Range Report: HOLOSUN Micro Red Dot Sight on my Storm Carbine
I just got back from the range; I finally got a chance to try out the HOLOSUN Micro Red Dot Sight on my 9mm Storm Carbine, and I took my HK VP9 along to put a couple hundred more rounds through her. Sighting it in was "interesting", due to my being a bonehead more than anything. Somehow I confused the adjustments- does cranking it UP move the dot or the bullet?:whistling: The PA dot sight I had on it - probably just by dumb luck- wasn't too far from zeroed right out of the box. No such luck with the HOLOSUN. It was about 10" low and 10" to the right. I actually was adjusting the wrong way at first. Also, I was too lazy to read the instructions so I had no idea how many MOA each click was. I wound up wasting a lot of ammo making one or two click adjustments. Ultimately I really cranked on it and got it close. Then it was easy to walk the bullets onto the X.
I opted to sight in at 10 yards, for two reasons. The first was pragmatic- I don't have a spotting scope so it's hard to see the bullet holes at 25 yards. The second reason is that I keep my Storm as my HD/zombie gun. The longest shot I could ever have in my house is about 30 feet. With the 115gr Federal Aluminum stuff I was running a dead on hit at 30 feet resulted in the carbine shooting about 3" high or so at 60 feet. For now I decided that's an acceptable compromise since I don't anticipate using the Storm out much passed typical handgun SD range.
The HOLOSUN performs very well! Optically it's in the same general league as the Primary Arms Classic Red Dot it replaced. I think the latter is actually optically superior with a tiny bit less tint to the window vs the HOLOSUN. Still I prefer the HOLOSUN sight since the auto ON/wake seems to work perfectly. It's also more user friendly. I find the rubber coated soft buttons on the top to be easier to adjust than the dial on the side of the PA. And since it lacks the large turret on the side like the PA has it's much cleaner and gives a better sight picture when shooting with both eyes open (my preferred way to shoot both rifles and sidearms).
Once sighted in the Storm with the HOLOSUN sight ran like a boss! :thumbup1: Out to 60 feet I carved the 3" target dot completely out of a target with three mags of ammo. It was child's play to dump a mag into the X-ring at handgun distance, as fast as I could pull the trigger. And of course, a "miss" with a long gun is much less pronounced than a miss with a sidearm; the former is off by a couple inches while the latter might not land on the paper. There's a lot to be said about having four points of contact vs the two with a sidearm.
I am starting to get more used to the trigger of the Storm. It's still not great but it doesn't really affect accuracy much like it would on a pistol. I'd still like to get the SP parts in the gun eventually but it will be a luxury more than a necessity. I'm not sure if it's break-in or just me getting used to it but the Storm is running very well.
Apropos of nothing the VP9 is a simply amazing shooter.:sorcerer: At any reasonable distance it drops bullet after bullet right into the X-ring with little effort. The bullets almost seem thought controlled. When I get my new holster from Garrett Industries the VP9 will enter my CCW rotation. If I couldn't avoid a gunfight and had to use a sidearm I'd be very relieved to have it happen on a day when I had the VP9 on me!
It's kind of funny; you could tell all the forum commandos that you keep a Glock 17 for home defense and you'd get a chorus of hoorahs, but tell them you have a 9mm Storm Carbine and you'll instantly be shouted down.:whistling: Rifle bulk with pistol power they'll tell you. Funny how a 9mm is a great choice in a pistol but seriously underpowered in a carbine.:gagged: But according to BBTI (actually crono'd) hot loadings out of the 16" Storm carbine are running right around .357 Mag velocity. Couple that with 20/30 round mags with dead-on reliability and pinpoint accuracy and I think you have a fine HD tool. Sure, an M4-gery will be more lethal but I don't feel undergunned at all with my Storm.:thumbup:
