A weapons instructor from the US Customs service was at my range yesterday, and it was a real treat to handle a govt. issue MP5 and M4 carbine, both the real deal, full auto babies. I was in heaven, and my wallet was having panic attacks that I would get infected with a desire to rock and roll on my own dime later.
They both were mounted with Reflex II sights, the MP5 rather conventionally, but I was surprised to see the M4 sporting a carry handle mount. He expressed a negative opinion of the forward mounted, cowitness style mounts, complaining the front sight in the view was too distracting . In actual sighting/shooting use, it (the carry handle postioned Reflex) seemed to work well at the 50 yards I tried. The irons were usable by looking under the Reflex mount, which was an A2 armson I believe.
We were under an overhang, and it was pretty bright out on the range, the amber triangle was easy to pick up, and did not seem to wash out to any degree I noticed. I asked him specifically about the use at night, say in a lighted parking lot, and he indicated they worked well. They do lots of "room clearing" and also "sit in the dark for hours, watching and waiting for stuff to happen". So the lack of batteries, switches, must be an asset they need. Their primary concern was 0 to 100 yards with the bullet hoses anyway.
So after seeing the Reflex II in use, I wonder how much better does it get? Aimpoint and EO seem more popular here. So what gives, if some of the Feds are using the Reflex II, and under what I would imagine are truly "hard contact" CQB conditions(yes, the BG's ARE wearing body armor these days, he said), should I use what I saw and liked, and seemed to work OK for me...or keep looking and try to decide between Aimpoint and EO?
Oh, and the 5.56 mm duty load... Federal "tactical" 55 grain fmjbt's. Rate of twist on the M4 was 1/7. A great day at the range beats a bad day at work!
Paladin