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Posted: 9/26/2024 9:18:56 PM EDT
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As the sheer nature of the more obsolete design coupled with the fakeness of a cloner chang model would suggest, I'm not looking into this as a viable alternative for primary/duty-grade AR use, but rather to use on one of my alternative caliber ARs, notably a budget early GWOT clone rifle chambered in 9mm with direct blowback...given perhaps the greater recoil of this action, would SG's PEQ-2A IR clone model work for fun and play, at least with the IR laser holding zero? Want more reviews or input on this, the only 2 reviews posted on SG's website for it both give it 2/5 stars for failure of the illuminator to hold zero...there doesn't seem to be another Chinese replicator of this model, just Guangdong's WADSN/Aim-O/KP branded company with silly visible laser 'battery box' knock-offs that genuinely look like stuff of child's play. If it works, then someone also please consider sharing a promo code? There's a field for it on their website but can't seem to find anything online for them... |
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I'm sorta surprised you can't find anything on it. I know some folks have used them for retro rifles n such. Bear in mind it's a moving target, in that performance steadily improves as they make these things, but also QC is not uniform either. I'd say it's worth a shot, just for a retro rifle. I just pulled the trigger on my 5th PEQ-15, so I'm doing what I say. |
It's all about the fiddle factor.
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Originally Posted By Diz: I'm sorta surprised you can't find anything on it. I know some folks have used them for retro rifles n such. Bear in mind it's a moving target, in that performance steadily improves as they make these things, but also QC is not uniform either. I'd say it's worth a shot, just for a retro rifle. I just pulled the trigger on my 5th PEQ-15, so I'm doing what I say. So I found a little bit, but no worthy info on its laser or power specs beyond the 2 reviews listed on their site and 2 Reddit posts acclaiming the laser as "solid" and "bright"...no in-depth comparisons between it and a real one for instance, or other SG PEQ variants... Made a WTB EE ad for one anyhow if somebody sees this and wants to both edify me more and perhaps pass one along too... |
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I modded my original Somo PEQ-15 with a diffuser lens to give the IR illuminator more spill. I posted it on social media and tagged Somogear. They liked it and they messaged me about being a tester for the PEQ-2. The unit they sent me was a pre-production. It would blink for a second or so under recoil and the zero wandered a bit. I made a full report and sent it in to them. They acted like they they were offended that I had some negative things to say. Overall it was a good unit and the illuminator and laser were full power. Same laser and illuminator as the Somo PEQ-15. Some spacers under the battery spring cut down on the blinking to almost zero. It’s a massive unit for what it is. I ended up giving it to a buddy who likes to clone Block 2 guns. It’s functional enough to be used when we casually shoot under NODs. It sort of holds zero but looks fantastic on a clone build. It’s not a hard use unit, but frankly neither is their PEQ-15. I did contact them when the case on my PEQ-15 broke. Their response was literally, ‘We not god.’ I use it as a pocket pointer/marker and in that role it’s great when I’m out with friends. I allows me to point out things to them without pointing a weapon at it. I’m not planning on buying any more of the Somogear stuff. If you want it to be a clone part, it looks the part but is barely functional. There are much better functioning/Smaller/more ergonomic laser/illuminators on Amazon for less than $80. |
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Originally Posted By treasurediver: I modded my original Somo PEQ-15 with a diffuser lens to give the IR illuminator more spill. I posted it on social media and tagged Somogear. They liked it and they messaged me about being a tester for the PEQ-2. The unit they sent me was a pre-production. It would blink for a second or so under recoil and the zero wandered a bit. I made a full report and sent it in to them. They acted like they they were offended that I had some negative things to say. Overall it was a good unit and the illuminator and laser were full power. Same laser and illuminator as the Somo PEQ-15. Some spacers under the battery spring cut down on the blinking to almost zero. It’s a massive unit for what it is. I ended up giving it to a buddy who likes to clone Block 2 guns. It’s functional enough to be used when we casually shoot under NODs. It sort of holds zero but looks fantastic on a clone build. It’s not a hard use unit, but frankly neither is their PEQ-15. I did contact them when the case on my PEQ-15 broke. Their response was literally, ‘We not god.’ I use it as a pocket pointer/marker and in that role it’s great when I’m out with friends. I allows me to point out things to them without pointing a weapon at it. I’m not planning on buying any more of the Somogear stuff. If you want it to be a clone part, it looks the part but is barely functional. There are much better functioning/Smaller/more ergonomic laser/illuminators on Amazon for less than $80. Hmm...so instead of spending $200+ on a clone PEQ-2 that might not even hold its own for anything beyond casual IR pointing at night, you seem to suggest it might be a better idea to simply up one's budget by a factor of 4-5 and buy a used real one, with the full 20 mW (states 50 mW but use reports claim differently) of power then? Considering I haven't yet splurged $3k+ on a Gen 3 NOD tube, it might make sense then to use a real one for more than cloning's sake, but perhaps also on my duty AR...arguments against this, or is the SG PEQ-2 still just too toy-ish as you write? Anyhow, thank you for that detailed anecdote! |
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Originally Posted By sixers79: Hmm...so instead of spending $200+ on a clone PEQ-2 that might not even hold its own for anything beyond casual IR pointing at night, you seem to suggest it might be a better idea to simply up one's budget by a factor of 4-5 and buy a used real one, with the full 20 mW (states 50 mW but use reports claim differently) of power then? Considering I haven't yet splurged $3k+ on a Gen 3 NOD tube, it might make sense then to use a real one for more than cloning's sake, but perhaps also on my duty AR...arguments against this, or is the SG PEQ-2 still just too toy-ish as you write? Anyhow, thank you for that detailed anecdote! Originally Posted By sixers79: Originally Posted By treasurediver: I modded my original Somo PEQ-15 with a diffuser lens to give the IR illuminator more spill. I posted it on social media and tagged Somogear. They liked it and they messaged me about being a tester for the PEQ-2. The unit they sent me was a pre-production. It would blink for a second or so under recoil and the zero wandered a bit. I made a full report and sent it in to them. They acted like they they were offended that I had some negative things to say. Overall it was a good unit and the illuminator and laser were full power. Same laser and illuminator as the Somo PEQ-15. Some spacers under the battery spring cut down on the blinking to almost zero. It’s a massive unit for what it is. I ended up giving it to a buddy who likes to clone Block 2 guns. It’s functional enough to be used when we casually shoot under NODs. It sort of holds zero but looks fantastic on a clone build. It’s not a hard use unit, but frankly neither is their PEQ-15. I did contact them when the case on my PEQ-15 broke. Their response was literally, ‘We not god.’ I use it as a pocket pointer/marker and in that role it’s great when I’m out with friends. I allows me to point out things to them without pointing a weapon at it. I’m not planning on buying any more of the Somogear stuff. If you want it to be a clone part, it looks the part but is barely functional. There are much better functioning/Smaller/more ergonomic laser/illuminators on Amazon for less than $80. Hmm...so instead of spending $200+ on a clone PEQ-2 that might not even hold its own for anything beyond casual IR pointing at night, you seem to suggest it might be a better idea to simply up one's budget by a factor of 4-5 and buy a used real one, with the full 20 mW (states 50 mW but use reports claim differently) of power then? Considering I haven't yet splurged $3k+ on a Gen 3 NOD tube, it might make sense then to use a real one for more than cloning's sake, but perhaps also on my duty AR...arguments against this, or is the SG PEQ-2 still just too toy-ish as you write? Anyhow, thank you for that detailed anecdote! If you HAVE to have a PEQ-2, I’d save for a real one. Otherwise, there are other Airsoft grade PEQ-2 Copies that are cheaper than the Somogear and at least have the ‘look.’ For $300 I’d get a Streamlight TLR-VIR2. I have one and it’s so much better than anything Somogear makes. The new Ravyvon GL-4 Pro is in that same price range and seems like a durable unit. I kick myself for getting a Somogear for $300+ when I could have gotten another TLR-VIR or the GL-4. |
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Well, it seems to me, if you're building a retro, you have different priorities than just function alone. The form factor is also important. SG fills that niche nicely. If you are into pure function, then you buy other stuff. That's a given. You can use anything you want, but if you want the form factor of rifles used by troops in combat, then SG, IS, SOTAC, Spec Precision, etc. come into play. Sort of a gray area, in between "mil-spec" and high-end airsoft/MilSim. Just one opinion here. I'd rather spend that kind of money on a more capable (and smaller) LAM, if actually required, than a good (and less expensive) copy to finish out a retro build. So sorta two different priorities here. And this is just me. I live in a very low threat environment. I don't hunt with it, just (practice) patrolling. I prefer something that resembles what our warfighters have used. I am particularly partial to Mk-18's. So SG PEQ-15's and NGAL's just work for me. If I wanted a more retro rifle, I'd use their PEQ-2A as well. This is just me and my situation. Depends what OP is up to. |
It's all about the fiddle factor.
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Originally Posted By Diz: Well, it seems to me, if you're building a retro, you have different priorities than just function alone. The form factor is also important. SG fills that niche nicely. If you are into pure function, then you buy other stuff. That's a given. You can use anything you want, but if you want the form factor of rifles used by troops in combat, then SG, IS, SOTAC, Spec Precision, etc. come into play. Sort of a gray area, in between "mil-spec" and high-end airsoft/MilSim. Just one opinion here. I'd rather spend that kind of money on a more capable (and smaller) LAM, if actually required, than a good (and less expensive) copy to finish out a retro build. So sorta two different priorities here. And this is just me. I live in a very low threat environment. I don't hunt with it, just (practice) patrolling. I prefer something that resembles what our warfighters have used. I am particularly partial to Mk-18's. So SG PEQ-15's and NGAL's just work for me. If I wanted a more retro rifle, I'd use their PEQ-2A as well. This is just me and my situation. Depends what OP is up to. This is a very helpful insight @Diz, thanks for sharing...but just to hear you straight, are you saying you'd "rather spend that kind of money [$250+] on a more capable LAM" or that you still would "use their PEQ-2A as well" ($250+)? Did you mean to say that you would spend in that neighborhood on a high-end copy of this price point like SG's PEQ-2A, or would save it as part of spending on a higher-end, perhaps legitimate, LAM? Ultimately, I've spent $20 so far on a 20 mW IR laser module, 3W IR light and a detestable PEQ-2 airsoft 'battery box' which I plan to altogether solder to a 3P4T rotary switch, 3.5mm audio jack and hook up to pair of AA batteries...silly idea or decent pointing substitute? The downfall will be that it be non-adjustable for windage and elevation, so I'll have a constant offset between bore axis and laser aim...the upside would be that it'll never lose its own zero! 
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Ha ha, yeah, for some clarification. It all depends on you and your use. If I am just building a retro rifle for training purposes, or just for shits n giggles, then I would use the SG PEQ-2A, because the retro look is what I'm really after, and then reasonable performance. If I am building a rifle for more serious purposes, such as self-defense, and so forth, then I'd be looking at a more capable model that perhaps held zero better, and had better water-proofing. Probably something along the lines of a Holosun. To get both here, you really need to buy the expensive milspec components, that frankly breaks the bank for most folks. And this is the key. And doesn't get mentioned much. For many folks, myself included, form factor is a huge consideration. That is why I experiment with these foreign jobs; my threat level is not so high that I can't have a little fun with my weapons and equipment selections; it doesn't have to be utterly bomb-proof- at this point in time. Now that could change in the future, and I have other weapons for that purpose. But for now these "airsoft" milsim jobs work perfectly fine- for me, and what I'm doing. Now a lot of these vendors (and others) get on here and conflate what the warfighter, or cop needs, with what we as civilians actually need. For what our actual threat levels are, we can have fun building retro rifles that shoot well, but may not be perfect. And that's ok. But you are constantly bombarded with all this marketing hype that you need the best there is. Frankly a lot of that is bullshit. So, to re-cap. If you are building for serious purposes, I'd get the best LAM I could afford and drive on. If I am just building a retro for recreational use, then I'd get the SG PEQ-2A. But I have many rifles for many different uses. But I also remember when I only had one. If this is the case, figure out what is your prime consideration, and build accordingly. Just one man's opinion worth every penny you didn't pay for it. |
It's all about the fiddle factor.
die on me, so at worst it’s not that far from the real thing
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Originally Posted By GalacticOverlord: The PEQ-2s have the same guts as the PEQ-15s, do they not? Of course, no visible laser, but the circuits and emitters are the same between the two? In principle, yes. In practice, no. Circuits and diode quality are one thing, but what determines end-user experience by far at the end of the day is how well the windage screw & spring mechanisms are soldered to the innermost part of the diode. And apparently, as reviews would have it, perhaps given the narrower geometry of the PEQ-2's enclosure in comparison to the beloved & bulkier PEQ-15, SG's PEQ-2A IR replica really hasn't amassed good reviews in that respect anywhere I look and as has been mentioned herein, at the very least for the diffuse light. |
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| I’m currently weighing whether to buy a Somo Peq2 vs a real one. The price difference is a lot narrower on these in comparison to a Peq 15, and there are fewer solid reviews of the Somo Peq2 than the Peq15. I own a Somo Peq 15, and it seems good, but I’m not really in a position to evaluate NV laser durability. All I can say is that the Somo 15 seems pretty decent. |
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