The Meprolight M21 reflex sight can be purchased online for less than $500 at the time of this writing. When your forces consist of large numbers of conscripts who might lack the benefit of advanced training, a simple reflex sight, not requiring batteries, not needing to be fiddled with once zeroed, is a solid choice.
At less than thirteen ounces for sight and mount combined, the M21 is considerably lighter than most variable scopes and will be more durable. It provides for fast, both-eyes-open shooting at the short-to-medium ranges than an urban battlefield usually offers. Like all such optics, it is generally easier to use than iron sights. From the perspective of the Israeli Defense Force, such an optic makes a lot of sense.
Personally, I got mine because it was on sale and it’s been around long enough to be of proven quality. Why use one now, when other options are available? It’s undeniably old technology, one that is being overshadowed by modern electronic sights and variable optics. In 2021, when low-power variable scopes have been adopted for general issue by both the US Army and Marine Corps, something as simple as a reflex sight can seem “retro” or even “quaint”. If the reticle is too bright, you can partially cover the fiber optics with tape. You should also make sure that the fiber optics don’t get covered, or else the reticle won’t be as bright as it should be. Like all open reflex sights, you have to take care to not things like dust or dirt block the emitter, otherwise, the reticle will disappear. The brightness of the sight is dependent on how much light is shining onto the top and sides of the sight itself. That said, there are some limitations with fiber optic illumination of which you should be aware. I’ve had no trouble picking out the reticle against backgrounds of any color. The amber illumination, while perhaps not quite as vibrant as red or green, is quite useable in all lighting conditions. Meprolight offers the M21 with a triangle reticle, a 4.3 or 5.5 MOA dot, or an open X aiming point. If you’re concerned with this, you can get versions of this sight with other reticles. I have noticed, however, that when shooting smaller targets or at longer ranges, the outer circle can sometimes obscure the target. The large circle makes for a big, easy-to-spot aiming point for use in fast and close shooting, and the center dot provides a more precise aiming point. Amber in color, the center dot appears to be 3.5-4.5 MOA and is surrounded by a segmented circle. It’s more akin to the donut-and-center-dot reticles used on some ACOGs.
I purchased it thinking it would be like an EOTech reticle, but it’s not. The model I have has what Meprolight calls a “bullseye” reticle. Tritium/Fiber Optic sights offer a level of simplicity and ruggedness in not needing batteries and not having any electronics. Still, the battery life in most LED-illuminated rifle scopes can be pretty limited, especially when compared to fiber optics, which will work for as long as the sight is intact. This is less of an advantage today than it was 20 years ago today, red dot sights with 50,000+ hours of useful battery life are common. Such optics also do not rely on batteries. In fact, some of them can be too bright it wasn’t uncommon for soldiers in Iraq to partially cover the fiber optics of their ACOG scopes with 100MPH tape to reduce the intensity of the illuminated reticle. Even today, when some illuminated optics aren’t really what you’d call “daylight bright”, fiber optics have no trouble in this area. Before LED lights were bright enough or reliable enough for weapons sights, fiber optics and tritium were providing both day and night illumination for them. This was obvious even before most users of such optics had even heard of the Bindon Aiming Concept or had heard the term “occluded shooting”. Optics like these were pioneered by Trijicon in the 1990s and offered several big (and relatively new) advantages at the time.
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