ALL UPDATES WILL BE POSTED IN THIS FIRST POST.

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 thier 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 shit 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 bitch 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.


Here is the SPOT lastnight after sitting for a second night.


Still working, the glass has a bit of condensation but not fogged up but you can still see the dot fine at times it got distorted do to the condensation on the lenses.

When I checked on it last night and it fired right up no problems I decided to see how it would do with the caps open and burried.  I want to see if it will leak at all. I also decided that the SPOT looked a little lonely out there by itself so  I took the Aimpoint out to keep it company. Both optics had the caps opened up and were thrown into the snow. They have been sitting there since about 2200 last night.  

So later tonight I'll take it out and we'll see how it's doing after 72 hours exposed to the Wisconsin winter.

Earlier I talked about how I don't like certain aspects of tube based dot sights. Here is a rough pic to somewhat show what I was talking about with the dots getting all distored.


Ok you can kinda see how it's a bit distorted, well this one isn't as bad as it was at times while I was out taking pics. Sometimes all I see is a big blob of red all distorted out and you really have no aiming point.


Of course thats all thanks to condensation on the lenses. Of course it's not unavoidable, but I always find getting rid of that condensation easier with the EoTech. Another thing, when I went to take pics lastnight there was snow packed into the back end of the SPOT, clearing that shit out was a PITA and I'll tell ya had someone been shooting at me, I'd have taken the optic off and went to a BUIS, of course taking the SPOT off quickly with the provided mount is a bit of a bitch because it's not a DQ mount. It's going into the QRP mount tonight to fix that. It was suposed to go into it the other day but I decided more time outside in the cold was wanted so I didn't put it in the mount yet.

01/09/06

Took the spot out last night to do some low light shooting with it and the aimpoint a bit. Got it a little muddy. Still impressed with the SPOT. I fired three rounds to verify zero on the SBR and it wasn't needed. Hit 1.5 inches high at 25 which puts it on the 50 yard zero I had it at. This is going to be a great optic for the 40cal upper when I get it chopped.  The 1 power setting worked just fine, but I think that one intensity setting lower would have been perfect for the lighting conditions I was in.

01/16/05
Had it out for another 2hr session, no issues, no problems. Return to zero was spot on. I really like these Aimpint QRP mounts, never have had issues with optics not returning to zero with them.

I have to add that everytime I go out with this optic I like it more and more and really wish they would waterproof it and improve the battery life on it. I was running a bunch of drills lastnight, box drills,NSRs, Mozambiques, shooting most of it on the move, the fun stuff. Someone left a shit load of clay birds on the sand berms and well they were inviting tagets. Most were out in the 45-50 yard range all hits were easy and most were first or second round hits some need a third round(hey those are little things to be hitting on the move first round everytime). And the dot, man in the house the dot doesn't look to bad, but out in the day light, the dot looks better then my Comp M's dot does, of course the dot in my Tacpoint also looks better all around then the dot in the Comp M too so....

03-15-06
Spent Saturday  at a Defensive Edge Cold Weather Carbine class. Good class eventhough it was a chilly 67 degrees here in Wisconsin. I put about 350rds downrange in the class(twas only a half day class) and the SPOT ran 100%. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it. Still reliable, still no issues. I'm starting the battery test Friday when I get out of work and thats it.



03-18-06
On the 14th I put a new battery in and at 5:30 I turned it on to setting 11. As of right now(11:25am) it's still going. At this point in bright sunlight light it's pretty, much worthless. the dot washes out. It does show up when you get it over darker colors. When looking out from a dark area you can see the dot fine, but when looking at bright areas it does washout a bit and get a little harder to see. Looking from a brightly lit area into a darker area, no issues you can see the dot fine. What else..... I set my aimpoint intesity to match up as close as possible with what the spot looked like in the house. Then I took them both out and looked at everything agin and everythings the same, if anything I could see the dot on the SPOT in more areas where it was brighter light. But it would also take a hell of a lot longer for the aimpoint at it's brightest setting to get to the same point the SPOT is at right now. So thats where the battery test is at right now. I'll watch this one till it goes completly out then I'll put in a new one and do it again with it set on like 5 or 6.

03-27-06
ok sorry It took this long to post this. The battery went dead sometime between 1630 and 1815 on the 25th. Basicly I looked at it before leaving the house and could still barely see the dot, got home and checked it and couldn;t see it anymore. And yes asthe battery dies the dot dims.  So i'll be picking up another battery sometime soon here and then I'll start it out on setting 6 and see how long that lasts.

awesome. Tagging for the awesome outcome of awesomeness.

Tag - I bought one of these but haven't done anything with it yet.  Interested in seeing what your results are.

tag

i just got one of these from grant this weekend. i love it so far but after shooting it turned off and that kinda worried me. that only happend one time out of  2 days of shooting so im hoping it was a fluke. other than that i love the shit out of it.

Does this one also have the "lifetime warranty?"

Good for the lifetime of the company, or one year, whichever comes first?

Quoted: They have a limited life time warranty. C4

Please define "limited".

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They have a limited life time warranty. C4 Please define "limited". Well if you take a sledge hammer to the optic and it breaks then that isn't covered under the warranty. The common sense rule applies here. C4

For the warranty maybe, But not this thread.

Photoman

  how hard was it to sight in?   Thinking about getting one of these as well.

Quoted: Photoman   how hard was it to sight in?   Thinking about getting one of these as well.

Easy. Just mounted it and then sighted the irons, then adjusted the dot to sit on top of the front sight post.

BibBore45,

I got one of them from Grant (in fact all the accessories on this SBR came from Grant) and mounted it on my SBR.  It took about 10 clicks down adjustment and 6 or 8 clicks right adjustment to get it zeroed at 50 meters.  I have about 1,500 rounds through it so far and have taken it off and remounted it three times and it has stayed zeroed.

MadDog

tagged

My M2 and ML2 have a slight blue tint too.  Not too noticeable until I put an ACOG TA01NSN behind it one day.

What size is the dot?

tagged for outcome

Quoted: What size is the dot?

The dot is 4 MOA.

thats one sweet lookin sbr!!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They have a limited life time warranty. C4 Please define "limited". Well if you take a sledge hammer to the optic and it breaks then that isn't covered under the warranty. The common sense rule applies here. C4

Okay smarty-pants, beyond an errant hit from a stray sledge hammer, what else is "limited" about their warranty?  Would Photoman's "abuse", which apparently is actually his regular MO, nullify the warranty?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They have a limited life time warranty. C4 Please define "limited". Well if you take a sledge hammer to the optic and it breaks then that isn't covered under the warranty. The common sense rule applies here. C4 Okay smarty-pants, beyond an errant hit from a stray sledge hammer, what else is "limited" about their warranty?  Would Photoman's "abuse", which apparently is actually his regular MO, nullify the warranty?

I garuntee that my use would void the warranty, but only because I am intentionaly causing damage to the optic. I have not read the warranty yet but I'm sure it's listed in the very good instruction manual that came with the optic. I'll read through it later and see if I find it and what it says.

tagged

Quoted: awesome. Tagging for the awesome outcome of awesomeness.

same here. Isnt this the same maker of burris NEW speed dot??? also one can assume you can use the better burris mount on this unit?

Not to drift too far afield, but I'm looking for a value priced red dot to stick on my SKS for rangework with a scout scope mount.  Any have .02 on whether this might  fit the bill?

Photoman,
I'm interested in your results.  I bought one from Grant earlier this year for my son's M4gery.  It's in a QRP mount (with spacer).  It zeroed up easy and shoots fine, but I've only shot maybe 80 rounds through it before going back to my EOTech.

It will be interesting to see how much abuse this optic can take.  Thanks for offering to do this.

-Forest

Very interested in the outcome.  Hurry up, will ya!

ya im really looking forward to the results. so far i love it compared to my eotech.

Quoted: Very interested in the outcome.  Hurry up, will ya!

Hey come on beating optics takes time. Besides the battery cover is already scratched.

With your Rep P-man and how gingerly you treat things a sense of dred has overwelmed me.
I feel afraid for Mr. S.P.O.T

Quoted: With your Rep P-man and how gingerly you treat things a sense of dred has overwelmed me. I feel afraid for Mr. S.P.O.T

It will get some good useat the end of the month. The gun most likely will not see a case all weekend. Should be good to see how it does with the temp changes over night. It's starting to get chilly here at night. It should be a good starting weekend for it to get some good use. It will be about the closest it will get to a class like environment unless it lasts till next year some time.  I'll have it on the 16in upper for deer season. Plus it's squirrel season and I like to hunt tree rats.

Tree rat killing set up.


It will get a lot of use and get knocked around a hell of a lot.  It will see some crazy shit along the way.I have an old "post-ban" upper that i'm about to just make into the beater/abuse testing upper. The only thing I need to salvage off it is the quad rail and I may just leave that on it because I don't really like it any way. I just need to get a cheap BC/CH for it.

ever shoot it and have the dot cut out or fade a ton? i have

Quoted: ever shoot it and have the dot cut out or fade a ton? i have

On which brand scope?  The SPOT?

hahah ya my 4 day old SPOT

Quoted: ever shoot it and have the dot cut out or fade a ton? i have

Nope not yet, I'll watch for it though.

Quoted: hahah ya my 4 day old SPOT

Send that puppy back for warranty coverage, my man!

hahha it already got its paint job i doubt they would take it back.

Quoted: hahha it already got its paint job i doubt they would take it back.

Actually, that falls under the auspice of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act.  Basically, in order to deny coverage they would have to prove that your modifications caused the damage in question.  If some of that paint got into the rheostat, then your're SOL.  And I'd wager good money that's what happened to your scope.

If it were a car I would give you the following example.  If you installed an aftermarket turbocharger system and blew the engine, they could not automatically deny you warranty coverage on your suspension, brakes, electrical system, stereo, air conditioning or even the paint.  But obviously you'd be SOL with regards to the engine damage claim.

haha good try. it cut out on me while i was getting it zeroed. got painted later.

bump for the small update.

Tag for info.

WIZZO

some new pics added so bump.

Quoted: Quoted: some new pics added so bump. Good review/abuse! Glad to see it is holding up. C4

Had I not been stupid and loctited the screws right away I don't think there would have been any issues at all with this thing.

Tag.  Gonna have to get the "control" unit from Grant soon.

Grant, sorry I didn't have time to visit last week.  "Vacation" has a way of running me ragged enough to use another one when I get back.

Quoted: Tag.  Gonna have to get the "control" unit from Grant soon. Grant, sorry I didn't have time to visit last week.  "Vacation" has a way of running me ragged enough to use another one when I get back.

Vacation? what the hell is that??

Should be a good weekend for testing comming up here. Lots of good rough use for the guns and gear not to mention the shooters. The SPOT won't see a case all weekend so it's going to be exposed to the elements for two or three days. I'll check it out with some NVGs and see if I can notice any muzzle side signature. Looking at it with the dot on though I have to belive there would be because I can see it up close looking from the muzzle side already, but I want to know how bad it is with an NVG looking at it. Plus we'll see just how much we can rough it up