By modern standards, though, it's a pathetic gunsight. It was a good try for its time, no doubt. It is an occluded eye gunsight (OEG), meaning you can't see through it. When you look in the end you see a black field with a red dot floating in it. You look at the target with your other eye and your brain merges the two images into one. Thus, you see the red dot superimposed upon the target.





Well, sort of. It doesn't work perfectly. The effects of phoria make the dot wander off the target if you aim for any length of time. Obviously this makes slow deliberate aiming impossible. You must shoot quickly or not at all.





Another problem with this sight is the dot is a whopping 16 MOA across. That is much too big--bigger than many targets I'd want to aim at. I find it necessary to sight in so that my point of aim is at the top center of the dot, right at the 12 o'clock position. I then use the dot as if it were a bead sight, placing the target atop it to aim.





. One problem the Singlepoint's design solved brilliantly was that of gaining sufficient contrast between the dot and the target. Because the dot is presented in a blacked out field, the eye looking into the sight sees plenty of contrast. Moreover, the Singlepoint needs no batteries. Enough ambient light to illuminate the dot is gathered by the small collector on the end. For a long while, see-through red dot sights needed to use polarizers to darken the target image so you could make out the dot, and they ate batteries like kids going through Crackerjacks





, EoTech , Trijicon and others, the Singlepoint now seems pretty crude and backward. But we can credit the Singlepoint with helping to get the ball rolling on what has become one of the most significant shooting developments in this century.



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Update, 21 March 2013: I just discovered by accident (I was researching something else) that the occluded eye gunsight has been in existence for quite a long time. It was used in World War One artillery. So far as I know, the Singlepoint was the first commercially successful application to small arms. Reference:



, By United States Army Ordnance Departmant Dot sight technology has come a long way since the early days. Compared to the present day offerings of Aimpoint and others, the Singlepoint now seems pretty crude and backward. But we can credit the Singlepoint with helping to get the ball rolling on what has become one of the most significant shooting developments incentury.---------------Update, 21 March 2013: I just discovered by accident (I was researching something else) that the occluded eye gunsight has been in existence for quite a long time. It was used in World War One artillery. So far as I know, the Singlepoint was the first commercially successful application to small arms. Reference: Elementary optics and applications to fire control instruments: May, 1921, p. 84 , By United States Army Ordnance Departmant

Despite its peculiarities, the Singlepoint was successful in getting riflemen interested in the red dot idea. Improved dot sights that you could actually see through were soon on the way. A sight tube you could look through eliminated phoria effects by giving both eyes a shared view of the target.