Let me start off by making apologies. I am not a photographer. Anyway, recently I replaced the Holosun 507k on my Sig 365XL with a Holosun EPS Carry. I have had questions as to why. There was nothing wrong with the 507k. It has been on that gun for at least a couple of years now with no issues. I just wanted to give an enclosed optic a try, but don't want to try one of those monstrosities like the ACRO or MPS on one of my full size guns but this looked like a good fit. It was tough finding one in stock and I eventually got a 6 MOA model from GT Distributors for around $350. This model does not come with the solar back up, you need to get the multi reticle model for that and it is about $75 more. Holosun optics, like most things have really crept up there in price. I am definitely not using them to save money over American brands, but because of their innovation.
The installation on my Sig was fairly straight forward. Take old optic off, clean up threads in gun, put new optic on, torque screws to 15 inch pounds and let cure. Between the cut itself and the 2 bosses there is a fair amount of support and I always prefer direct mount when possible. After a couple of range sessions and making sure the zero stayed and the screws were still torqued, I marked their position with a paint pencil.
Quality of the Holosun optics for me has been good from a functioning standpoint. I have had I think 6 of them on pistols now and none have failed. That is unfortunately more than I can say for any of the other brands I use, including Trijicon. Their fit and finish do leave a little bit to be desired, as a case in point I often see glue "overspray" on the edges of the lens. There have been some complaints on distortion at the edges of these EPS carry units but I have not seen it on mine.
I have been to the range twice now with this gun and optic combo and so far so good. It zeroed very easily the first time, and I checked it again today and it was still good. There was finally some sun today and I will say the dot did fine at 2 below the brightest setting. With back to sun it did not wash out, when facing low angle sun, something that can be a problem for many optics, it did not produce a ghost dot like my SRO often does. There was some light splatter but that was not hard to differentiate from the dot itself.
As far as performance I will say that for me, small windows, especially since they are on small guns usually are harder to use. They tend to be harder to pick up initially and harder to not lose during recoil. This is usually not a problem when both hands are on the gun, but some of the drills I have ran so far were one handed and I did notice it there. Of course some of that is lack of practice with my small carry gun as I have been doing much more with my Staccato C2.
I will also point out that I went with the 6 MOA dot on this one instead of the multi reticle dot like on my 507k. I had pretty much been using that in the circle dot mode as it was easier to pick up and more resistant to wash out. Of course it also used up the battery much faster in that mode.
So, is this enclosed unit better than the open unit it replaced? The jury is still out on that. I will say it is easier to clean the rear glass.
The installation on my Sig was fairly straight forward. Take old optic off, clean up threads in gun, put new optic on, torque screws to 15 inch pounds and let cure. Between the cut itself and the 2 bosses there is a fair amount of support and I always prefer direct mount when possible. After a couple of range sessions and making sure the zero stayed and the screws were still torqued, I marked their position with a paint pencil.
Quality of the Holosun optics for me has been good from a functioning standpoint. I have had I think 6 of them on pistols now and none have failed. That is unfortunately more than I can say for any of the other brands I use, including Trijicon. Their fit and finish do leave a little bit to be desired, as a case in point I often see glue "overspray" on the edges of the lens. There have been some complaints on distortion at the edges of these EPS carry units but I have not seen it on mine.
I have been to the range twice now with this gun and optic combo and so far so good. It zeroed very easily the first time, and I checked it again today and it was still good. There was finally some sun today and I will say the dot did fine at 2 below the brightest setting. With back to sun it did not wash out, when facing low angle sun, something that can be a problem for many optics, it did not produce a ghost dot like my SRO often does. There was some light splatter but that was not hard to differentiate from the dot itself.
As far as performance I will say that for me, small windows, especially since they are on small guns usually are harder to use. They tend to be harder to pick up initially and harder to not lose during recoil. This is usually not a problem when both hands are on the gun, but some of the drills I have ran so far were one handed and I did notice it there. Of course some of that is lack of practice with my small carry gun as I have been doing much more with my Staccato C2.
I will also point out that I went with the 6 MOA dot on this one instead of the multi reticle dot like on my 507k. I had pretty much been using that in the circle dot mode as it was easier to pick up and more resistant to wash out. Of course it also used up the battery much faster in that mode.
So, is this enclosed unit better than the open unit it replaced? The jury is still out on that. I will say it is easier to clean the rear glass.
Will run up the round count in a few weeks at a match at WVRP and see how long it goes now before it needs cleaning.
