Introduction
SHIELD company specializes in manufacturing red dot sights, and their mounting solutions for British military and Special Forces. SHIELD was formed in early 1980s in United Kingdom. Currently their production includes five different products: Mini Sights, Close Quarters Sights, Close Quarter Battlesights, Switchable interface sights and Reflex Mini Sights. SHIELD Mini Sight is definitely one of the smallest and lightest reflex sights in the world. This small piece of optics is used by law enforcement, military and for sports use. Originally, this sight was designed for handgun usage, but due to it’s usefulness, it is also usable for various different pieces of firearms, such as rifles and shotguns. Sight has an adjustment range of 3.6 m/100m, with windage and elevation adjustment having the same adjustment range. Optical predispositions of this device, allow the user to observe an object or target with both eyes open. This results in highest possible field of view and simple measurement.
Physical properties
Body of this device is manufactured from a glass-filled nylon, which stands for an extremely durable and strong product. Despite it’s small and relative fragile look, this sight is designed and tested to whitstand considerable amount of shock, with more than 10 times than products with glass optics. It’s also very interesting to note, that this is the only SHIELD red dot sight which features battery holder below device itself. Battery is placed between mount and housing, which reduces it’s mass and size. That’s why this mount is extremely low. All other SHIELD sights have side battery insertment. The sight itself is made of polymer which offers great accuracy and shockproof. Battery is removed via the cavity next to the battery holder. Battery is straightforwardly removed with the allen screw. Mini sight uses a CR2032 lithium battery, which lasts up to 4 years depending on the frequency of usage. In terms of mounting, this red dot sight is highly versatile, since there are numerous mounting options available. This device is not compatible with Docter mounts, since SHIELD manufactures it’s own mounts for their red dot sights. SHIELD mini sight is aproximately 40 mm long.
Optical properites
Generally, this product is designed with one of the smallest windows in the field of red dot sights. The look through window offers real 1x magnification. Every optical instrument or device has some weaknesses and advantages. Definitely, day time usage is highly praised with this red dot, beacuse of very high brigthness intensity levels. Although, device doesn’t have any illumination control system, it is however designed with an automatic light intensity, which adjusts and controls visibility of red dot against the target. When aiming into darker area, intensity lowers, but when aiming into brighter area, dot intensifies. Image has no vision distortion or blue tint, which is very satisfactorily. Far extreme edges of the image are appearing a little blurry but this does not affect the performance of this sight. Window is aproximately 22mm wide and 16mm high. This may prove disadvantageous to some users of this product, which are used to bigger red dot sights. 4 MOA red dot could be a little bit better defined, since such definition may result in imprecise shooting at medium or long range. Advantage of this red dot is certainly it’s mass and compact size, it also works on all sorts of handguns, negligible of the recoil. Red dot is very bright, even at high daytime light. This product is a great choice for small and compact handguns.
Conclusion
With very small and compact design, this red dot sight may look like a cuddly toy, but with it’s unique design and optical quality this product is everything else but that. Manual illumination intensity level adjustment would stand as ultimate addition to this, otherwise very good red dot sight. This sight is perfect for situations where the shooter aims to have as little obstacles on its firearm and weight as possible.
