Trijicon ACOG TA11 mini review

[Hairydavey]

The ACOG has been around for a lot longer than most people realize, if you Arnie fans out there have ever seen Terminator 2 and remember the scene where nut-job Sarah Connor tries to top off that Miles Dyson chap when he's at home, keep your eyes peeled on the scope on top of her Car-15. Tis an ACOG, and that film was released in 1992! I only found this out last night myself.

Anyway, enough of movie trivia. I recently ordered a .223 M4 from (rifle is still stuck in the States due to the exporter but that's another story), and decided that as it was a flat-top, I desperately needed some form of rear sight.

After having a look around the internet and browsing various reviews of rear carry handles, I stumbled across this TA11 ACOG which was second-hand, for the princely sum of £350 including an Armson HK mount (ex-police scope and would have been mounted on a HK33 rifle). Well, I had to snap that up as new they are an eye watering £1100! After forking out an extra £70 for the TA51 flat-top mount, that was my M4 optics sorted. Mine is of very early manufacture, being serial number 2963, and Trijicon have made hundreds of thousands of ACOG's to date.

The TA11 uses 3.5 x magnification and 35mm front lens, which is plenty for me, although the more common TA01 and TA31 ACOG's are 4 x mag and 32mm lens. Physically the TA11 is a fair bit bigger in length than these however and the larger objective lens gathers a little more light that those models.

Although as my rifle isn't here yet I haven't shot with it thus far, my first impressions are that it's an incredibly solid bit of kit. I use the SUSAT in work on a daily basis, and I would put the build quality higher than that. And the SUSAT in it's defence is no slouch. It's made from an Aluminium forging which then is machined internally for the internal parts and glass to be fitted and Nitrogen filled.

The TA11 uses the donut reticule with Bullet Drop Compensation marks for up to 800 meters, which is illuminated by Tritium in darkness, and by the fibre optic rod on top of the scope in normal and low light conditions. It is calibrated for .223 firing a 62 grain round through a 20" barrel, so although it's not going to be quite right for the 14.5" on the M4, it should be good to go once I learn the holdover points. It uses no crosshairs, but rather the whole reticule is etched into a prisim and the whole assembly is moved when adjusting the sights, so there is very little to go wrong or break.

All ACOG's that use the fibre optic rod on top use the Bindon Aiming Concept. What this basically amounts to is that with both eyes open, you can use the scope as a form of red dot when taking fast shots. It actually works in this capacity very well. Not as fast as a quality red dot, but it isn't far behind! I tried this out on the first ACOG I used which was the smaller TA31 model on another shooter's Steyr Aug straight pull, which was what sold me on Trijicon optics in general.

I can see why the MOD has procured numbers of ACOG's for use in the sandbox. The first advantage that the ACOG has over the venerable SUSAT is the reticule. On the SUSAT, the reticule is a post that obscures the fall of shot, in short, if your rounds fall short it's difficult to see the splash due to the sight post. The ACOG has it's aiming point square in the middle of the scope so any splash from short rounds can be seen. Also the SUSAT uses a range drum underneath the rear eyepiece for out to 800m which must be turned corresponding to the range at which it is being used. ACOG's have the BDC markings out to 800m on the reticule so there's no faffing around with range drums etc.

For competition shooting however, the ACOG would fall down against those who have variable mag scopes who dial in their shots, and they would beat a shooter using the ACOG every time. But the ACOG is one tough mother, will never break, looks the dogs dangly bits, and puts a big smile on my face

Piccies below;

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[mick a]

Nice review Dave have you tried the scope at night ?
Mick

[Hairydavey]

Cheers Mick. I've had a good look through it in total darkness, the reticule is still visible though it isn't bright as the tritium has decayed over time but still usable. Obviously this happens to all sights that use tritium including the susat, so that didn't surprise me for a used acog that's a few years old.

On a yank forum I saw where someone had got round this by using black masking tape to stick a mini led keyring torch to the fibre optic rod to make the reticule bright again. Ugly, but worked.