Sights & Scopes - What works for you?

Hours can be spent trawling the internet trying to find the right red dot sight or scope for your airsoft rifle, but it's not always easy to find the right one. Here's our little guide to helping you pick between a T1 style sight or Holographic sight or even between a 4x ACOG or a 3-9x full size scope. We'll go through each style based on size and list the benefits of each one. First of all we have the Doctor type micro dot sights. These are mainly 20mm ris mounted, but some can be used on RMR mounts to sit flush to your Glock, Hi Capa, Sig P226 etc. Some of the basic ones just feature a red or green dot, as you go up in price the build quality increases and so do the amount of features such us adjusting the brightness based on light, solar powered and switching off when the protective cover is on. For the 20mm mounts these are ideal for small submachine guns such as the MP9 or VZ61 Scorpions and any size pistol which can get a 20mm adapter to replace the rear sight. Below are a few examples ranging in price for the Micro dot sights. Doctor Style sight £35 1x22 Micro dot sight with RMR £75

The next step up is still suitable for SMGs, but not so much pistols. These are the mini dot and reflex sights which give you a good field of view for smaller rifles such as the Scorpion Evo, MP5K or the AK74su. One of the most popular ones is the T1 type sight due to it's compact size and how it sits so low to the rail. However, for those of you running a full face mask set up, they are often sold with risers to boost the height an extra inch so your head doesn't need to drop too low to the weapon. The T1 type doesn't suit everyone as they are quite closed off, but there are other options for more open dot sights such as the Electro type ones offering four different reticules in red & green and full brightness adjustment settings. See some examples below of the different styles to offer.

T1 type (Low) £40

T1 type (High) £50

Electro 1x22x33 £45

Electro Reflex £38

Third on the list are the Holographic type dot sights, Aimpoint type M1 and similar variants. These are much larger and suit longer airsoft rifles more due to their height, weight and overall size. Similar to the reflex sight, the holographics are quite open and display a larger, target shaped reticle onto the glass, whereas the M1's are a simple red or green dot projected instead. The Aimpoint style ones feature a smaller field of view, but overall are slimmer when attached to the rifle. The glass on both these types are slightly tinted to avoid any glare from the sun or harsh lights making it ideal for indoor CQB or woodland games. There are so many different styles of holographic sights to choose from. They are all numbered from 551 to 558, take a look below for the different variants.

Onto the scopes, short scopes and magnifiers, this is where sights get more diverse. First the magnifiers are generally a fixed 3x magnification and sit behind a dot or holographic sight (although magnifier/holo combos are more popular) They give you the option to accurately fire at longer distances, however the magnifiers are often quick detach or can flip to the side meaning you can run a basic dot sight at any time. They're beneficial for spotting at a further distance or for rifles with decent enough range to reach the target at the desired distance, but this can be said for any scope. ACOG style sights are popular due to their small size sat on standard rifles and their balanced weight. They are often 4x magnification and have back up iron sights on the top. Some ACOGs can mount a micro dot sight in top instead of the back up iron sights for closer or CQB environments, these are often powered by the fibre optic bar on the higher end ACOG style sights. Then there is of course the sniper scopes. Often fitted with a crosshair to determine bullet drop, windage ect which can be a major pain when it comes to airsoft guns. Snipers that use heavier ammo such as 0.40g, 0.43g or higher are easier to determine these factors as there is very little movement on the crosshair between shots, so it's much easier to predict where the shots will end up. Sniper scopes are often much longer and sit on 1" high scope rings to make it easier to aim. They can magnify from 3x up to 16x depending on the scope. They can be relatively cheap and can pick up a decent one from £35. After all, they're not as accurate as the real steel, but neither are our pew pews.