An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 13 for a definitive point of aim, which many felt was lacking on the old sight. The integrated ranging reticule (once correctly zeroed at 100m) also allows the individual soldier to use the BDC to both range and engage targets out to 800m. The ACOG uses an internal phosphor illumination provided by the radioactive decay of tritium (the same material that is found in an ev- eryday analogue watch) which has a usable life of 10-15years. The ACOG also receives day time reticule illumination via a passive external fibre-optic light pipe that sits on top of the sight. This tube gathers light to illuminate the reticule in normal daylight conditions while in low light or darkness the tritium takes over. One thing to note here is that when operating in extreme brightness the amount of light from the fibre-optic tube can cause the internal crosshairs to glow brighter than the target, however one can quickly adopt to this slight quirk. Having completed our lectures and training indoors, we moved to the Carnagh rifle range just outside Athlone where we zeroed the sights ourselves and found them extremely user friendly. Under the expert guidance of CQMS Robbie Walsh and the Trijicon instructors all personnel were on the target and zeroed correctly in a very short time. The ACOG is zeroed at 100m, allowing for the trajectory of the rounds to hit a point of impact (POI) 9cm above the point of aim (POA). At 200m the rounds will land 13cm above the POA and at 300m the POA/POI is exactly the same. Range stadia lines underneath the main crosshair are used to engage targets out to 800m. Ranges are marked 0-300m, 400m, 600m and 800m. The 500m and 700m ranges are marked with stadia lines but are not numbered. The stadia lines can be also be used to range a target as they represent 48cm across (the average width of a man) at the various distances. This allows the soldier to quickly judge distance, engage and neutralise the target. We also went through the new Steyr range table and what was clearly evident from using the new ACOG was the number of firers that were hitting almost every target that was put up in front of them. The final practices of the day were some close-quarter bat- tle (CQB) drills where the US instructors from Trijicon taught us how to fire the weapon at short ranges. The new Picatinny rail will continue to allow for the place- ment of the Kite night-sight and the numbers on the rail allow for the ACOG to go back on without any loss of accuracy. All- in-all the new weapon sight is extremely user friendly, highly accurate and should make for greater and improved accuracy and better marksmanship within the Defence Forces.

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