Based on your T/E, direct and anecdotal, is the ACRO the most durable red dot to date?
DB
Based on your T/E, direct and anecdotal, is the ACRO the most durable red dot to date?
DB
If this one is for me, yes. Albeit a sample of one.
I'm, at least, three thousand rounds into it - far, far longer than any other PMO I've had has lasted.
For a duty optic, the only knock I've legitimately encountered is the battery life - and that is the one thing I know has kept it from wider-spread adoption. Changed it out on the 1st of every month.
I'd imagine all of that would apply for the HD role as well.
CCW? Haven't carried it that way enough to get a feel for whether it has a printing problem or not.
I can add that I have had an ACRO for over a year and a half. Several other instructors I work with have one also-no functional problems reported. With also around three thousand rounds, the only issue has been the mount, not the sight.
Two separate pistols, two loosened plates, caught before damage and remounted.
The battery life is a known issue; I change mine on the 15th of every month. From experience, it’s what I carry. I believe the whole red dot “life” means a little more complexity and attention to detail.
Thank you both for your information.
DB
By way of perspective, there are a bunch of Carry Optics shooters I know shooting 3,000 rounds or more a month through their dots. I have 50,000 rounds through my small number of SRO optics, and have not had to return a single one to Trijicon. There are thousands of CO shooters putting many rounds thru the SRO each month. An issue with getting great data on the Acro, is since it is not an optic used by many competitors, the Aimpoint dots are just not getting the round counts put on the SRO and other competition optics. I have three Acro dots now, and would be surprised if I have 3,000 rounds thru the three combined.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Aimpoint needs to sponsor a USPSA shooting team to get some real round counts through those ACROs. Maybe Wayne can put a word and get you to become a captain. You'd have to shoot ACRO in matches, but considering the perks like nice T-shirts with AP logo, a good supply of Renata batteries, and maybe an occasional trip to the HQ in Swedlandia, I think that would be a nice gig for you.
Doesn't read posts longer than two paragraphs.
This past week I taught Gunsite’s second pistol mounted optic specific class, adapted from the #350 – Intermediate Defensive Pistol lesson plan. Round counts were 1200-1300 plus 40-50 rounds of frangible. Temps were in the high 90s to mid 100somethings.
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The pistols were:
Glock 19, 9mm, Housel/Unity Atom Mount, Holosun 407, with the SCD/Gadget;
Glock 34, 9mm, MOS, Holosun 507C;
Glock 22, .40SW, Atei milling, Type 2 RMR - issues;
Sig P320 Compact, 9mm, Atei milling, Type 2 RMR;
S&W M&P, 9mm, Agency AOS, Type 2 RMR;
STI 2011 Staccato Duo, SRO, - issues;
Sig P320 Compact, factory, Sig RomeoOne – issues;
Glock 19 comped, 9mm, direct mill, Type 2 RMR;
Glock 45, 9mm, MOS - C&H V4 plate, Type 2 RMR;
Grey Ghost Custom, 9mm, direct mount, Type 2 RMR – issues (replaced with a loaner Glock 19/ Unity slide/Leupold DPP/SCD-Gadget for two days of shooting);
Glock 19, 9mm, MOS, Leupold DPP, with the SCD/Gadget;
Sig P320 Compact, factory, Sig RomeoOne (not the OnePro) – by lunch Monday, the optic had loosened up to the point where the battery contact and power was lost. Until we could get him to the gunsmith, he shot with one of the instructor’s M&Ps.
Once the pistol was fixed, there were no more optic issues.
STI 2011 Staccato Duo, SRO – even with cleaning, de-greasing, thread locking (blue), and torqueing the mounting plate & optics screws, this one had the mounting plate screws come loose. And yet, the screws felt “too tight” to work with using only the correct tools. Out of concern about stripping heads, etc., there was a visit to the gunsmith. Heat was applied and ultimately everything loosened up. The plate and optic were re-assembled, and the shooter finished the week without any more mechanical issues.
I’ve known this shooter for over thirty years. Aside from his L/E experience, he is a competent regional competitor. He has now expressed concerns about the current reliability, state of these systems.
Glock 22, .40SW, Atei, Type 2 RMR – had an odd issue. During a couple drills, blue painters’ tape was placed over the downrange lens in order to ensure shooters had both eyes open. When this was done to that specific RMR, the dot appeared to turn into a lateral red line, rather than a dot. Again, the tape was on the downrange side. Once removed, the dot re-appeared for the shooter. One instructor could see the dot while I saw the line and then, after shifting my head, the dot.
Grey Ghost Custom, 9mm, direct mount, Type 2 RMR – the screws came loose early on which resulted in the battery losing contact and the dot not getting power. The user fixed that. However, one screw then loosened and departed the slide. He sourced a replacement screw from another RMR mounted on a rifle. That screw was too long and bound up the action. A correct length screw was located, and the combination was used to finish out the class.
This shooter was using his own reloads and got a noticeable number of failures to fire/light firing pin strikes as well – of the rounds I checked, most (but not all) fired in my M&P. He also replaced his FP spring.
All of the PMO issues were related to mounting. No pure electronic or mechanical failures.
Instructors used a S&W M&P 4.25”, Atei, Aimpoint Acro; a S&W M&P 5” CORE Pro, Holosun 507C; and a Glock 17, MOS, Holosun. We demonstrated but did not reach anything like high round counts.
We also had a Simunitions Glock 17 with a Riton Optics red dot sight on an after-market dovetail mount; at most 25 NLTA rounds were fired through it.
Thanks for the update! I really believe that mounting solutions are the next big tech advancement for the dot. We now have durability, enclosed emitters, and lots of reticle options. Now we need easy and reliable mounting.
We (my department) don’t have a huge experience with dots but we have over 100 personal certified and many of them have multiple guns/optics. By far the biggest issue is mounting procedures and/or issues with the mounting platform.
All that said, when mounted properly they seem to work great. For Glocks, I have lots of rounds through MOS plates, Tango Down ACRO plates, and now a C&H Precision plate for my G17 with SRO. My carry gun, a G19 with RMR (RM09), had the original MOS plate come loose from the slide. I can’t say I was experienced in mounting at that time but the replacement was a Forward Controls Design OPF-G and so far (not a lot of rounds) it’s held up well.
Taught a Gunsite 499 Advanced Pistol class this past week. 2 of the 9 students had PMOs.
- Glock 34, unk gen, 9mm, with Aimpoint Acro P1 - This is the first time I haven’t been the only Acro user in a class. Any issues that came up & were discussed had to do with a new user adapting to the equipment during a non-PMO centric class rather than the equipment;
- H&K VP-9L, 9mm, with Trij SRO – this student had issues with at least one magazine during the week, including rounds shifting around radically in a partially full magazine when dropped. There were a couple of occasions where the shooter noted the appearance of multiple dots in the SRO window, described as being at least two. This happened in the afternoon, on a west-facing range, with the sun to the south-west, and still fairly high in the sky (The Acro did not share this issue);
Of the instructors, my pistol (not the optic) had the only issue. While demonstrating a failure drill, I inadvertently ejected the magazine. Did an in-battery speed reload, ran the slide, and carried on.