Hi Folks,

My Shirley is great for a lot of reasons. One of them is that she doesn't get on my case for leaving gun stuff from work on the dining room table periodically. I think a night vision riflescope looks better displayed upon occasion than the standard flower vase, but that's just me.
My Colt flattop took up a fair bit of room on the table this weekend. I was using it as a platform to test different sighting units in various conditions, including a very user friendly Night Owl, an EOTech, and a couple of Trijicon ACOGs; one for a flattop, one for a carry handle.
For those that are interested, you can certainly shoot a coyote at 100 yards with little ambient light with a standard first generation night vision riflescope.
The EOTech sights are the quickest units you've ever seen, and the one minute dot is directly above your front sight post. I would prefer a small riser to raise my head just a bit. My standard set up on this gun has Trijicon iron sights, and a Docter red dot next to a laser. I prefer this heads-up sighting system because it gives me great peripheral vision. The 550 EOTech series may also be used with night vision, and offers excellent peripheral vision.
The two different ACOGs were a full size and a compact, and are hard to beat for balance and clarity of optics in a lit reticle design. One of the ACOGs had the BAC (Bindon Aiming Concept) and one did not. My eyes had no problem adjusting from one power to magnified, but maybe that's because I've spent most of my life looking through scopes. I'd be interested to hear how newer shooters assimilate the two-eye-open concept.
I don't really find a scope mounted on a carry handle to be that much of a detriment with AR-type guns, maybe because I'm used to them. You can also shoot with a gas mask on, which I've tested for fun, unlike our brave soldiers that have to train like this to stay alive.
All-in-all it was a productive and typical weekend with toys from Optics Planet. Shirley even got some forced labor out of me in the garden.