The optical sight is an integral part of the sniper. This device is indispensable for convenient, fast and accurate shooting. Only it allows you to reach the target at very distant distances. Due to the presence of aperture and the possibility of enlarging an image with an optical sight, it is possible to effectively fire not only at distant targets, but also at very small, inconspicuous or even camouflaged, which it is simply impossible to hit with the naked eye.
Appointment
The properties of sniper sights allow you to shoot with high results even in poor lighting conditions, as well as with limited visibility. Adequate aperture ratio in combination with an increase in the scope makes it possible to shoot not only at dusk, but even in moonlight, as well as to monitor the battle, looking for targets and determining the distance to the targets.
The PSO-1 optical sight is designed for shooting at well-camouflaged and small-sized targets. It is mounted on a standard mount adopted in the Warsaw Pact countries and referred to as the “dovetail”.
There are many models of weapons on which you can install PSO-1:
• SVD, TKB-0145K, IEDs and other sniper rifles if they have side mounts;
• BCC and VSK-94 - special rifles;
• TSV-1 - training rifles;
• carbines "Tiger", "Saiga", "Sable";
• special machines "Val" 9A-91, etc .;
• Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns.
Characteristics
The PSO-1 sight has the ability to quadruple visible magnification with an angular field of view of six degrees. The diameter of its exit pupil is six millimeters with a 24 mm lens. The weight of the sight is 620 grams, and the resolution limit reaches twelve arc seconds.
Device
PSO-1, the instruction of which describes in detail its technical characteristics and components, looks like a telescope on which there are mechanisms for setting angles when aiming, as well as for taking into account lateral corrections. The device consists of a housing, as well as ocular and objective tubes.
On the outside, there is a mechanism for aiming angles that makes corrections for the firing range, including vertical, a flywheel and a distance scale, notched every hundred meters.
Optics -1 and its aiming threads are located inside the device. In older samples, such as PU, PE or PB, the mesh was formed by steel elements. It was an aiming stump and side alignment threads. In modern PSO-1, metal components are replaced by a reticle, deposited on the surface of the lens. Optics, in turn, consists of a lens that works with a reversing system and an eyepiece, which, together with the frames, are fixedly mounted in the sight. Rotating lenses can move along the axis during rotation of the diopter ring. It is thanks to this that maximum clarity is achieved for visibility.
Mechanical part
The PSO-1 case is designed to connect all parts on a rifle. An emphasis, grooves, as well as a clamping screw with a handle, an engine with a spring and, finally, an adjusting nut are provided on its bracket. Also attached to the body are indexes or indicators of the sight settings, as well as lateral corrections with the lens cap.
The upper flywheel is designed to set the sight, and the left or right - to make adjustments. On the device they are the same. On top of each of them there are three holes: the middle one is for the connecting screw, and the two extreme ones are needed for the locking screws. Using the spring washer, the handwheel is held in position.
Lighting device
It is designed to illuminate the reticle of the PSO-1 sight during firing at dusk or at night. The device consists of a housing on which there is a contact screw, a battery - a current source, a cap with a spring for pressing the battery to the screw, wires for connecting to the light bulb using a toggle switch. The battery is installed in such a way that its central electrode is connected to the screw, and the side electrode to the body, for which the contact plate is bent over the edge, after which the cap is put on it.
Components
The PSO-1 sight is equipped with a rubber eyecup designed not only for the correct installation of the eye, but also for ease of aiming. In addition, it successfully protects the eyepiece lenses from inevitable contamination or damage.
A retractable lens hood is required to protect the lens in inclement weather from snow or rain, as well as from direct sunlight during shooting and to eliminate unmasking reflections that could expose the sniper.
Optical system
It consists of an eyepiece, a carriage, a wraparound system, a reticle, a luminescent screen, a window with a light filter and a lens, which is necessary to obtain an inverted or reduced image of the observation object. It consists of three lenses, while two are glued.
The PSO-1 sight, the instruction to which is necessarily attached at the time of purchase, has a reversing system designed to give the image a direct normal position. It, in turn, also consists of lenses, which are four pieces, and they are glued in pairs.
The reticle required for aiming is made on glass fixed in a movable carriage. And the eyepiece is intended for viewing the object of observation in an enlarged image. The luminescent screen is needed to detect infrared light sources. In PSO-1, it is a thin plate of a special composition placed between two glasses. It has a window with a filter for charging, as well as a flag for switching. In this case, the horizontal position - when recharging the screen, as well as for shooting under normal conditions, the vertical - for observing and hitting a target that finds itself with its infrared radiation. At the site of exposure to infrared rays on the surface of the screen, a glow appears, depicting the source as a round spot of a greenish tint.
Mounting and dismantling the sight
To install on a weapon, you need to insert PSO-1 on the seat, and then feed the clamp screw handle away from you. On rifles SVD modifications, even after installing the optics, it remains possible to use a mechanical sight, since they do not overlap.
The PSO-1 sniper scope is easily removed from the rifle and just as seamlessly attached to it, without any distortion in the quality of the shooting. In order to disconnect the device, it is necessary to turn the clamp screw handle towards you, and then remove it from the “dovetail” in the direction of the butt.
Amendment
In range, you need to put the upper handwheel on the necessary division, which corresponds to a given distance. Horizontally, the sidewall needs to be untwisted into red numbers. If the net goes to the left, the bullets will go in the opposite direction. If you focus on black numbers, then vice versa.
Lateral corrections for moving targets and for the wind are made by rotating the horizontal flywheels. The scale marks the division with a plus sign for the right adjustment and with a minus sign for the left. And always in each direction ten divisions with numbered fifth and tenth position. Each of them corresponds to the thousandth size of the distance.
Replica PSO-1
Manufactured in a factory in China. Her body is made of aluminum. The scope is completely, including the mounts, qualitatively painted with rubberized paint and has a red mesh illumination. It has an anti-reflective coating. The replica, like the original, is equipped with rangefinder grids that allow you to make rough estimates of the distance to the target. In addition, it is equipped with a backlight, which makes it possible to aim even the darkest night. The sight is well placed on the SVD and IEDs, as well as on the airsoft AK series. He has only one drawback. The replica PSO-1, unfortunately, does not sit on the rifles of the Russian manufacturer AS "VAL" and VSS "Vintorez".
Aiming
The aiming point is the peak at the main square where the bullet “falls”. The field is clean and strictly outlined at the edges. The aiming device with the image of the target is located in the focal plane on the lens, so the sniper’s eye adjusts only one distance. Removing the exit pupil ninety millimeters from the lens of the eyepiece allows you to shoot with glasses and a gas mask, while ensuring safety from recoil of the rifle.
With proper aiming, the eye should be located strictly on the optical aiming axis. This means that the visual field must be very clean, and its perimeters must be strictly defined: without shadows on the edges or any moon-shaped dimming. Otherwise, the bullets will go to the side, the opposite of even the most insignificant deviation and quite far from the point of sight.
In this case, the eye should be placed from the eyepiece at a distance at which the visual field will be fully visible, in full size, no further and no closer to this optimal parameter.
Shooting
The process of firing with an optical sight, including with PSO-1, is much more difficult than some might think. This is a rather difficult process. Tempted by the information about the excellent characteristics of sighting optics, some amateurs try to mount the sight with the largest magnification on their weapons. And often, unfortunately, it turns out that with optics they shoot much worse than openly. This happens for the following reason. The higher the increase in the sight, respectively, the greater the target “jumps” in the visual field, which means that it will be harder to “catch on” for it. At the same time, the shooter is trying more and more, "resting", and since the natural pulsation in the body only enhances the process, then after aiming the target moves even stronger.
Only experienced snipers are able to shoot with large magnifications of the sight, the specifics of which allow the use of an emphasis. This can be, for example, arrows that sit in a motionless ambush, or members of anti-terrorist groups. Even snipers who work in mobile groups cannot afford such luxury.
Equipment
Each sight comes with a carrying bag and carrying case. It also includes winter grid lighting devices, an oiler and spare batteries. The bag has a special pocket for an optical sight, you can store stores in the same place, there is a place for the butt cheek, as well as napkins and a light filter. The cover serves to protect from snow, rain and dust when installing it on a rifle.