Colt M4s and S&B Short Dots

I recently upgraded the optics on my duty LE6920's.

Over the years I have been in search of the "perfect" optic.

In a SWAT setting 75% of the missions are CQB and the other 25% can range from permiter work, to overwatch on a VIP detail, to searching large warehouses or schools, etc.

SWAT missions can often be dynamic in nature. One minute you can find yourself on a permiter trying to see if the barricaded gunman standing in the window has a gun or a cell phone in his hand, and the next minute you're being picked up as part of the entry team. On other missions you may find yourself sitting across a large parking lot covering a buy / bust operation, the bad guy goes mobile and now your part of a vehicle take down.

In short there are times where an electronic red dot rules the day and other times where a magnified optic is more desirable.

I have tried magnifiers, a few variable powered optics, etc, etc, etc. I had issues with everything that I tried.

A couple requirements that I have in any optic that I use for duty:

-Lit reticle that can be seen in bright day light (this knocked out some optics like the MR/T M2 1.5-5)

-Very little distortion on the lowest power (this knocked out most optics that had the lowest setting at 1.25x and higher)

-Have close to the same speed with the optic as I did an Aimpoint.

I have tried most of what is on the market and after doing much research (thanks to the Lightfighter members who took the time to answer my many questions) I settled on the S&B Short Dot and after training with it for the last month I'm very satisfied with it:

Not perfect, but damn close

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Jeff,

First off, excellent choice! Those boys at LF are top notch and it looks like they did right by you here for certain!

Second, did you give any thought to the AimPoint + the 3x magnifier option? If so what were your thoughts and so forth for not going with that configuration. It was just the first solution that came to mind for me when you described your need.

Thanks

Are you using the CQB Short Dot reticle or the No. 7 reticle?

Mike

I did explore the Aimpoint magnifier. I didn't care for the field of view (reminded me of looking through a straw) and it just didn't "do it" for me.

In theory the magnifier would be an excellent choice, in reality it's not. Sometimes events can be so dynamic and situations can happen so quickly that you don't have time to fish around in a pouch for a magnifier, locate it, and then put it on the gun. Or if I had the magnifier in a pouch on my SWAT vest and rolled on a bank robbery in progress, active shooter incident, etc and had to deploy the carbine and didn't have a chance to don my SWAT gear then I'm without the magnifier.

I needed something that stayed on the gun and was easy to use. This is the reason you see so many military and law enforcement guys going over to variable powered optics.

Mike,


Short Dot reticle (Gen 1)

Did you go with the SPR-E because of long eye-relief, or just to accommodate the BUIS?

The website says all are built on 34mm tube, but the specs for the Short Dot say 30mm. Which is it?

Mike

I went with the EER because that is what was recommended to me by a couple guys that were using the Short Dot. It works well for me.

In my search for information I found guys that were running their Short Dots in both standar SPR mounts (1.5) and the higher 1.93 and others that prefer it in the EER.

The Short Dot has very generous eye relief. I could have gotten the standard SPR mount and been fine.

I have had variable powered scopes that were much more sensitive to head position (height) and eye relief. But I have not experienced those problems with the Short Dot.

I run the stock 1 click out when not wearing body armor and all the way closed when I'm wearing body armor. And the sight picture is perfect for me with the stock in either position, I can even take the stock out one more click and have no problem with the sight picture.

Zak's checked out my Short Dot a few weeks ago and his first comment was how eye relief effected sight picture very little in the Short Dot.

Any of the Larue SPR mount will clear the Troy BUIS.


Hope this helps

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