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SIRT Initial Impressions

I snagged a SIRT when they were on sale for $199. Anyhoo, I’ve put about 200 “rounds” through it today and I like it so far. More later. But, as the kids pointed out, it’s the greatest cat toy ever.

I’m trying to figure out why they come with eye protection.

15 Responses to “SIRT Initial Impressions”

  1. MattCFII Says:

    They are great, I use mine a lot and the AR bolt and have noticed a big improvement in my shooting. Tuning the SIRT to your trigger pull can be. A little tedious if you are trying to match a NY1 and 3.5 pound connector.

    I also use the LASR shot tracking/timer/analysis software with it which is really cool for about the same price as a LaserLyte target.

  2. Old NFO Says:

    Laser…

  3. wizardpc Says:

    Is the eye protection to prevent you from blinding yourself?

  4. Jeff Powell Says:

    The eye protection is to prevent the laser from damaging your eyes.

  5. Skeptical_Realist Says:

    So, this pistol is for “dry fire” practice, right Jeff?

    Do you dry fire at your own eyes? Do you dry fire at yourself in the mirror?

    That’s where the confusion comes from. Unless your dry fire target is a mirror-style reflective surface, what purpose does the I-Pro serve?

  6. Shrimp Says:

    @ Skeptical Realist

    Much like shooting, where one is supposed to wear ear and eye protection while on the firing line, with lasers, one should be wearing eye protection. Lasers can reflect off of all kinds of surfaces (not just mirrors), and a laser isn’t just a stronger, brighter light. It can do real serious damage to the eye.

    There are a multitude of different kinds of lasers, and a bunch of different kinds of safety glasses for those lasers.

    Do people wear them when using laser pointers and such? No, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be. I’m sure the company’s decision to include them was a lawyerly thing.

  7. Chris Says:

    I’m not a big fan of using my SIRT for playing with pets. Not a fan of using gun shaped anything for any non-shooting related activities. All together too easy to pick up a real firearm and get a nasty surprise. In our house, kids aren’t even allowed to point toy guns at people or pets. If you want to shoot, we’ll grab the appropriate ordinance and head to the range. SIRTS are for training, using it as a toy strikes me as a potentially dangerous plan.

  8. Patrick Says:

    The non-visible wavelengths of light in most red lasers are sufficient to cause damage, and because they are non-visible you won’t notice them reflecting into your eyes. It doesn’t take much.

    Babies are getting eye damage from “nanny cams” that use infra-red to see in the dark. Parents stick them over the cribs and watch remotely. The ones where there is a slight red glow (850 nm) are worst because the babies focus on the slight glow in the otherwise dark room. They are staring directly into a high-intensity light.

    So yeah, wear the goggles and keep those IR emitters turned off in the baby room.

  9. free webb Says:

    I’m afraid the laser would lead me to focusing on the light rather than the sights.

    Is that a problem? I played with one at the range and liked it, but don’t want to develop bad habits.

  10. MattCFII Says:

    RE: Seeing the dot
    With the LASR recording my hits, I’ve actually adjusted my laser POI under my POA. This is partly due to my AR SIRT bolt not being adjustable enough at my indoor range of 15′ to overcome the sight offset. But I’ve found I prefer it that way now so I don’t peek for the dot. I have to offset my target outlines down under the actual ones in LASR the same amount which is pretty easy.

    They also offer an IR beam laser in the SIRT but then you have to use something like LASR and an IR camera.

  11. Mr Evilwrench Says:

    @Patrick: The whole point of a laser is spectral purity. There is no IR emitted by a red one. The damage comes because the light is coherent and tightly focused. This is why lasers are used for cutting, surgery, that sort of thing, whereas no matter how powerful, LEDs just can’t do those things.

    I’m also skeptical of the assertion of eye damage due to IR LEDs in NV cameras (it’s not just the nanny cams) because it’s a pretty diffuse light meant to cover the field of view of the camera. It’s not all that powerful in fact, and the portion of that power that covers an aperture the size of the pupil of an eye is miniscule. There is nothing inherently damaging about IR, although there are IR lasers that are dangerous for the same reason the other colors are.

  12. Jake Says:

    @Mr Evilwrench: Most green lasers and some higher quality red lasers are actually Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) lasers. DPSS lasers use an IR diode laser focused on a crystal that lases in the desired wavelength. These often have issues with “leaking” IR light around the crystal, and insufficient (or no) IR filters.

    Worse, the leaked IR is sometimes at a higher power level than the unit itself is actually rated. NIST found green laser pointers rated at 10mW emitting IR at 20mW – enough to cause retinal damage.

  13. Will Says:

    More on what Jake said:
    In a DPSS laser, the diode must be higher in power than the working laser rating. Back in the mid 90’s, they were getting about 20-30% efficiency of output, depending on the number of optical elements after the crystal. It may be higher now. That driving laser is very hazardous to your eyes.
    Any collimated light is hazardous to your vision. The higher the power, and denser the beam (tighter), the more damage it is capable of doing. A diode pumped laser is a very dangerous thing to be around, without complete eye protection for BOTH laser wavelengths. BTDT, didn’t get a shirt.

  14. Mr Evilwrench Says:

    Ahh, I come to learn. I wonder, though, as powerful as the IR pumping diode is, is that power collimated, or just undirected leakage?

  15. Alien Says:

    Which makes me wonder – why is it so hard to find decent laser glasses/goggles? I use a DeWalt laser level a fair amount, which emits in the 650nm range, and finding easy to use “slip on” laser safety glasses for 650nm, similar to inexpensive shooting range plastic safety glasses, is proving to be a bitch. Plus, why is it so hard to find nm data on devices so one can get the proper glasses? Lots of safety warning stickers on the DeWalt and in its manual, but I had to search their web site to find what nm range it emits in.

    A bleg: Any suggestions as to where to look?

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