs that many times cost more then the rifles they are mounted on, and then seeing an ongoing and repeatable trend of having the scopes do better.........
Well-- you can see why I am not recommending them.

I think of them as good $135 sights that cost $1,200 to $1,400.

Many may disagree and that's OK.
It's the owners hard earned money and they can do with it as they see fit.

As for me if I had the difference in price between the scope and the ACOG I will buy about $1,100 worth of powder, primers and bullets.

Using them up is FAR more likely to help your accuracy and speed then an ACOG.

So for the low end variables, can anyone rate them in quality for retaining zero and abuse etc.... Wife and I are building dedicated vehicle guns... and want some type of optics on them, low end, for what the use will be. I don't care for Leupold but I"m not that dumb that I won't take advise for this situation. This isnt' a hunting gun... so I can deal with my issues.

Don't really want to drop Schmidt and Bender coin at all, would like Nikon type instead, but again, can anyone rate reliability? So far a nikon is living fine on a 458 win mag here. Which impresses me so far.

I've seen both Nikon scopes my son in law tried crap out,. One was on a 30-06 that lasted maybe 20 rounds before it lost zero, never to be found again. I stuck a 4x Leupold on it and got him by that year. He received the replacement and stuck it on a muzzle loader. It never would zero, same 4x Leupold sighted right in...

I have a VX3 1.5-5 that has been on a few guns without issue. 2 VX6 1-6's on AR's and a 1-4 Trijicon Accupower on another. The Accupower is gaining on first place. That's all I've used in the past 2-3 years. Well I've had several 1.5-5's and never had an issue with them.

Thanks for that info! We'll see on the nikon, I"ve heard from some magnum guys they have been working really good... time will tell. The 458 will be shot a lot before I have time to smack a bear with it I'm pretty sure anyway. May change by then too RE scope.. but I like the german reticle and its works really well so far on multiple hogs.....

I''ll have to print the replies and keep it handy. I"ve not seen much bad from trijicon over the years really, but have not seen them all the often either.

I've been real impressed with the Accupower 1-4 so far. It's not perfect by any means but the segmented circle is bold enough on 1x to put center mass in a hurry, the .75 MOA center dot is fine enough to group shots farther out. Glass is crystal clear with no distortion I can see on 1x. The illumination is lacking for middle of the day Aimpoint brightness but you can tell it's on but that segmented circle is so bold I rarely turn it on anyway. There were some good deals on them at Sportoptics.com but they jacked with their pricing so shop around.

I had an ACOG, the 3x TA33G-H and I used it hard for a few years but like others have said, a LPV is a better option for less money.

I still need to purchase one more RMR, then off to the scopes a bit at a time... Good to know that the accupower wouldn't be a bad choice if we go that route!

I am now kind of leaning to the 1-4 accupower. The more I investigate the more I lean towards another 1-4.

Jeff,

I have quite a bit of experience with the ACOG TA01s. At the height of the warfighting AMU did not the bandwidth to support all Squad Designated Marksman training, so they partnered with CMP for the additional manpower. CMP solicited volunteers to submit shooting resume to the AMU/CMP SDM Program. I was lucky enough to make the list. I had few trips to Ft. Benning augmenting AMU. The SDM rifles were built by Armalite, had match grade barrels, Knights freefloat tubes, and topped off with TA01s.

Those TA01s were tough, with all handling, and the thousands of MK262 rpunds fired through those rifles I only saw one TA01 go. This kid was doing well at 600 one day, the following day he shot all over. I took the rifle and shot it, no shots were on call, handed it Brandon, he too could not get any shots on call. Across a week of training each student fired at least 2000 rounds and this program went in for a couple of years. You can imagine how many rounds those optics saw.

When the program was shot down, they drew 14 names from the volunteers and offered the purchase of the SDM rifles, I was one of the lucky ones drawn. I bought a rifle, I eventually sold it Louis. Ir you want to test drive the scope, I am sure Louis would not have any problem with it.

Nez

Damn good info. And you know I trust you buddy! Carolyn passes along a BIG hug! When you have time for the 300 mag issue, let me know, if Lord is with me I may be moving to AK in a year or less, much sooner than I thought.

I'll shout at Louis if I get that far. I'd rather drop less coin on optics than more, but for vehicle permanent firearms, I'd like em to be tough enough, even though they will be soft case, if not hard cased.

I sure wished I'd had the time for that SDM program, no doubt they'd have accepted me LOL. But thats life!

Tell Bona hello and pass along our love and a hug!

Jeff

The Trijicon 1-4x Accupower is a decent scope, but for the price of them you can get the SWFA SS 1-6x HD which is a FAR better scope.

They are $300 higher and 5 oz heavier, far better?