Recently, a few rumblings have made their way out regarding Leupold’s new 1x optic. Word on the street is that it’s a 1x red dot sight with a etched reticule known as the “LCO”.
Very little is known about the optic; it first leaked with a Viking Tactics Youtube video where the instructor gave us a rundown of a drill while trying to hide the LCO with his hand. He didn’t do a very good job and it almost looks like hes a little embarrassed trying to hide something.
Oh Leupold, you can’t hide your secrets. An etched reticle? A rectangular form factor? This is a highly evolved collimator sight similar to the P90 ring sight.
The P90 ring sight was a bomb proof, but poorly executed, collimator sight.
The design has been around for decades and is simple in execution. Light is gathered over a diffuser window and passes on to a mirror / prism assembly where the reticule is etched. The reticle is then reflected towards the main body of the optic where the shooter sees it reflected into the window. Leupold has integrated the illumination into the reticule and this will give shooters an optic with the advantages of a red dot and a backup “always on” reticle in case of batter failure. Furthermore, the optic can support any reticle design Leupold’s engineers can produce. A chevron, a circle dot, etc. are all possible with this type of optic.
Light is collected into a diffuser similar to the P90 sight seen above
So it looks funky, but it may be a game changer. These types of optics differ from prismatics in that they are parallax free and don’t require you to place your eye in the “eye box” of a prismatic 1x optic. These are more like the open window parallax free red dot sight. While I may not have the official name just right (for example it may be Leupold Collameter Optic or some such variation… or maybe i am dead wrong altogether) I believe I have figured out what Leupold will soon release.
My suggestion to Leupold is to release a chevron reticle as it is a far better shape than a simple dot or a large circle.
Note the rectangular form factor.
Wrapping Up
Collimator sights have been around for a long time. Leupold is producing an updated design on this decades old tech. Hopefully Leupold is going to knock our socks off and give us an optic that has all the benefits of a red dot, but with custom reticles and an always on reticle in case of battery failure. I can’t wait to see how this develops.
