Gear Tips
How to read that Trijicon ACOG style Chevron Reticle Thingy…
I first came across this weird looking reticle when I purchased my Lucid HD7 red dot sight. My initial thought when I saw it was “well that’s weird” then I immediately swapped it over to the T with the do
ts under it and forgot about the chevron style for a while. Then I saw almost the same exact reticle associated with one of Trijicon’s ACOG sights. “That’s odd”, I thought, “it seems that more than one company uses that weird reticle”. Curiosity got the better of me and I finally looked in to what the heck this reticle is for and how to use it.
Side note: While a bit embarassing to admit, I always thought “Chevron” was just a gas company’s name until I started flying. It was then that I learned that a “chevron” refers to the pointy triangle shape. As it turns out, there are chevron symbols used all through the aviation world from landing strip makers to pilot rank indicators. Live and learn.
First off, the “why”. This is designed to be a combat reticle. The concept, as it seems, is to allow you to use it for close combat up to 200 meters then use it as a somewhat accurate “scope” style past 200 meters. There are other styles that do the same thing so, ultimately, it comes down to personal preference. Still, you never know when someone is going to hand you a carbine outfitted with a Trijicon sight or similar style while zombies are trying to smash down your front door so knowing how they work ahead of time is a good thing.
As far as the “how” goes, it goes a bit like this. The tip of the big triangle is what you would use for the vast majority of your work and, according to Trijicon, you would use this point up to 100 meters. If your target is between 100 and 200 meters, then you would use the inside point. When you’re between 200 and 300 meters, you would move the aim to the pointy tip of the vertical post (or the bottom flat areas of the chevron, if you prefer). Each horizontal line below that typically adds another 100 meters to the range. So, for example, if your target is 400 meters away, you’d line it up with the top horizontal line (coincidentally with the giant 4 next to it, in the illustration).
I know what you’re thinking: “So do I need to start carrying a laser range finder with me as well to know which of these things I need to line up to?” While that would be awesome to have as an attachment to a gun, no. You’ll notice that the length of the horizontal lines change as it goes down the sight. This is another neat trick that Trijicon has added. According to them, the lines are calibrated to a width of 19 inches at the given range (including the points at the bottom of the chevron). Why 19 inches? As it turns out, that’s the average width of a man’s shoulders. So all you have to do is quickly line up the width of the line to the shoulders and that will give you a rough range. If the shoulders are turned or not visible, well, you might have to estimate. Art class tells us that the average shoulder width should be equal to 3 head widths so that might help you there.
In the end, just knowing how it works helps a little but it doesn’t help nearly as much as practicing.
Images courtest of Trijicon, Inc.
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Blinded by the Light…
Humans are incredible creatures. It always amazes me how far some are able to push themselves to the limits. Just watch some of those Parkour videos to see what I mean. Sadly, one thing we’ve never been able to develop is the ability to see in the dark without some kind of external assistance. Until the day comes that they’re able to transplant a cat’s eyes into a human, we’re stuck with flashlights and night vision goggles. The transplant idea is still awesome though. Especially if I could do that thing where a cat’s eyes get all big and look all cute and stuff. Then I could talk my way out of any trouble I get into with Mrs. Noob. I’d just be like **big eyes** “Look how cute I am” then she’d be all “Aww! You’re so adorable! I can’t stay mad at you for hiding your socks all over the house.” Continue reading
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The Importance of Spotting Scopes
Grab a rifle, slap a scope on it, get a box or 12 of ammo and then head to the range, right? Well, yeah, in the grand scheme of things. So you get to the range and set up on the 100 yard lane. Then you wait for the line to go cold. Then you hike way out there, set up your target then walk way back. You shoot a few rounds….and you have no idea if they hit paper or not. You try to look through your gun’s scope but it’s a tiny view and you can see some holes but you’re not sure. So you wait for the line to go cold and you walk way out again. Turns out you were hitting just near the bottom of the paper and that hole you thought was a bullseye was actually a fly that had landed. So you walk all the way back, make a couple of adjustments to your scope then try again. You think you’re closer but you have to wait until the next cold range. After about an hour of shooting, you’ve just gotten sighted in and you’ve fired about 12 rounds. Thank goodness you’re not on the 1000 yard line!
Or you could get a spotting scope… Continue reading
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Fashion Tips for the Range
Last week, we talked about indoor and outdoor shooting ranges. I want to stay on the subject of shooting ranges a bit longer. I say this because a friend of mine emailed me a picture he took of a group of people at a range. As soon as I saw the picture, I didn’t even have to read the story that followed. I could pretty much guess and, as it turns out, I was right.
I can’t post the picture because I don’t have permissions of the people in it but let me try to describe the scene for you: It was a group of people. There were 3 women and one guy. All parties involved were dressed to impress. I’m not talking business casual, I’m talking borderline club wear. There was cleavage and skin showing all over the place. They guy had on casual shoes with no socks, the ladies were wearing heels and had some really low cut dresses. Actually, I wouldn’t exactly call them dresses. They were more like gownless evening straps. The picture at the top was the closest I could find. Just image a giant douchebag standing behind them with orange skin and making a duckface and the picture would be perfect. Continue reading
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A Different Kind of Shot…
So I hurt myself at the range this morning. There’s so many injuries that we go out of our way to prevent. We religiously follow those gun safety commandments and I don’t know any shooters personally that can’t recite them at a moment’s notice. At the range, we focus so much on those gun safety rules that we can easily forget that there are many ways to hurt yourself that have nothing to do with guns.
Such is the nature of my injury. Continue reading
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Interview with Brandi, Owner of ChicShooter.com
I first stumbled across the site, ChicShooter.com, a little while ago thanks to a comment on one of my articles. It didn’t take long for me to realize this site’s owner really knew what she was doing. The design and organization were great, the products were well thought out and it fixed a problem that I’ve been seeing constantly since I started GunNoob: it provided gear for women, by women. This wasn’t a group of guys saying “well, we think women want this…” (which usually results in lots of men’s gear painted pink). After looking through the site, I immediately showed it to Mrs. Noob who then put together a list of everything she wants for her birthday. I should rephrase that: what she wants for her birthday is everything on the site (that noise you hear is my bank account screaming). It’s safe to say this businesswoman is on to something.
I was so impressed that I got in touch with the owner of ChicShooter, Brandi, and talked a bit about her and her site. Continue reading
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Shoot Your Carry Ammo At Least Once
Let me tell you a story. Remember that XDs review I did a while back? That was my father’s gun. He bought it for his daily carry gun. After I did the review and gave it back to him, he held off carrying it for a while until he had the chance to shoot it himself. That turned out to be a good idea.
I’ve always been a fan of the Winchester PDX ammunition. The problem is, there was a bit of an ammo crisis in recent months. You might have heard about it. I believe a couple of blogs might have mentioned it as well. Either way, PDX ammo was difficult to find so my father loaded the gun with Hornady’s Critical Defense ammo instead. Continue reading
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Schlick Schlock for very little cha-ching (Cheap Guns Part II: Shotguns)
My original intention was to write a quick guide to some quality cheap guns. Boy and howdy did I open up a can of worms with that one. It turns out, there were a large number of guns that met my requirements and that was just in handguns. Far too many to cover in just one article, even! As I kept looking, I saw numerous shotguns and rifles and even more handguns. I’m trying my best, however, to restrict the list to guns that I personally know to be of good quality. At the same time, there just isn’t a way to list all the individual guns that are within my search restrictions.
But that won’t stop me from trying… Continue reading
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Gear Review: Leatherman MUT
Leatherman tools rock. Period. End of story. If they had been around just a bit earlier, you can bet that MacGyver would have carried one of them instead of a Swiss Army Knife. The utility of these things is beyond compare. You not only get blades and screwdrivers and a bunch of other tools, just like the Swiss Army Knife, but you also get a pair of pliers as well. All of it is contained in a easily carried package.
Needless to say, I’ve had a Leatherman tool as part of my everyday carry kit for a long time. Continue reading
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Gear Review: Lucid HD7 Red Dot Sight (and magnifier)
So I recently built an AR-15. I don’t remember but I might have written a couple of posts on it. Maybe a video or two…
Anyway, after getting it finished, I had slapped some pop-up iron sights on it then set out to find a nice red dot sight. If you’ve ever priced a red dot sight, they’re not cheap. Ok, some of them are cheap but therein lies the problem. After dumping all this money into the gun, I didn’t have a hefty sum of cash for an EOTech or Aimpoint. I did, however, find a generic red dot at a gun show for $70. Score!
As it turns out…no…not “score”. I could not get this thing to zero to save my life. I finally gave up and said “for now I’ll just aim 2 feet above the target”. That’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. It looked like I was going to have to start saving a bunch of cash for an EOTech.
I was complaining about my poor purchase to TJ when he suggested I look into the Lucid HD7. I had never heard of it before but he said he loved his so I checked it out. My first stop was Amazon. The price was good at under $300 ($279 + shipping, in this case). Even more importantly, it was pretty much universally loved in the customer review section. That’s almost unheard of at Amazon. I wasn’t able to order it immediately but it was at the top of my wish list. I finally put in the order recently and now hold it in my grubby little hands.
So let’s talk about it for a moment… Continue reading
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