[ The Arsenal ] The Wattpad Writer's guide to Modern Weapons

="On the Rails", Weapon accessories and attachments =

With the ever changing combat battlespace, and the demands of versatility ever growing, many miltiary services of the world are beginning to mount rail systems onto their rifles.

Rail systems, simply, are basically rails. Imagine train tracks, except upside down, so that each indvidual track is facing outwards. Take that sort of track design, then put it along the barrel of the rifle, and the top of the rifle. Each little "dip" or empty slot between the "bumps" of the track allows for an accessory to slide down the rail to a desired spot. The accessory often has a "block" that covers the track at the desired location with two pins. These two pins with a screw, or simply twisted on, secures it down on the rail. A good example of this is the Trijicon ACOG.

 But not only can you mount different optics and sights, you can also mount accessories such as the ones we'll describe below. 

[OPTICS]

"Reflex" Reflector Sight]  

Reflex/ Reflector sights are scopes and/or simple sights that, as the name states, reflects. Specifically, Reflex sights consist of a lens in an upright position, a piece of glass someone can look through. Supporting this piece of glass is a black platform, with the battery, and an LED inside. This LED is focused and reflected onto this upright piece of glass. You can imagine this sort of like a scope with only one piece of glass. The upright piece of glass then has the LED dot on it. So instead of looking down iron sights, you can aim with your single precision red dot at a target. 

These upright open sights often are just single pieces of glass with a frame, and simple foundation. But can often have interesting configurations such as triple. 

Reflex scopes on the other hand have multiple lenses, allowing for a much more focused picture at further distances. Reflex scopes still project the LED image, but can be much more complex in their design, such as multiple rings with a single red dot in the middle, Chervons, arrows. There are tons of configurations that can be done with precision, as shown above. 

Some red dots may be mounted on top of magnified optics (see "ACOG 4x with Red Dot" below) to provide the same rapid acquisition on target if you end up transitioning from a long, medium range engagement into a house for close quarters combat for example.