My generation was the first to use handheld electronic calculators in school. The calculators we used were awkward, bulky things, with red LED numerals and were powered off of 9 volt batteries. Things changed over the years, though, and electronics shrank in size and consume less power. The calculator my son now uses in his math classes is thin, lightweight and is powered by a solar cell and internal battery.
This holds true for the red-dot optic on top of your firearm. The electronics needed to run the first red dots were large, and the LEDs inside of them sucked power at a prodigious rate. Over time, though, advances in both LED technology and circuit design meant that sights could shrink in size and last longer before running out of juice. Sure, you could add a solar cell to give you some backup if your batteries ran out, but the standard had been set: Red (or green) dot optics must be powered by a replaceable battery of some kind, because, well, because.
Which brings me to the Holosun SCRS, or Solar Recharging Rifle Scope. The same technology that shrank the handheld calculators of my youth means that the SCRS can be powered off an internal, non-replaceable battery which is charged up via a high-efficiency solar cell on top of the sight. Holosun says this combination eliminates the need for a replaceable battery, a claim that was met with some skepticism in the gun community, which made a certain amount of sense. After all, the sighting system on your gun is one of the things that has to work all the time, every time, and not being able to change out the battery goes against the grain of how red dot sights have worked in the past. For the SCRS to work, that internal battery has to be there every time you pick up the gun. But is that actually the case?
I've Got The Power
Well, after six months using this optic mounted on top of a Ruger LC Carbine, a gun that so far has lived most of its life inside the darkness of my gun safe, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Thanks to the “instant on” motion-activation and auto-sleep feature of the SCRS, the dot is powered up only when you use it and goes to sleep after 10 minutes of rest. The auto-level function of the SCRS worked well for me, and it’s nice that there are manual adjustments in 12 steps to change the brightness if needed.
The version I tested was the MRS RD model, which can have either a 2 MOA dot, 65 MOA circle or a combination of the two. The sight is adjustable in 1 MOA clicks, and it fits on the same risers and accessories as the Holosun 509T.
Light Weight, Full-Featured
Speaking of other red dots, it’s hard to over-stress how small and light the SCRS really is. A smaller optic is a less obtrusive optic which doesn’t get in the way as much, and a lighter weight means everything out in the field. Factor both of those in with the fact that you don’t need to carry spare batteries for this optic, and it starts to make a lot of sense.
We don’t have cathode-ray tube televisions in our homes any more, and the days of the console stereo with a record player and 8-track cassette are long gone. The state of the art in electronics advances at a pace that is much faster than the pace at which guns advance, and the Holosun SCRS is proof of that fact. It’s not 1985 anymore, and what’s state of the art in electronics then isn’t state of the art today. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that fact, and use a modern power source like the SCRS.
SCRS RD MRS Specifications:
- Reticle: 2-MOA dot and 65-MOA circle
- Reticle Color: Red
- Magnification: 1X
- Power Source: Solar & Battery
- Battery Type: Internal rechargeable battery
- Battery Life (Hours): Unlimited
- Brightness Settings: 10 daylight, 2 night vision
- Window Diameter: 20 mm
- Dimensions: 1.7×1.35×1.6 inches
- Weight: 2.45 ounces
- Housing Material: 7075 T6 Aluminum
- Surface Finish: Anodized
- Adjustment per Click: 1 MOA
- Windage and Elevation Travel Range: Plus/Minus 50 MOA
- MSRP: $317.64
