I’ve been dying to tell you about the new Dual-Enhanced View Optic and Leupold Carbine Optic from Leupold Optics but I’ve been under a Non Disclosure Agreement until literally two minutes ago. It’s great to see Leupold enter into the Red Dot Optic market.
But they didn’t just enter the RDS market. They’ve launched a new way of offering magnification as well.
When I was first shown the D-EVO I know I had a weird look on my face. They handed me this ‘N’-shaped chunk of aluminum with glass at either end and a Picatinny mount at the bottom. I messed with it a little and listened to their pitch. A lot of thought went into this thing. The size had to be just right. The height had to be just right. The angles had to be just right. The D-EVO is a 6×20 fixed power prism optic which uses mirrors and lenses to get the job done. It could be used stand alone but it’s meant to be used in conjunction with a Red Dot Sight.
Developed over the last year, the Dual-Enhanced View Optic has many features being considered for the Army’s future Squad Common Optic. Leupold chose to integrate the Close Mid-Range Reticle with Wind holds (CMR-W) from the popular MK6 line (7.62 version below for illustration). It offers bullet drop to 600m as well as windage but this version uses averages for 5.56 and 7.62 cartridges. It offers up to 50 mils of windage and elevation adjustment with 0.1 mil increments per click of the dials. The D-EVO is 2″ tall, 4.6″ long, taking up only 3.2″ of rail space due to its mount. It weighs 13.8 oz and is waterproof to 66 feet.
Once in the range, I was convinced. It was like bifocals for my rifle. I could glance up or down and the cowitnessed RDS and D-EVO depicted the same POI whether I was looking through the 1x RDS or the 6x D-EVO. I didn’t have to turn any knobs or flip a magnifier into place. I just moved my eye ever so slightly. Experimenting, I found that if you mess around enough, you can see through both of them at the same time although focus remains on one or the other.
The photo above is looking out at about 200m while the image below is at 100m.
Granted, there is a downside. In order to get everything to fit in such a small package, the 20mm objective lens is on the right side of the weapon. Yes, your brass are going to hit it and we talked about this. In fact, there are some photos below of the bottom of a D-EVO and you can see the checking from the expended cases. They’ve got thousands upon thousands of shots recorded on some of these and it hasn’t rattled anything loose yet. This configuration also means that just like with barrel awareness while shooting from a barricade, you’ve got to remember where your D-EVO lens is. While shooting from the left side of a barricade, I snuggled up tight and obscured my objective lens. No biggy, I was able to engage the target using the LCO but it’s something you have to consider all the same.
As a group we were able to try the D-EVO coupled with both Leupold’s LCO as well as an Aimpoint T-1. It worked just as well with either sight. And what’s more, Leupold’s rep at the range acknowledged that the D-EVO would be used in conjunction with other RDS brands and they didn’t care. They realize that there are millions of sights out there from a variety of manufacturers and they know that the D-EVO is such a game changer that they just want it out there regardless of what it is used with.
These shots offer a great 360 of the D-EVO allowing you to see the adjustments and lenses.
And the bottom, with integral Picatinny mount.
The D-EVO ships in March, 2015.
This is Leupold’s foray into the Carbine Red Dot Sight market. It offers a wide field of view and 2 MOA dot. Adjustments are 1/2 MOA. The LCO has a rheostat control and manual on/off with 16 settings, including NVG. It uses a CR123A battery which offers a 5 year life. Like some of the other new optics coming from Leupold, the LCO is waterproof to 66′ so they are definitely looking at military use.
Here is a 360 degree view of the LCO.
The Leupold Combat Optic begins shipping March, 2015.
Both the D-EVO and LCO are proudly made in the USA! I can’t wait for the chance to see how they both fare long term.
* Photographed at Spartan Tactical.
