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Okay, I recently purchased an ACM Eotech 552 replica reflex sights from DealExtreme and it was delivered in roughly one and a half week from purchase.

It arrived nicely packaged with a product box that had foam padding inside, the box includes:

Eotech 552 reflex sights
Two AA batteries
A hex wrench
Lens protector
Lens cleaning cloth

The first thing I did was to crank the battery compartment open and put in the batteries, it was marked on the scope which side was + and – so inserting the batteries went quick and painfree. The sights chimmed to life immediately. The reticle is a standard Eotech reticle with a BDC (see picture).

Eotech reticle

When I first tried it inside, The reticle was extremely blurry due to ghosting but turning the brightness down to the lowest notch will make it usable indoors with just a small bit of ghosting left.

The scope itself looks beautifully made, nice finish and theres absolutely no wobble to it so it looks and feels rock solid.

I took it outside for some testing in a natural sunlight environment, It’s 20C outside and wont get any brighter any time of the day and the reticle was visible but not that bright when pointing it at vegetation using the max brightness setting, It’s certainly usable but could use some sort of sunshade.

The reticle is definitely a lot more crisp outside in the sunlight where the ghosting is not visible at all.

One thing I noticed straight away was that the reticle is actually not straight, it’s slightly rotated by around 5 degrees to the right so I can imagine myself rotating my rifle to make the reticle look properly in the future which is a bad thing for airsoft weapons with hopup devices.

You are able to switch between green and red reticle color by pressing the NV button.

I haven’t zeroed in the scope yet but I briefly tried the knobs to adjust windage and elevation and they seem to be working okay, it will move the entire reticle rather than the point of impact so to speak. The design on all of these chinese reflex sights are really simple with just a small diode projecting the reticle on a mirror that mirrors it onto your lens.

Reticle

As usual with all these Chinese replicas, The parallax correction is not that good but its not really that important for an airsofter such as myself and will most certainly be sufficient.

The shield that protects the sides of the lens is removable using the hex wrench that is provided with the product box and I think you need to remove it in order to attach the rubber lens protector that is provided, The lens protector itself is a rubber shield that encompasses the sides of the head with two doors on either side of the lens that are spring powered to keep them pointing upwards once opened.

Some people have complained that the lenses are either coated or naturally reflective but has no anti reflective coat on them which is all true however I found that you only experience reflectiveness when you look at the lens from side perspectives but if you look directly into the lens its alright so while keeping the weapon shouldered and using both eyes you will not experience any reflectiveness since one of your eyes are looking right trough the lens.

I should also mention that the sights comes with some trades on it, Personally trades are nothing important for me but its a nice touch and it even comes with the laser warning sticker on the side however the trades are misspelled, It reads: “FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT/MLITARY USE” and theres no eotech logo present.

I have an old classic BSA tube red dot that I have used for nearly a year now and I thought id make a small comparison between the two.

Price for everything: 37.28 USD

BSA Tube red dot Vs. ACM Eotech 552 reflex sights

BSA Red dot

ACM Eotech 552

The BSA Red dot tube sight is cheaper than the Eotech, and can be purchased for around 20 dollars and up. My particular model was 27 USD but came with a both red and green dot just like the Eotech so if you want to squeeze a tight budget the tube dot is definitely for you.

Neither really obstructs the view if you use them like your supposed to with both eyes open however Im not used to the large silouhette of the Eotech so at the present I find it slightly too big but Im sure this is nothing but a mere sake of familiarity.

Tube sight

The reticle on the Eotech 552 is a little weak in full daylight whereas the dot produced by the BSA sight is nice and bright on its brightest setting and is perceived as brighter in general because all the light is focused on one spot whereas the Eotech’s reticle is bigger and more spread out, I also found that the color brightness on the Eotech is not consistent where some parts are brighter than others such as the top half of it being brighter than the lower half.

The screw on the Eotech 552 replica sits nice onto the base of the device and will fasten well and you wont lose it easily, its fast to unscrew and you can replace or move the sights very quickly with no trouble whereas the BSA tube red dot is not as nice in this regard, The screws and the side of the rail pieces are easily detachable which means that once you have loosened them up they will most likely come off and if you aren’t careful you run the risk of losing a piece and they are vital so moving or replacing it is a bit more of a hassle and requires your attention.

The reticles themselves are highly individual where some people prefer a simple dot and the others like the big reticle that the Eotech 552 has to offer. Once again I am accustomed to the dot so I find the larger reticle a little strange to use and right now a bit of discomfort but again this is most likely because of me and Im sure I will change after a few weeks or months of use.

Tube front

As I mentioned before the ACM Eotech 552 replica does not have anti reflective coating or in fact much coating at all, When you view the sights from the front “the wrong end” you are able to spot the red reticle being projected onto the lens by the mirror which is a possible giveaway if you are aiming at someone while under cover. The BSA red dot does not have this problem because they have coated their front lens with something that prevents you from seeing trough it. You are only able to see a faint red light if you look close and carefully and as far as the mirror effect goes I have never experienced this at all.

And now for the looks! arguably one of the most important parts when it comes to gear for an airsofter, The BSA tube style red dot does not score well in this area because of several things, first and foremost it does not look like a real military optics, It has a rather ugly BSA logo on the side and a huge wheel on the top for selecting color and brightness. The Eotech on the other hand scores very well here because it looks almost exactly like its real steel counterpart and is in widespread military use today by many forces worldwide. The formfactor of the Eotech is also larger which makes it somehow look better and more tactic00l than the tube sight.

The dials to zero in both sights works as they should however the Eotech has an advantage because its windage and elevation adjustment screws are exposed to the outside so all you need is any object to turn them with whereas the BSA tube style red dot has two caps you need to screw off from the sight before the two windage and elevation knobs are adjustable, No specific tool is needed to turn them but they may be hard to do barehanded. Neither of the two scopes are able to change zero on the fly but you shouldn’t have to with them so this is not a problem.

To sum it up:

They both perform the same function
They cost almost the same, with the tube sight being slightly cheaper.
The Eotech has ghosting problems, the BSA red dot does not.
They have equal parallax correction
The BSA dot is slightly brighter than the Eotech reticle
The Eotech looks way cooler than the BSA and for looks alone it might be worth the money. hint: wallhanger!
The BSA scope is harder for removal or replacement than the Eotech
Battery life is unknown, The battery that came with the tube scope has only started getting a little bad after 1 year of use.
The Eotech reticle is a little rotated, the BSA is not (its a dot!)

The choice which to buy is a very individual one, but I can say this with confidence: Buy either one, They are both seemingly great piece of items and I’ve had my tube sight for a year now and its without a shadow of a doubt one of my better gadgets I got for airsofting because it improves your target acquisition and awareness immensively.

AKS-74U with Eotech 552

Me aiming

* I reserve the right to be an idiot and forget about mentioning details, just slap me and ill update the post accordingly

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Finally something new to post on this blog!

I have been looking around for guides regarding how to replace parts for my weapon and as you all know its a Kalash AKS-74U

I’ve found some good guides regarding the actual disassembly of the weapon but I realized quickly that 90% of the disassembly process was completely unnecessary if all you intend to do is replace an internal part inside the gearbox or perhaps swap the hop-up chamber or the inner barrel, thus here is my guide!

(more…)

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