Video Transcript
Is It Durable? (00:00)
The Trijicon SRO is one of our preferred optics here at T.REX ARMS. Now I know some people out there have said "Hey, it's not a durable enough optic for duty use and they break right away." Or, "They broke cuz someone dropped it from five feet and hit the concrete." Well, the reality is I've been shooting with this one for over a year now on this particular Glock 17. And I do shoot a lot of different guns, so I can't put all my time into this. But I've shot around 10,000 rounds with this optic on this pistol. And I've also used this in an outside-the-waistband holster, shooting prone quite a lot, which means that this optic is constantly hitting the ground as I drop into the prone position. And this optic is still going strong.
Now I'm not going out of my way to drop this sucker on the ground or on the concrete because that's something we obviously want to avoid doing. But I think for the majority of people, this optic will be just fine. But is it as tough as the Trijicon RMR? (The traditional?) Probably not. You know, or maybe something like an Aimpoint. But as far as what this optic does I do think it's an awesome offering that Trijicon has begun selling.
Differences Between the SRO and RMR (01:11)
The main difference with the SRO specifically compared to the RMR is you now have a circular field of view. You don't have the small square that the RMR has, although it is, you know, it's fine. With training, it's not really a problem. But what this allows is, as you are shooting, typically speaking—and this will depend some on caliber and technique of the shooter and, you know, all that good stuff—but you'll be able to watch your dot rise and fall a little bit more effectively than the small square of the RMR, where normally the dot, as soon as you fire one shot, disappears outside of the window. And then it, you know, returns as the gun starts returning to battery. Whereas on this guy right here, typically speaking—with this Glock 17 that I have—I can see the dot the entire time rise and fall, which makes it a little bit easier. Shooting fast it's not gonna matter too much, but it does make it a little bit easier compared to the RMR.
And then the real big difference between this and the RMR is it is not… The battery does not load through the bottom anymore of the optic. That's sealed nicely shut. It is going to be top loaded right here. So using the flathead screwdriver, I can go in there. I can remove the optic. I can change it out. And what that means is I don't have to constantly re-zero this optic, whether it's on my offset mount, my ACOG, or on my handgun. I can simply change out the battery whenever it starts to dim and/or die. And that's a huge benefit of the SRO over the RMR.
Mounting to a Pistol (02:25)
So let's talk about mounting the SRO to pistol. So it uses standard RMR footprint. So, you know, if you're using an MOS or you've sent your slide off, you know, previously to get milled for an RMR, and now you wanna upgrade, or maybe you wanna change your gun or whatever, or you go buy an aftermarket slide that was made for an RMR—that will take an SRO. So it has the two bosses in the front, just like the just like the RMR has. And if you have a slide that also features little bosses to index on, that will work just fine.
So when I drop the optic on here—This is a ZEV Duty Slide, so it was already cut for an RMR—sits very nicely, fits very nicely in there. And I'll be using the two screws that are included with this particular slide. Quality slide companies are going to offer screws with the slide that they cut, or they will have screws that you can buy or they are included. In this case, these are included with the ZEV Duty Slide. So we're gonna use a Torx wrench, Torx Allen key to put these on. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna do hand tight plus a little extra.
And there you go. The SRO is mounted. Now, one thing to note on this optic, because it scoops forward super far, Trijicon recommends that you do not mount this optic on a pistol or on a slide cut that puts the front scoop of the SRO over the ejection port. You'll have all sorts of malfunction problems. You'll potentially have some issues with the optic. So just ensure that the scooped, you know, window of the SRO itself is sitting behind the ejection port. And as you can see on this Glock, it's getting, it's getting pretty close but it's not going to affect the reliability of this particular pistol.
Carbon Buildup (04:06)
But with that said, this is another con that you do have to take into account with the SRO because the window does sit further forward, closer to the ejection port, you will have more carbon buildup on the SRO itself. And what I recommend, if you, if you don't, if you don't watch this, it'll start to kind of bake into the glass. But you routinely wipe the carbon off that starts to accumulate on the glass itself or you're gonna start developing this sort of thick film around the edge. I have a little bit on this one that I've been shooting for a while. I've been trying to keep it, you know, cleaned off nicely, but, you know, sometimes you forget, and then it starts to build up. On the RMR there's not as much of an issue cuz the window sits further back. So you don't really have that much carbon buildup. But it is something to take into consideration with this particular optic.
Brightness Settings (04:50)
The SRO is styled off of the RM06 and RM09 models, which means it is adjustable. It's not running fiber optics and crazy stuff. There's going to be a plus button on the left side of the optic. And then there is a minus button for brightness on the right side. If you tap both at the same time, you get the auto feature, which I don't really recommend. It is something you can play with. But basically what that does is it takes the light in your surrounding area and it attempts, at least, to dim the optic to a usable brightness in that area.
The downside to that is if I am in a lit room, such as this, shooting into shadows, my dot will be very bright and bloom and vice versa. If I'm in a dark room it will be very dim. And then I'm trying to shoot outdoors into the sun and I'm not gonna see an optic at all. So I prefer running manual and I simply just hit the plus sign when I need it brighter. Hit the minus sign when I need it dimmer. And this is especially important if you're running night vision and you're working in varying lighting conditions: moonlight or street lights, different night vision, you're adjusting your gain, you're running an IR illuminator and you're actually gonna need to be able to play with those buttons to ensure a proper dot brightness to prevent bloom and also ensure a… you know, a very precise, aiming point under night vision.
What's Included (05:59)
When you purchase an SRO, what's included is this nice little box, the optic itself. Underneath the foam there's going to be a single 2032 battery in this case, an Energizer, so that'll goes straight into the optic. And then you get this bag of very long screws. These are typically found on the ACOG RMR mount, you know, package when you get that. These are much too long to fit in standard slide cuts. So this is not going to be something you're going to use really at all since the RMR mount even comes with these screws already. So you can pretty much disregard this. There's loctite, manuals, stickers and swag. All of that good stuff.
Zeroing (06:40)
And if you purchase this from T.REX, you will get a zero target, which is also downloadable on our site. And I recommend a 10 yard zero is typically what I do. I'll be aiming for this fine, refined point here in the center. And the thing to know about pistol zeroing is you're not… The realistic expectation for what kind of group you're gonna get is not going to be a tiny, tiny group at 25 yards. If you do a 25 yard zero or a 25 yard confirmation into the big square right here, it's basically going to fill this square.
What you don't want when you zero a handgun is your group, you know, way off to the left or way off to the right. You wanna get your windage figured out, but the elevation side is not gonna matter quite as much, especially since you're really shooting the pistol 50 yards and in. You're probably not going much further beyond that. So try to have your group as consistent as possible, but you're not gonna have a tiny little group like you might have with a rifle. So just have some realistic expectations on that based on your capability of shooting a handgun and based on the marksmanship of that handgun itself.
Using on an Offset Mount (07:37)
If you're wanting to mount the SRO to an offset mount, it is a great option. Although if you're banging your rifle all over the place you might want an optic that's a little bit tougher, something like an RMR or even something like a T-1 or T-2 as this optic is a little less durable than the RMR. But this is a very fast optic, a really nice optic to have offset, especially on like a competition rifle. I've run these offset a little bit. This is on the T.REX offset with the riser plate installed. So you have that nice big window, that crisp 2 MOA dot, and this thing can definitely put in work. But the durability side, if you're throwing your gun all over the place, you might want a different optic.
If you have any other questions, you can email us at [email protected].