See All Open Sight (SAOS)

The See All Open Sight (SAOS) is unlike any other sight currently in production. Iron sights require shooters to align a front sight and a rear notch or aperture with the target. Red dot style sights allow the shooter to look through the optic and super impose the dot on the target. The SAOS does not have a traditional front/rear sight, nor is it a tube that the shooter looks through.

The shooter looks through the rear lens that magnifies the imprinted triangle reticle on the fiber optic. The reticle appears in the bottom half of the shooter’s vision and the shooter places the target on top of the triangle reticle. This process is much more like using rifle sights (with a short sight radius) than a red dot optic.

The SAOS attaches to any standard picatinny rail by sliding on from the front or rear, then being secured by tensioning set screws down into the notches of the rail. Out of spec or coated rails will cause difficulties attaching the sight. I did not have any issues mounting the SAOS to any of the guns I tested it on. Windage and elevation are adjusted with two allen head screws. 1/16 of a turn = 1” at 100 yards. Sighting is relatively easy, but takes more time/ammo than sights with click adjustments. If one has access to a laser bore sighter to do the gross adjustments before hitting the range it makes the process much easier.

As part of my evaluation I tried the SAOS on several different guns. I started with an Airsoft 1911 race gun replica. One thing I noticed when using it on the pistol vs rifle is with the pistol extended at arm’s length the triangle was larger and less crisp than when it was mounted on a rifle closer to the shooter’s eye.

I decided to test the SAOS on my Sig 556R. The height of the rail in relation to the stock of the Sig made it possible to use the SAOS without a riser. Using the SAOS on an AR15 would require using a riser. I zeroed the SAOS at 25 yards. I could easily hit the steel plates on the range out to 200 yards in daylight. I found the best way to use it at distance was to come up underneath the target to put it on the tip of the triangle.

I then went to try it indoors at Shooters World. In artificial light the SAOS still worked fine. In reduced light with part of the lights turned off it still functioned reasonably well. With all the lights turned off the sight was unusable. With an Inforce APL weponlight turned on I could barely see the triangle, and the SAOS was less usable than iron sights in the same conditions.

Even with variable power scopes, sometimes angled iron sights are used in Tac-Scope division 3 Gun to engage close targets without distortion. Open division shooters use red dots the same way. The shooter simply rotates the stock in the shoulder to bring the angled sight to 12 o’clock. I mounted the SAOS to the angled rail on a Warne scope mount on a Windham Weaponry SRC-308, to evaluate its effectiveness in this role. It did in fact work fine with a smaller foot print than angled iron sights typically have. The question is how will match directors treat the SAOS; will it be considered an optical sight or an iron sight? If it is treated as an optical sight it will relegated to open division, and consequently be of less use vs using a red dot optic.

The last gun I tried the SAOS on was my VEPR-12 shotgun. The shotgun is perhaps the most natural use of the SAOS because it felt similar to using a bead sight with the added benefit of being able to zero it. The SAOS was very easy to use with both eyes open for fast reflexive shooting.

The SAOS is a serviceable sight for recreational use in daylight. It fills a similar price point as low end red dot sights without the risk of electronics failing. It is more cost effective and smaller than a matching front/rear iron sight set. I would not hesitate to recommend it for recreational use. For self-defense/home defense applications, in its current form it is lacking because it cannot be used in low light conditions even with weapon mounted lights in place. Honestly for the price point of $100 MSRP with street price around $85.00, it performs exactly as I would expect it to.