Airsoft SpecOps: Revision: Protecting the Optical Sight on Airsoft Guns

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Protecting the Optical Sight on Airsoft Guns

I would never think that a 400 FPS plastic BB can shoot out a glass aiming sight. After all, the claim is that a plastic BB is much softer than a glass BB. But with so many Internet reports of glass sights and scopes being shot out in airsoft games, you have to take it seriously.

So when I placed the Ultimate Arms Gear Tactical 4 Reticle Sight (JH400) onto my APS ASR106 Mini Patriot M4, I really didn't want it to get shot out on the field.

Now, you can get an airsoft sight protector (see Related Links below). But it's $15 every time it gets shot out by an airsoft BB. You might as well get $10 red dot sights instead. And my guess is the plastic protector will blur the sight version.

I have a better idea... glass microscope slides. You can buy 72 glass slides for $5 to $10 (see photo below). Every time one slide gets shot out, you just use another one.

The microscope slide is made out of clear glass (see photo below). And is usually made uniformly in order to provide the best visibility for scientific research purposes. Make sure you don't get the frosted version.

The microscope slide is just big enough to cover the Ultimate Arms Gear Tactical 4 Reticle Sight (see photo below). In fact, one slide has enough surface area to serve twice. If your sight is bigger, than you can use multiple slides.

Use a glass cutter (see photo below) to score the glass. After scoring the glass, snap the glass slide in two. Before you snap it, make sure you wear goggles.

After cutting the glass to size, I tried it on the sight. I taped the glass slide to the front of sight. Turning on the red dot, I found that the glass slide doesn't throw off the holographic red dot. Perfect. The microscope glass was so uniform, there was no distortion in the vision. It worked better than I expected. The question, then, was how to mount it permanently, but not so permanent that it can't be replaced.

The answer is white glue. White glue on the four corners of the microscope slide (see photo below) makes it easy to fix to the sight. It excretes no fume to fog the sight. A bit of finger nail can usually remove it from most surfaces. At worst, a little bit of water will solute it.

I took the sight with microscope slide protection to an indoor CQB field this past weekend. It worked beautifully. Neither the microscope slide nor the sight got shot out. I don't know if it was ever hit by a BB. But with it, I wasn't afraid to stick the rifle out at the enemy.

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