According to Trijicon, their new RMR HD was specifically designed for Law Enforcement and Military. Apart from some obvious benefits like new reticle options, it includes a forward-facing light sensor. This really struck a chord with me, so rather than taking one to the range, we mounted it on a blue gun and tested it in some real-world environments.

Some people are quick to pronounce iron-sights dead, because of the ability of red-dot sights to adjust to a wide range of lighting conditions. But these adjustments need to be taken care of either by the user or by the sight itself.

Wasted shoot *

I remember everything!

I remember every little thing as if it only happened yesterday.

 

(* Meat Loaf or his estate does not endorse the Trijicon RMR HD. Any resemblance to his lyrics is purely incidental.)

I learned the importance of a properly adjusted dot the easy way - at a club shoot. A couple of months ago, I had an absolute nightmare of a club shoot. I just could not find the dot on the sight that I used at the time. The first stage had some real unnatural shooting positions, so at first, I thought that was that. Later I blamed strong-hand and weak-hand shooting but, towards the end I was convinced that I just totally forgot how to shoot.

After the match, I went to an open bay and the issue was clear as daylight within five seconds of raising the pistol, (but damned if I could pick it up under pressure): The dot was about two settings too dim. It was still perfectly fine for slow shooting - in fact, I like a dimmer dot for slow shooting - but the delay in picking up the dot was painfully obvious. Not only to me but to all my good shooting buddies who so kindly assisted me with all sorts of advice on picking up a dot. This ordeal taught me some good advice of my own: Your best manual adjustment routine may drop you if you are preoccupied with other things.

The issue on the other side of the spectrum is more obvious but less serious. A dot that is too bright tends to light up the whole screen, making it difficult to see the target clearly. As I said, it is less serious, so most people prefer a dot that is too light over one that is too dark, but I have another issue worth mentioning; astigmatism. The higher the contrast, the more ghosting I see around my dot - this is why I prefer a dimmer dot for accurate shooting and a brighter dot for fast shooting. Or a sight that strikes the perfect medium in all conditions.

A light sensor allows some sights to strike some sort of a medium, but tricky conditions mean it is not always perfect. Like if you are shooting from a dark place into light, or the other way around. Hence, the RMR HD’s new forward-facing light sensor. And my fascination with it. I wanted to answer two questions:

• Which conditions, in our daily lives, are the tricky ones?
• How well does the RMR HD cope with it?

Testing procedure

As you can see, we mounted the optic on a blue gun. This allowed us some real freedom to point it at all sorts of things in all sorts of conditions. As a benchmark, I used a Trijicon SRO, because the screen is about the same size as on the RMR HD. After that, I changed to the RMR HD. The RMR HD has the option of a 3.25 MOA red dot, or a dot with a 50 MOA circle around it. For a better comparison, I used the dot only.

The test was quite straightforward: Press the gun out and see how quickly I can pick the dot up. Not being a Glock guy, and mounting the sights on a Glock blue gun, took some muscle memory out of the equation.

The SRO allowed me to determine which conditions tend to catch a normal light sensor out. We know the main issue will be shooting from the dark into the light, but how dark is dark and how light is light?

I aimed it at a wall.

I aimed it at the door.

I aimed it at the body of a colleague.

I aimed it from the inside of a car.

Benchmark: Trijicon SRO

The first round of testing highlighted something that I already knew: I like the SRO. Trijicon’s glass sometimes seems a bit more forgiving of my astigmatism, and the (non-forward-facing) auto adjustment works fine. Aiming from a doorway, towards the outside, the dot is slightly dim but not problematically so. From deeper inside the room, it is more noticeable, but also less likely to happen. The same thing happens inside a car. Towards the driver's side, the sight is in the open and brightly lid. Towards the passenger's side, the dot is slightly dim.

Inside a building, the biggest issue is corridors. Corridors are dimmer than you think, especially if you shoot towards a windowed room. I think this was the biggest revelation to me.

At night, the biggest challenge is, unsurprisingly, a target lit up by a weapon-mounted or handheld light. That is the kind of scenario that the Trijicon RMR HD was designed for.

Verdict: Trijicon RMR HD

The RMR HD turned out beautifully.

And I was able to see dots

In places that I had never seen before

I sometimes wonder if we will end up having to sing the same old songs, or if there is still room for innovation in a business such as ours. Then something like the RMR HD comes around and shows that there is still room for improvement.

It does hit the right combination of power chords.

In all the cases mentioned above, it works just that little bit better. And as my experience at the club shoot shows, a little bit better can make a big difference. Indoors and outdoors, it works perfectly. It works better than the SRO with a weapon-mounted light, but I would still prefer it to be one level brighter. Or, more likely, I could choose the pattern on my light more carefully. Something with less throw and more flood would compete less with the dot.

If a normal light sensor can be fooled in certain conditions, it stands to reason that a forward-facing sensor can be fooled in other conditions. For one, aiming past a bright light (like a low-mounted garden light) lights up the dot quite brightly. Overall, though, the dot errs on the side of brightness, never leaving you without a dot. It is quick to turn the brightness up, and slower to dial it down.

I like it!

Other considerations.

By now there are hundreds of other reviews of the RMR HD out there, and I don't want to repeat them. But a couple of things are worth mentioning.

While I think the 50 MOA circle is a bit busy for my taste, turning it on makes the dot even easier to find. On top of that, this Trijicon allows you to set the brightness level of the circle relative to that of the dot, so people like me can dial it down. It’s genius. (It also requires a genius to remember the correct sequence of button-presses to get you there, but that is to be expected considering that they only have two buttons to work with. At least the buttons feel a lot better than on previous Trijicons.)

It’s a bit bulky. Especially for the window size.

It’s expensive. But it’s Trijicon.

Although, I have to add, time will tell on this one. Just because it is called an RMR, does not guarantee the same legendary reliability. In my experience, battery compartments are a point of failure on slide-mounted optics, so moving to a top-mounted battery cover is a significant change.

Conclusion

We tend to underestimate both the importance of a properly adjusted red dot, and the effort required to keep it so. At least, I did. In this regard, the Trijicon RMR HD shows us what we have been missing.

If you are willing to fork out a bit more money, and carry a bit more bulk, you should definitely consider the Trijicon RMR HD. It runs like a Bat out of Hell.