Thanks for that.Just got my TA01NSN back from a refurb.
They replaced a scratched lens, a worn out erector and the tritiums for the iron sight on top and the internal illumination all a few hundred bucks. Now its ready for another 12-15y.
Don't forget they work without the tritium...
$1000 up front then a few hundred every decade to have a rock-solid, cave-man proof optic is a win in my book.
I like the cross hair models over the chevron, and use my 5.56 version on my 14.5" (shooting 77g match ammo) for both work and my run-and-gun matches where it rattles around in a patrol car or gets used in dust, rain, goes swimming etc and gets rounds on targets from up close to 600+ yds.
My critics:
The irons on a TA01NSN are honestly a joke, by the time I am close enough to maybe want to use them instead of looking through the scope, I am close enough to just point the gun... I'd consider a RMR on top but then its getting really tall and going to get bashed around a lot and still never get used.
Wind holds for precision shots at longer ranges are more difficult to repeat without a Christmas tree of dots, but as a combat (i.e. not a sniper optic) its not really a problem and with practice its still a very workable optic out to an AR's maximum effect range.
Conclusion:
ACOGs are great optics and I highly recommend it as a combat optic, but like all things there are some trade offs (4x limits LR ID, but more x is heavy and limits SR). Know your tool's abilities and limits as well as your own and make them work together and you'll be effective with almost anything you choose.
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Eventually I'm looking for enough to equip a section, and I'm very interested to see how the Sig MCX Spear works out given the more powerful round - the 5.56 always felt weak, especially at range, a lot of my friends complained about it when they were deployed in Afghanistan. For the time being I'm sticking with an AR-15.
The reason I'm saying this is while I've always liked the ACOG I'm wondering if there's any passive optics that are better as a general combat sight? I know that's quite a subjective question but before dropping money on a TA11 or TA31 I thought I'd ask.
My experience is mainly with irons, SUSAT, typical longer range rifle optics on bolt actions.