I’ve owned a number of Aimpoints over the years, starting with an ML2 which I bought when one of my EOTech 512s dimmed.
Up until that point I’d always been an EOTech fan, but the dimming knocked my confidence in the brand. This was years before L3 started issuing refunds, due to its scrape with the US government over capability expectations. The 512 had a reputation for nitrogen loss and it was this which caused the dimming (a problem I believe was solved in the XPS/EXPS series).
Nevertheless, it sent me down the Aimpoint path – although I’ve always kept at least one EOTech to hand for a bit of variety. There’s something about that fuzzy hologram that a red dot just can’t compete with.
Nevertheless, a svelte Micro H1 followed the bulky, heavy ML2. Then the H1 was superseded by a T1 (I’ll refer to the H1 and T1 collectively as the “1-series”). None of those optics let me down. That said, I’ve always felt frustrated by 1-series lens protection solutions. They either risk falling off, or change the silhouette of the optic to the extent that it doesn’t look like an Aimpoint.
Enter the Micro H2 – the hunting variant of the 2-series – which features great protection, front and back.
Whereas the 1-series came with an opaque slip-over rubber bikini cover, the H2 features integrated flip-up covers with a difference: clear lenses.
Now, these lenses aren’t explicitly ballistic rated, but they’ve held up really well over the past two years.
For my uses, there was no performance difference between H1 and T1. I don’t need NVG compatibility and the H2 was cheaper than the (tactical) T2; so that made my mind up as to which variant to buy.
No changes have been made to the footprint of the 2-series optics, so mounts which work with the 1-series will work with them (aside from those zany mounts with built-in covers, which are now superfluous).
There are various articles on the web which deal at length with the differences between the 1-series and 2-series optics.
The main differences are:
- Integrated transparent flip-up lens covers on the H2 (the T2’s front cover is opaque)
- Steeply-angled objective lens, which keeps the dot crisp when using a magnifier
- Bulwark turret architecture, to protect the top turret and prevent gear hang-ups
- The top turret itself has a flathead twist cap, as opposed to the standard two-pin cap
- Stronger detente clicks on the brightness adjustment wheel
- Enhanced light transmission for truer-colour sight picture (i.e. less blue)
- Stainless steel helicoil thread inserts at the base of the optic, to help avoid stripping the threads
The things I really like about the Aimpoint Micro series are it’s form factor and efficiency.
The optics are small. As such, field of vision is comprehensive because there’s not a lot of optic body to obscure things. They are also so light as to be barely noticable; way different to the top heavy feel of an EOTech (even my EXPS3-0 sometimes feels like I have a brick attached).
As for efficiency, I’ve left my H2 running at a medium setting for two years and I’m still counting. I gather I should get five years out of the battery.
Some dislike the lack of an automatic shut-off option with Aimpoint, but given the efficiency you may as well leave the optic running and always ready.
Lastly, Aimpoints just don’t break. There is less to go wrong inside – with limited features – and they are very robust.
I won’t go on about holding zero, because I don’t want to get any deeper into the Aimpoint vs. EOTech debate; you can read all about EOTech’s woes online so I won’t repeat them here. Nor will I harp on about Aimpoints being parallax free, whereas EOTechs are not.
Suffice to say, the H2 has been a great investment and I have really enjoyed using it.
The Reptile House 
Comments are closed.