The infamous AR15.com article:
Some of you may be familiar with my Tacpoint torture test. Well Grant of G&R Tactical asked me if
I'd be interested in doing the same thing with the SPOT as well. So I said sure. This is a work in
progress and will get updated as I run into issues or do crazy stuff to the optic, like drop it off of low
buildings or throw it around while it's on a gun. Things most folks wouldn't end up ever doing to their
optic.
I got the SPOT Mk III on Thursday 10/13/05 and mounted it up in the included cantilever mount and
put it on my 16in Hbar upper. I played around with it just a little bit on the gun but not a lot. With the
dot power set to 1 of a possible 11 the dot was bright enough for use indoors in a medium level light
but way to bright if yer using an NVD. I hope to verify that at the end of the month and also see if
there is any muzzel side signature.
I noticed a somewhat blue tint looking through the SPOT but thats it as far as anything a little "off" in
my book. But it may not actually be to "off" IIRC the tacpoint had the same slight bluish tint and it's
been a while since I looked through an Aimpoint. Outside you don't even notice tint, so no big deal.
The scope itself looks really nice and the included lens covers are IMO better then those on the
Tacpoint and I've not had issue with them so far. But they mostly stay in the open position. The only
thing that really concerns me is the mount and how secure it will end up being. But if need be I have
an Aimpoint QRP mount i can put it into later should the provided one fail at all.
photo by: photoman
As you can see there isn't a whole lot holding this optic to the left side of the gun.
On Saturday 10/15/05 the SPOT got a new temporary home on top of an 11.5in upper. It' will stay on
there for the next couple weeks. I plan to lug this set up around for two days at the end of the
month at a Wisconsin crew get together. I've only put about 200 rounds(5.56) down range with the
optic on the gun so it's still pretty early but so far I like it.
Just cuz it's a new pic. And it wouldn't be right to talk about the gun it's on without showing it and
the whole gun. This is after all ar15.com.
photo by: photoman
10/22 Update- I'll get the pics up when MisterPX emails them to me.
Took the SBR to a NFA shoot today and shot it a bit with some .223 not a lot. Spent most of my time
shooting it with a .22lr kit and the can. I took the SPOT off the SBR and we put it on a crank
fired
1919 in 8mm for 200 rounds.
photo by: MisterPX
Here it is on the 8mm 1919.
photo by: MisterPX
The SPOT taking a ride.
Managed to work the screws in the mount loose. I lost one but oh well. I didn't notice it right away
when I took it off the 1919, but I did when I put it back on the SBR. After I put it back on the SBR I
figured what the hell I'll shoot a mag. Well it still was zeroed even with only 5 screws remaining in
the mount, and three of them, all on the same side, were loose. It held min. of tannerite bottle at 35
yards or so . And after that one round I dumpped the rest of the mag and everything was still
good, so I tightened down the screws.
photo by:photoman
Note the missing screw in the bottom row, left side.
Once again the importance of loctite is shown . Since I had it a little canted anyway, this is a good
thing as I'll fix the cant and properly loctite in the screws like I should have done in the first place. So
now to find one new screw for it.
It was also raining while I was out there, go figure it's freaking beautiful weather out till I leave work
and go to have fun, oh well. I will check out the SPOT in a couple hours and see how it's holding up
to being rained on for a good 5 hours or so. I haven't noticed any leaks into the scope body as of yet
so we'll give it some time and see what happens.
photo by:MisterPX
Here it is on the bench getting all nice and wet. This is before the ride on the 1919.
Ok so according to the little clock in the corner of my monitor at 9:14P.M. I pulled the gun out of a
cold damp (inside, nice and wet outside) soft case. Until then it had been in my trunk(it's rainy and
42 degrees here right now)and checked out the SPOT. It still works, I left it on when I put it away,
and it was on when I pulled it out of the case. I put it away while it was raining and didn't bother to
wipe it off or really drain water off of it. There is no water that I can see in the body of the optic.
Thats a good thing since there was still some water sitting on the lenses. I could still see the dot fine.
With water all over it and it being a little hazy, I wouldn't say fogged up, I could see the dot fine and
I could see through it just fine. Of course shooting with both eyes open helps with that. I could also
see the glow of the tritium front sight when I turned the dot off so it stayed pretty clear. It was better
then what the Tacpoint was in similar conditions. It's on par with an Aimpoint in similar
conditions(just got to find that out 11-5-05). I can't really say how it would compare to an EoTech
either as I've only shot with one in the rain, I haven't looked at one after bringing it into a warm
house in a cold wet case from the trunk of the car.
I didn't really like shooting in the rain with the SPOT. The SPOT seems to be no less for the exposure
and always worked fine while it was out and being used. I didn't really like the Tacpoint or, Aimpoint
in the rain either. In my experiance there always seems to come a point where there is to much
liquid/water film, whatever on the glass and the dot starts dancintg all over and getting distored.The
taget and everything else yer looking at gets distored as well. At one point i was looking at a big blob
of black through the optic, and nice defined silhouette target with the other. And eventually that
annoys the shat out of me.So I have to clear/clear that up and wipe some of that crap away. I find it a
lot easier and quicker to do with an Eotech then one of the tube style dot sights. It's one of those
personal prefrance things. . Damn that took almost a freaking hour to right!! Damn ESPN
I also got a chance to take a good look at it side by side with a Burris XTS and I'll tell ya what, if you
take off the burris markings, there is absolutly no visual differance in the two optics. Not looking
through them not with the dot, nothing is different that I can see.
Here is the XTS
photo by: MisterPX
I'll have to get a good top view of the SPOT. I don't have one up on my host site yet.
11/2/05: The Beating Beings Today.
Well since the ride on the 8mm 1919 I've had 2 small issues with the SPOT. Not nessesarily due to it
mind you, but it was the first small "test" for it.
On Oct 29th I had the spot out at BullecatchR's place for a Wisconsin Crew Alumni Shoot. These
shoots are very much a class atmosphere. The idea being that the participants are the "instructors".
We share different drills and skills learned at various classes and we watch each other and provide
feedback.
As stated above I had two issues. First the spring that holds the front cap open came out of place
and allowed the cap to flop around. We ended up having to take the front cap off completly to re
position the spring. It will probably end up happening again. The spring popped out sometime
between the time I left for BC's place and when we got in.
It's also been a b**** to get it sighted in with wolf. And this has been an issue since the NFA shoot.
When I ran it after it was on the 1919 it ran fine and was still zeroed, I have since changed ammo
from 55gr SP to wolf, this issue came up with the ammo switch. So I'm not going to say that it's the
SPOT right now as I also had problems trying to get the irons resighted so it could just be an ammo
issue. I was still able to hit steel out to 200 yards with the SPOT on the SBR using wolf. So zeroing
issues aside, I was still able to put rounds on target. I think it was more an ammo issue then a optic
issue. I'll know more later today if it's the optic or the ammo. I have some BH 55gr SP I'll sight it in
with real quick and some other 55gr SP that has been very consistant and accurate out of my ARs in
the past, including the SBR and the torture test upper(TTU).
Today also marks the day that I really start to beat this thing. If MisterPX can meet me out at the
club today to help me out it will be getting beat around.
We'll start the beating by zeroing it on the TTU a "post-ban" configured flattop M4gery upper. We'll
pull it off and do what I like to call the incomplete pass test. Basicly we throw it around a bit. First on
some grass covered ground, then check zero. Then we'll throw it around on the gravel and check
zero.
If we have enough time it will be drop tested on the rifle, first from a short distance on grass covered
ground, probably table height, then checked for zero. If it survives that, well do it again only from
standing on a table to get at least 6-8 feet of height, again onto grass. After a zero check we will do
the same thing only on gravel this time. For the high drop test on gravel we will drop it from the roof
of the blockhouse onto the gravel below. All of this is going to be time dependent. We may not get to
some of it today, but I'd like to.
Today could very well be the last day of life for this optic. We shall see. I hope it isn't because I like
the SPOT and would like to use it later for a Hog hunt and maybe even the late Zone T deer hunt if I
can get out for it.
Thats it for now.
11-2-05 The late update The beating has begun.
I'd like to start by saying thanks to the Milwaukee PD guys who were out at the range for letting me
use the range durring their hour down time as it was reserved for their use today and they really
didn't have to. Thanks again guys if any of you read this.
Well we got a good start on beating the SPOT today. Due to time restrictions we weren't able to get
to everything. But we did manage to do some good beating. We skipped the throw it around itself
test and left it mounted to the TTU and just threw the whole gun, my TTU and one of MisterPX's
lowers.
You can see PX in the bottom right of the pic.
I just like this one so I included it. Had some good height on it too.
After every couple tosses we checked zero, and it was fine consiedering how rough of a zero we were
working with due to the time constraint. I think I have my first bad batch of Wolf, because it was just
as piss poor out of the M4gery as it was out of the 16hbar. A couple rounds started to keyhole as
they got to the target. No big deal though. I'll get it out for some real accurecy work this weekend,
between helping the deer hunters sight in. Then I'll give it a going over to see how well it's holding
the zero.
PX gets in a little distance throwing.
A little spinning action.
Durring the testing we managed to break PX's buffer tube, and shatter the MagPul MIAD grip he has.
So I owe him a new buffer tube and grip
Here it is a couple throws before the MIAD broke.
The whole testing gun, with all the broken parts.
Through all that the SPOT held and kept running like a champ. Here is what it looks like now.
A little dirty on the battery knob, and there is some nice gouges in it.
Not to bad on this side.
All of the ground it was landing on you can see in the pics. One area is pretty grassy, but it's hard
ground with a lot of gravel under neith it. The other area is just grass preetty much growing through
gravel. It's not by any means a :soft" landing area.
Oh and i'll add this too seeing as I'm playing around with my new Aimpoint(thanks Ziti and npd233)
the SPOT has a much nicer dot then the Aimpoint, the SPOT dot is less * looking then the Aimpoint
dot, at least right now it is. Maybe the Aimpoint dot will clear up a bit with use i'm not sure. Hmm
took the killflash off the Aimpoint and the dot looks better then with the killflash on.
12-13-05 At 1609 on 12-12-05 I burried the spot about a foot deep in the snow. It's been sitting
there buried all night. I'll be pulling it out of the snowbank today right before I leave to go to the
range. After I get back it's going back in the snow for some more exposure, but it won't be burried it
will be exposed all night to the wonderful subzero Wisconsin winter temps. I'll have pics of it up
tomarrow at the earliest. I'm also switching out the mount to an Aimpoint QRP mount so I can use it
a little easier on multiple rifles. With any luck I'll get it out for some bunny/squirrel hunting this
weekend.
12-15-05 please excuse the pics, they had to be taken with a camera phone, I left my memory card
at work yesterday
Well I pulled it out the 13th and it was still functioning. So I opened the caps and just left it exposed
to the elements for another night.
This post has been edited by bubbagump64: April 12th 2009 4:58 AM
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
May 21st 2008 11:10 PM
Zeusmotorworks
