Video Transcript
Enclosed Pistol Red Dots (00:00)
Enclosed pistol red dots have made a lot of changes since the Aimpoint T-1 was really the only option that you could slap onto a pistol. Which was something people were doing about six years ago with the Unity ATOM slides. I did it quite a bit. And that optic had a lot of advantages over the RMR at the time. But it was larger and heavier and it took some weird slides and plates in order to actually mount one to a pistol.
Aimpoint P-1 (00:23)
Fast forward around five years, four years. And we had the P-1 that got released by Aimpoint, which was a much more updated pistol-specific—although you can run it on a rifle—optic that is smaller, lighter, and has a little better form factor for actually mounting to a pistol. But the P-1 had some pretty big problems with the main one being the battery life. I personally could only get about one to two months out of it on a high enough brightness setting that I could actually see in the day. So I was constantly swapping out the batteries. And then it had a small battery that, you know, I don't use for any other optics, lasers, lights, weapons, or anything. So that's a whole new, you know, logistical thing I had to take into consideration.
Acro P-2 Improvements (01:03)
But then Aimpoint made some upgrades and made some modifications with the P-2, where now they've bumped the battery life back to more of a standard T-1, T-2 optic. And they've also changed some of the buttons as well for the optic itself. And some of the manufacturing process to hopefully, you know, boost production. But in the process of doing some of those improvements, there was a change in the weight. So we have the original Acro P-1 right here coming in at 2 ounces with a battery installed. And then we have the new P-2 with a battery installed, a 2032, coming in at 2.2 ounces. So it is slightly heavier, but to be honest, I'll take that extra 0.2 ounces for the battery life and all the improvements that this optic gives.
MOS Plate Mount (01:47)
Mounting an Acro to your pistol is going to require some proprietary, special mounts. It is not utilizing any sort of screws from the bottom or the top, such as the original T-1, where you had to have some weird plates. Now it's important to note while this little bottom, little section of rail down here looks like 1913 Picatinny, it is in fact not 1913 Picatinny. If you're running a Glock MOS, what we recommend is you go buy an aftermarket plate such as from Forward Controls to mount that optic to your MOS slide. The plate's going to get attached. You're gonna screw that down. And then the optic is going screw directly to the little section on that mount that accepts that little slot of Picatinny and where the clamp is. And so there it is right there on a Forward Controls mount, very nicely on an MOS.
Milled Slide (02:40)
The other option is to have a slide milled, which is my preferred. This is a standard Glock 17 slide milled by JagerWerks. So you can see sort of the pattern of what's going on here. They have little side rails on the side, and then they have the channel for the Picatinny where that is ultimately going to sit and then screw into. So let's go ahead and mount this optic to the slide itself. Now, unfortunately, the Aimpoint Acro series of red dots do not take a standard red dot footprint. They don't take RMR, they don't take standard Aimpoint. They don't take D-Pro. They're going to have their own sort of system of they've got going on here. So you're going to need a slide that is either milled for that; you're going to need a specific plate made by a company such as Forward Controls for your MOS Glock; or maybe a plate used for an ATOM slide, if you even have an ATOM slide to begin with.
Mounting the Optic (03:33)
So let's go ahead and mount this optic to a stock Glock 17, that we had the slide milled for this optic specifically. Now this is probably my favorite option, cuz I don't have a bunch of extra screws holding down plates and whatnot. You can just see how bare bones this thing is. But all I have is the little side rails the optic is going to sit into and then the little (it's not Picatinny), but the little rail section that the Acro going to interface into. And that is all the slide has. I do have a rear dovetail if I wanna have co-witnessing irons or, you know, backup irons, that'll sit a little bit lower than an absolute co-witness and I'll be good to go.
So what we're gonna do is we're going to loosen them out—should be loosened already. Using a T10 torx, so the same as the Duty RDS, I'm gonna rock that on there. An Aimpoint doesn't have a recommended torque spec per se in their little manual they say to tighten down and then do an extra little bit more or less. So once we get that to hand tight, we're then just gonna do a quarter turn. Oof, that is on there. And now I have this slide mounted ready to be zeroed.
Battery (04:54)
And when it comes time to change the battery, which this optic does have a much longer battery life, I'm not gonna have to remove the optic. The battery compartment is right here on the side. So just gonna pop the 2032 out pop a new one in and I'll be good to go. And speaking of battery life, Aimpoint is saying there's a five year battery life on setting six. The problem with some of those battery estimations is they're counting the time for the battery life off of a brightness setting that is unusable or unusable in most cases. So if you're running this battery on the highest setting, so you can see it on a sunny day or maybe one setting underneath that for a overcast day, your battery life is going to be a bit less than that. You're not gonna get five years.
So that is something to note when companies are quoting battery lifes. See what they're quoting the battery life at. You don't need to know what elevation, what temperature, although usually those are pretty optimal as well. But definitely check to see what battery life they're quoting at and then think, "Okay, well, if I'm carrying this optic in my pants on the highest setting, cause I wanna see it at all times or one setting below that, I'm gonna get a little less battery life." But what this should give you on the highest battery life should be around a year, possibly a little less. So it will be comparable or should be comparable to RMRs and other carry optics out there.
Zeroing (06:07)
When you get to zeroing the optic, make sure you go to the range with that T10 torx. If you don't have it, you are pretty much screwed. The windage turrets here on the side and on the top utilize torx. There's some pros and cons to that. The pro is these shouldn't shift. They shouldn't move. Nothing's gonna nudge 'em or bump 'em. They sit flush with the optic. But you are going to need a special tool in order to actually change zero on your pistol or zero your pistol initially. So make sure you keep that with you when you go to the range for the first time and probably keep one fairly handy at all other times, if you are gonna be using this optic regularly.
What's Included (06:43)
So what we've got in the box when you purchase one of these is pretty simple. You have the optic. So the P-2 right here, not the P-1. You'll have the T10, an Aimpoint tool that is a T10. And they have the little nubbins here for the… these do not fit—it's fun to note—these do not fit the the windage and elevation turrets. These are for the old Aimpoint T-1 and T-2s. So they're utilizing the same tool, but they do have a T10 installed for zeroing and mounting as well. You'll have a single battery. So you'll be good to go right outta the box. A manual with some data, if you're the kind of person to read a manual… I'm not. So maybe that can just stay in the box. But you will be good to go. If you have any other questions, you can go ahead and email us at [email protected].