Solid & Transparent red dot covers

[pk47]

I haven't yet understood the reason for cover types on red dot systems. The rear is transparent, the front is solid.

Aimpoint says this is for "Ability to shoot with both eyes open in an emergency or in bright sunlight." I could still do either if the front cover was transparent.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I'm obviously missing something. Thanks.

--pk47

[Brian D.]

Some folks do have a tendency to close one eye while using sights or a scope. It can be a hard habit to unlearn. Something to do with the level of difference in vision between dominant and non dominant eye.

At one time--and I got this changed, quickly--my opthalmologist had the vision in both my eyes balanced out exactly the same, via the contact lenses he prescribed. This was distracting, because my peepers were kinda like, fighting, to run the sights on my guns.

I explained it to the eye doc pretty much exactly in those words. He not only didn't sign psych hold papers on me, he apologized and tweaked the 'scrip so that my non dominant eye wasn't trying to seize control any more.

Seriously, it was disconcerting when they were exactly the same. Guess it wouldn't bother folks who were born that way.

[pk47]

So, I think you're saying you'd close the front (solid) cover to ensure using your non-dominant eye? Why would the rear cover be transparent?

[Brian D.]

I don't know.

[FormerNavy]

I'm not sure the covers have anything to do with eye dominance. I'm not sure why the front cover is not also clear, but I know why the rear one is. As previously mentioned, it's for emergencies.... if you need to get a quick bead on something (or someone) and don't have time to flip the covers up, the theory is you could at least see the dot through the rear clear cover and estimate being on target... I assume for close encounters. Maybe the front cover isn't clear just for cost savings, I dunno.

[Dave Shooter]

Bindon Aiming Concept

[pk47]

I'm not sure the covers have anything to do with eye dominance. I'm not sure why the front cover is not also clear, but I know why the rear one is. As previously mentioned, it's for emergencies.... if you need to get a quick bead on something (or someone) and don't have time to flip the covers up, the theory is you could at least see the dot through the rear clear cover and estimate being on target... I assume for close encounters. Maybe the front cover isn't clear just for cost savings, I dunno.

Building on that, it made me think if it is an emergency, you might have time to flip one cover but not two. In that case, the front cover is what you flip.

The only real reason I could think of for front solid, rear clear, is you can verify before flipping covers the red dot is on. Or, when you are done using the rifle, you can verify the dot is on (or off) before putting it away.

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I was thinking I was missing something intuitively obvious.