Holographic sights have grown increasingly popular amongst the shooting community because of their accurate and easy to use functions. The best holographic sight allows the shooter to lock onto the target quickly even if their head isn’t positioned in alignment with the gunsight. This feature makes it different from all conventional optical sights and scopes.

In conventional sights, the alignment of the eye and the sight should be parallel to lock onto the target. So, a slight movement of the shooter’s head or the weapon can make a huge difference in aiming. However, the modern gun sights that use hologram technology (like holographic sights) don’t have this issue and they’re far better than the conventional sights in terms of aiming assistance. A laser bore sight has high accuracy. Read more at https://gunlawsuits.org/top-picks/best-9mm-laser-bore-sight/.

Though a holographic sight gives you a great advantage as a shooter, it is still essential to know how it works, because your shooting proficiency largely depends, at its most basic, on how much you know your gear. It is always important to know the basics, such as How to Hold a Pistol or rifle, how to reload your weapon, and any relevant safety precautions.

Stop worrying if you don’t have any idea about how it operates. We’re here to elaborate on how a holographic sight works. 

The Basics of Holographic Sights

In holographic sights, the reticle sticks on the position of the aimed point even if the gun is moved. It reconstructs the view and projects it onto the clear window of the sight. 

How does it do that? First of all, it uses a laser-transmitted hologram that allows you to see through the clear window. Then the sight creates a seeable red laser in the form of the reticle and mounts it onto the prism. While you use the weapon, the reticle appears in your field of view (FOV), locked on the target, like it’s actually attached to it.

How Does A Holographic Sight Work?

What you see on a holo sight is merely a modified version of the actual view. The reticle that’s seen on the window isn’t really in the main sight. Rather, it’s the projection of a recital image.

Confused? Think of it like watching a video or a film. The camera records the light that’s reflected from all the objects in a particular scene. When that recording is projected on a screen, you can see the exact scene that the camera recorded previously. The process known as ‘holography’ reconstructs the light waves reflected from any object.

Accordingly, a holographic sight catches these waves that are reflected from the target point or the object and then projects them on the window of the sight. The only difference is, the holo sight does this in real time, unlike the film camera. This way, when you move the weapon, the view is instantly reconstructed by the sight.

How It Stays Locked On

In reality, the reticle is a laser beam that is being projected on the window of the sight. The reticle can be of different shapes such as; a circle, a triangle, or a dot depending on the manufacturer.

When you attach the holo sight to the weapon, the laser is projected in a similar axis as the weapon. So, if you shift the muzzle to the right, the image projected on the window also shifts to the right, on the exact same axis. No matter which direction you move the muzzle, the image of the window will follow it to the exact point.

So, when you’re looking through a holo sight, you’ll actually see two things. One of them is the projection of the area of the target and the other is the reticle that moves following the exact axis of the weapon. This combination assures you that as long as you see the target area and as long as the reticle is visible, the reticle will be locked onto the target, increasing accuracy and safety.

How Is It Different From A Laser Sight?

The function of the reticle of a holographic sight is similar to that of a laser sight. The only difference between the two is that the laser in a holo sight is not projected on the target but only shown on the clear window. This gives the holo sight a few advantages over the laser sights. The laser beam of a holographic sight is only visible on the window. So, nobody but the shooter can see the laser. Also, the beam of a laser sight is quite hard to see in bright daylight. But the holo sight doesn’t have this weakness because users can choose the level of brightness of the reticle of the sight.  

The advancements of technology have helped the holographic sights to evolve into a more affordable and compact gun sight. The holo has multiple advantages over the conventional optical sights and scopes. It’s very easy to use and provides great shooting assistance to the user by locking onto the target. This is why the holographic sight has grown in popularity in the shooting community that’s only increasing by the day.