Speed in a fight isn’t just about ‘going faster.' That's what I was taught anyway. It’s the reduction of unnecessary movement. Or, as Bruce Lee put it “It's not daily increase but decrease - hack away the unessential!”
Pride Fowler Industries (PFI) has incorporated this idea into their Rapid Reticle systems, to speed up target acquisition and engagement with long range optics. They hack away the unnecessary by eliminating the need to dial in adjustments from target to target. The most recent example of this is the RR-900.
Note to trolls: I’m not saying Bruce Lee was a sniper. I'm just making a point.
Kit Up! LRS Range Day with PFI Optics: Action-4, RR-CQLR-1, RR-900-4, SOPS-Compact
The primary feature of this optic is the reticle. It was developed with the idea in mind that the average skull we might want to shoot at is approximately a 9” target (not counting turban, qaraqul or pakol). Likewise the shoulder width is going to be approximately 18”. They used this as a foundation to develop the “integrated head and shoulders ranging system”(Rapid Reticle).
PFI was contracted by the Army’s REF (Rapid Equipping Force) to build an optic for the M14 that would allow rapid engagement of multiple targets at various distance. The RR-900 is the result. It is not a traditional sniper scope though it can be used as one.
“This isn’t built for ‘precision sniping’, so to speak,” Richard Nguyen of PFI told me. He made a few minutes to talk to me while waiting for a flight home to CA from Atlanta after spending some time at Ft. Benning. “This wasn’t built to punch the center out of a dime at a thousand yards, though it could do so in the right hands. This was made specifically for the kind of fight Squad Designated Marksmen are in right now in Afghanistan.”
The optic is also built to be very intuitive so there’s a very short learning curve. A Sergeant Major at Ft. Benning two desk clerks just in from BMT, shooters who had never shot past the 300, and in approximately 15 minutes had them engaging targets out to 800m. Admittedly, that’s not on a two-way range in bad conditions, but think about what they could have done if they’d been given two or three days to learn how to exploit the optic to its fullest advantage, to compensate for wind and environmental conditions.
Not to be ghoulish, but the RR-900 is also designed with simplicity so it’s less personalized and can be more easily moved from one shooter to another. If an SDM is unable to continue a mission, another shooter can get behind the glass and quickly go to work.
Here's a video from PFI talking about the scope and showing it in use. Now, I'm going to be honest. I just skipped from 2:00 to about 4:45 or so. I got bored, no offense to the guys in the video.
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The RR-900 has been in the field in Afghanistan, has been tested and evaluated at Ft. Irwin, Ft. Benning, JRTC and other places, including Camp Phoenix. The reticle compensates for up to 10mph wind, and provides half MOA on elevation and windage.
Though it is designed to shoot from 100 to 1,000m, they have confirmed target hits at 1,200m.
“I’m sure it will shoot farther than that, properly dialed in,” Richard told me, “but it’s made for one hundred to a thousand, and we only have confirmation right now of hits at twelve hundred.”
The tube is black anodized 6061 T6 aluminum tubing, it uses Japanese glass and it retains the adjustment turrets of its predecessors.
To give you an example of the difference in speed between a Rapid Reticle 900 and a traditional sniper scope, an evaluating agency took ten proficient shooters out to the range with two identical long guns. On with a standard issued sniper scope (I do not know which one, though I’ll try to find out) and one RR-900. The shooters took turns engaging 10 targets from 250m to 650m, using first one then the other. The fastest time with the traditional sniper scope to hit all 10 targets: 37 seconds. The fastest time with the RR-900 was 17 seconds. (You can contact PFI for test data and AARs if your agency or unit require it.)
There is no NSN for the RR-900 yet, though they’re working on it. They’re hoping to have GSA approval within the next couple of weeks. There are limited numbers of demo models available for T&E.
Though the RR-900 will function on any 7.62 rifle, one thing to be aware of is the ammo requirement. The optic was designed to work with 175 grain 118LR. You could also get away with 168 grain, but if you’re using 147 grain or something similar the reticle will not be accurate as intended.
For more information contact Pride Fowler Industries and ask for Richard Nguyen.
