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- So Aimpoint's been making red dot sights
for a few decades, and, you know,
our military's been filled with those red dot sights.
And so what happens is, Aimpoint has become very
proficient at manufacturing a red dot sight.
And they've decided recently
that they were going to take what they do best
and come up with a model
that was targeted to law enforcement.
And the reason why they did that is
a lot of law enforcement agencies don't have a ton of money.
And so, they want to be able to get 'em a good quality
red dot sight with all of the Aimpoint features,
all of the ruggedness that Aimpoint is known for,
but without breaking the bank.
Now Aimpoint's done this before in the past, right?
Years ago they had an Aimpoint PRO,
or the Aimpoint Pro, with a simplified body design,
with a really cool mount
that was designed for law enforcement, and it was popular.
So, Aimpoint's like look, let's do this again,
but let's start with everything
that we've learned since then,
and take all of the modern features
that we've incorporated into our red dots,
and let's do something with that.
And that's the red dot that you see here.
This is the Aimpoint Duty RDS.
It sells for less than $500 and there's a number
of features about this red dot sight that make it awesome.
Granted, it was designed for law enforcement,
so that means it's designed to be extremely rugged
and it's designed to not be super expensive.
But that appeals to, you know
me, just as kind of a Joe-Lunch-Pail civilian guy.
And so, one of the things I love about this red dot sight is
that this is a forged aluminum housing.
The way I describe that is, I call it,
see it's got a fat guy rating, right?
So you can be as big as you want with all of your
lickies and chewies strapped on and run as fast as you can,
maybe with a little downhill so you can get the speed up,
and pile drive you and all of your gear right
onto this red dot sight, and you're not gonna hurt it.
And the reason that's important is
if you can keep your housing from deforming,
you protect everything inside.
And so, a lot of times people will look at red dot sights
and they'll be like, hey, this thing is,
you know, whatever, 400, 450.
This other red dot sight looks really similar.
So, you know, I turn it on, there's red dots in both of 'em.
You know, maybe I should get the cheaper one.
Here's why that's a bad idea.
Couple years ago I was talking
to one of the guys that's at Aimpoint,
his job was, he was the liaison with the military.
And he said, when the military
first started building our red dot sights,
we would get sights in for repair.
Things would break.
And these are young guys that are hard on stuff.
They tear things up, no big deal.
Well, what would happen is
every time an optic would come in for repair,
Aimpoint would autopsy that thing,
figure out what was wrong.
And they got smarter, right?
How they made their circuit boards changed,
how they attached circuit boards inside the housing,
how they designed and made their diodes.
All of that changed and got refined.
And to the point where a couple years ago,
he was kind of lamenting the good old days.
He's like, nothing ever comes in anymore.
He's like, if they run over it with a tank, we might see it.
But, hey, congratulations, you flattened it.
And so, all of that information and knowledge
is in this red dot sight.
And, you know, one of the things that differentiates this
from other optics that might look similar is
that this is a multiple diode emitter.
And so, when you buy that cheap red dot,
there's one emitter in there.
And when you change your illumination settings,
you'll see it turn on and off.
This one's got a bunch of diodes in there
and they're all collimator aimed at the same point.
So as you cycle through your settings, that's why
you'll see kind of a gradual increase in intensity.
And that to you as a customer, is a way to assess quality
of one red dot versus the other.
If you see it turning on and off, single emitter,
that emitter dies on you, this thing's busted.
This one's got multiple diodes.
If there is a problem, the unthinkable happens,
it's still going to work.
Now, this comes with four night vision,
six daytime settings.
It takes a 2032 battery
with like 30,000 hours of battery life.
So you know, every couple of years swap it out.
Additionally, I really like these covers that come
on the Duty RDS.
It ships, it's got a 39 millimeter mount,
which here in America is 1.5 inches.
It's also got a space where you can swap out.
Set it at 1.2 if you wanted to co witness
with your iron sights.
So the Aimpoint Duty RDS,
sure, it was designed for law enforcement, forged housing,
all of the tricks of the trade that Aimpoint's learned
over a couple of decades of war and hardcore use.
But, it's an inexpensive red dot sight
that's great for anyone.
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