The idea of putting a red dot sight on an pistol is nothing new. IPSC shooters started doing it in the 80s, and recently pistol red dots gained a lot of popularity with certain military units, law enforcement and armed citizens who want to get more performance out of their handguns. Many people were puzzled that Aimpoint, one of the most famous reflex sight manufacturers, did not offer any pistol red dots sights, until last summer Aimpoint released a product announcement  of their new ACRO P-1 red dot sight.

AIMPOINT ACRO P-1 HANDGUN – battery compartment cap

AIMPOINT ACRO P-1 HANDGUN – brightness adjustment buttons

Yesterday, during the SHOT SHOW Industry day, Aimpoint demonstrated their new ACRO P-1 red dot sight and gave us information about MSRP, release dates and some of the technical specifications and features.

ACRO P-1 uses CR1225 battery and, according to the manufacturer, has en expected battery life of 1.5 years. Battery can be replaced without detaching the red dot off the slide. The sight is also very lightweight – only 2.1 oz (60 grams).

The red dot is 3.5 MOA and has 4 night settings and 6 daylight settings. All the tools required for the installation of the red dot will be included with the sight.

One improvement Aimpoint want to make is to change the battery compartment cap so it could be opened with a standard Aimpoint tool. Upon release, ACRO P-1 will be available with over a dozen mount plate bases for different pistols.

Aimpoint representative shooting a Glock 17 gen 5 with ACRO P-1 red dot sight.

After shooting a few magazines with a Glock 17 Gen 5 equipped with this sight I was pleasantly surprised by how naturally I was picking up the dot despite the fact that I only train with ironsights on my pistols. Large window definitely helped to minimise the learning curve and using a red dot felt natural right away.

ACRO P-1 should be available in April 2019 with a MSRP of 660$.