The Mepro M22 self-illuminated reflex red dot sight is the M1 tank of small arms optics. Featuring a fiber-optic illumination system for daylight operations augmented with a Swiss-made tritium backup for low-light conditions, the M22 frees you from the burden of batteries. It is also built by the Israelis. Those guys have more experience with close combat weapons than anyone else on Planet Earth. 

Meprolight M22

The M22 is simple, effective, compact, and tough. Despite requiring very little railed real estate, the M22 offers a wide field of view for rapid target engagement. Everything about the optic is lyrically overdesigned, and the tritium power source is warranted for a decade. The M22 is the close quarters gunsight for the shooter who hates replacing batteries.

Power Problems

Every serious military and law enforcement operator in the world is now running some kind of optical sight. There’s a reason for that. Compared to legacy iron sights, red dots and holographic gun sights are faster, more precise, more versatile, and much easier to use. 

The rub is that most all of those electronic gun sights require a power source. Maybe it’s just me, but I struggle to remember to change the oil in the family car. It is nigh impossible for me to keep the batteries fresh on my tactical firearms.

Old Man Murphy tells us that if something is going to fail, it will fail at the worst possible time. You really don’t want to respond to the sound of glass breaking downstairs only to find that your expensive red dot optic is as dead as a doorknob. The M22 from Mepro takes all that off the table.

Hot Investment Tip

Want to get Elon Musk-grade rich? It’s actually really simple. Just design tomorrow’s battery. Climate change is the world’s new holy church. The real key to beating climate change is batteries.

We’re getting pretty decent at harvesting energy from wind or directly from the sun. The problem is putting that energy in a form that can be used in a portable device like a car, airplane, or smart phone. The limiting factor for serious development of these technologies is batteries. The current versions just don’t work terribly well.

A Brief Technical Interlude

A conventional battery consists of two terminals, an anode and a cathode. These two terminals are separated by an electrolyte. The terminals are usually made from dissimilar metals, while the electrolyte serves as a catalyst to allow ions to move between the electrodes. When on duty, a chemical reaction between the electrodes and the electrolyte pushes electrons from one terminal to the other. This electron flow creates an electrical charge that can be used to do cool stuff.

The rub is that these metals are often heavy, and rechargeable batteries lose their efficiency and die over time. Figure out a way to make a lightweight, high-capacity battery that will remain reliably effective for decades without exploding, and you will legit rule the world. Tragically, I’m just the idea guy. I’ll leave the details up to you.

The Nuclear Option

In the case of the M22, the Mepro folks just bypass batteries altogether. The tritium that powers the M22 is indeed actually radioactive. You can’t scrape a bunch of it together and make a bomb, but it will make your gunsight glow for years without any external power source. The details are pretty cool.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is naturally unstable. As it decays, tritium releases beta radiation. Beta radiation is technical shorthand for the transmutation of a neutron into a proton and an electron. This high-energy, high-speed electron is subsequently released. Curiously, when this occurs the atom’s mass remains unchanged because electrons are essentially weightless.

Tritium reacts naturally with oxygen to form water. Trace amounts are found in both drinking water and the human body. The beta radiation emitted by tritium is extremely weak. A single sheet of paper makes a decent shield.

The half-life of tritium is 12.33 years. That is the time period required for half of a given volume of tritium to decay naturally. This is what gives tritium lamps like those in the M22 their finite shelf life.

Tritium is used for lots of interesting stuff. Gun sights and watch faces are pretty obvious. It is used in medical applications as a tracer in cancer and AIDS research as well. Tritium is a critical component of nuclear weapons. It can also be used to create electricity in fusion reactors.

Tritium doesn’t weigh much at all. Since 1955, the total U.S. production of tritium has been around 255 kilograms or 562 pounds. We make it in nuclear reactors. The tritium incorporated in the M22 gun sight glows all the time, day or night. There are no switches or buttons. For the typical busy American, you just mount it up and go.

Practical Tactical

So, now that we’re all nuclear engineers, how does the Mepro M22 work for real? Well, it’s interesting. The physics behind the thing will drive your decision as to whether this sight is right for you.

The sight is small, lightweight, and indestructible. In modest sunlight or under decent artificial light, the fiber-optic reticle just gleams. It is easy to acquire and perfectly bright. When looking from a dark space into someplace bright, it can wash out. However, that’s a class effect. Most electronic optics can be overwhelmed under these conditions as well.

Indoors or at night the tritium-enhanced reticle seemed plenty bright. You don’t have the option of manually adjusting brightness as you might with the electronic sort. However, who wants to charge into a gunfight having to fiddle with their sights?

Overall, I was taken with the M22, like a lot. I’d be completely comfortable packing it in bad places. As such things go, it is also fairly reasonably priced to boot.

And If All Else Fails…

Mepro makes a simply spanking set of tritium-powered folding backup iron sights as well. These front and rear sight units clamp onto a standard Picatinny rail and fold out of the way when not in use. When needed they snap up quickly and painlessly. The rear sight is flip-adjustable between large and small apertures.  A tritium vial up front ensures proper visibility, even in hard dark.

Backup iron sights are like a parachute in a fighter plane. Nobody ever sets out to need it. However, if ever you do you’ll be glad they’re there. They also co-witness beautifully with your M22 optic. Investing a little ammo to refresh yourself on their use is a good idea as well. Cut from indestructible aluminum and demanding no incremental weight or bulk penalty, these luminescent sights from Mepro are as good as they get. 

Ruminations

The most expensive high-speed tactical smoke pole is simply rubbish without a good sighting system. The M22 and a set of folding backup irons from Mepro represent the top of the heap. If your life is such that keeping up with batteries is too big a hassle, then the M22 will free you from that tyranny and look good doing it. 

For more info, visit meprolight.com.