The C79 Optical sight is a small arms

telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a '' reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate ...

. Elcan names it as the SpecterOS3.4x, but in

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

service, it is typically referred to as the C79 or the C79A2. A variant, the M145 Machine Gun Optic is in use by the US military. It is 3.4×28, meaning 3.4x magnification, and a 28mm diameter objective lens. A tritium illuminated reticle provides for normal and low-light conditions sighting. It can be mounted to a variety of

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

s and

light machine guns A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the sam ...

using the M1913 Picatinny rail mounting system or the similar "Diemaco" rail system found on small arms produced by Diemaco/Colt Canada. It is manufactured by Elcan and can be found on military service weapons around the world. Similar rifle sights are the Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux (SUSAT) and the

Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight The Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) is a series of prismatic telescopic sights manufactured by Trijicon. The ACOG was originally designed to be used on the M16 rifle and M4 carbine, but Trijicon has also developed ACOG accessories for o ...

(ACOG).

Use

Adopted in 1989, the Elcan C79 is the primary sighting system for the small arms of the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

and is mounted on the

Diemaco C7 The Colt Canada C7 is a Canadian family of military rifles, manufactured by Colt Canada (formerly Diemaco prior to 2005), having similar design and function to the Colt M16A3. The C7 and its variants have been adopted as the standard issue ...

and C7A2 assault rifles, the C8 Carbine family, as well as the

C9A1 The FN Minimi (short for french: Mini Mitrailleuse; "mini machine gun") is a Belgian 5.56mm light machine gun/squad automatic weapon developed by Ernest Vervier for FN Herstal. First introduced in the late 1970s, it is now in service in more tha ...

Light Machine Gun. It is also used in the armies of

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, the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army ( nl, Koninklijke Landmacht) is the land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised – making the Dutc ...

and

Netherlands Marine Corps The Netherlands Marine Corps ( nl, Korps Mariniers) is the elite naval infantry corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The marines trace their origins back to the establishment of the on 10 December 1665, by the then grand pensionary of the D ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. In Canadian service, all C7A1 and -A2 rifles come equipped with a C79 sight as standard. The C7A1 uses a C79 sight, which is easily distinguished by its matte black rubber overcoating. After reviewing feedback from the soldiers who used the sight, Elcan produced the ''fourth generation mount'' C79, known as the C79A2, and is mounted onto the C7A2 rifle, as well as the C8A3 carbines. The C79A2 sight is a component of the C7A2 mid-life update program of the Canadian Forces' inventory of C7A1 rifle systems. The older rifles and sights are meant to be exchanged 1:1 and brought to the -A2 standard. In Dutch service it is used on the Diemaco C7 (regular infantry), C7A1 (airmobile infantry) and C8,

FN Minimi The FN Minimi (short for french: Mini Mitrailleuse; "mini machine gun") is a Belgian 5.56mm light machine gun/squad automatic weapon developed by Ernest Vervier for FN Herstal. First introduced in the late 1970s, it is now in service in more tha ...

and

FN MAG The FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under licence in several countries, in ...

series of

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

Reticle

The reticle of the C79 sight was designed to serve on the C9 Light Machine Gun, thus an appropriate pattern was chosen to aid the gunner in judging distance. The reticle consists of a single vertical post with a sharp tip in the center. The tip is flanked by horizontal Mil-bars on either side. Under the left-hand Mil-bar, a second horizontal bar was added for judging distances, where the distance between the two bars would equate to 76 cm at 300 m. The (radioactive)

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of ...

light source is an unstable isotope with a

half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ...

of 12.32 years that gradually loses its brightness due to

radioactive decay Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

. It is to be replaced every 8–12 years to maintain adequate brightness.

Operation

The C79 sight is attached to a mounting rail on the receiver of the weapon. On CF weapons, this is in the form of a modified Weaver rail, also known as a "Diemaco rail". Two adjustment knobs are used to secure the base to the receiver. A bore-sighting device is usually used to roughly zero the sight before a first-time shooter takes it to the range. Adjustments come in 0.25-mil clicks (one mil equals 10 cm at a range of 100 m, so each click adjusts the sight by 2.5 cm at 100 m). Sighting in a C79 sight is normally done at a range of 200 m.

Windage Windage is a term used in aerodynamics, firearms ballistics, and automobiles. Usage Aerodynamics Windage is a force created on an object by friction when there is relative movement between air and the object. Windage loss is the reduction in ...

adjustments are made on the left hand side of the base, using a flat object such as a flat-head screwdriver or a coin. The windage adjustment is intended only for the initial sighting in procedure of the C79.

Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

adjustments are made via a rotary knob and are adjusted from 200 to 800 m. To bring the sight to a proper elevation zero, a small "gate" must be elevated which disconnects the elevation cam and one mil clicks can now be made. For precise shooting, the gate is usually left open to allow for finer adjustments than the rougher presets. Target shooters will sometimes mark pre-established open gate adjustments with whiteout pens to remind them how many clicks must be made for each range. At close ranges, when rapid aiming is required, the emergency battle sights on top of the sight can be used, although they are very crude and only intended for use inside of 75 m. It has been noted that the external adjustments mount is an

Achilles heel An Achilles' heel (or Achilles heel) is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to ...

of the C79 since it can be jammed by foreign matter and also adds to the weight of the sight.

Dimensions

* Length × Width × Height = 165 × 57 × 86 mm * Weight = 690 g * Magnification = 3.4× * Field of View = 8 degrees (14.1 m @ 100m) * Entrance Pupil Diameter = 28 mm * Exit Pupil Diameter = 8.5 mm * Eye Relief = 70 mm

Variants

C79A2

The current issue model features an improved mounting system for better return to zero. The C79A2 has a green rubber armored cover to help the optic blend in with the Canadian

CADPAT Canadian Disruptive Pattern (CADPAT; french: links=no, dessin de camouflage canadien, DcamC) is the computer-generated digital camouflage pattern developed for use by the Canadian Armed Forces. Four operational variations of CADPAT have been use ...

uniform. The A2 series is the optics mid life upgrade for the C7A2 program as the tritium needs to be replaced every 8 to 12 years of service."C79A2" is engraved on the left side of the optic mounting base. This model is used on C7A2 rifles and C8A3 carbines. The United States also uses this optic on some of its

M4 Carbine The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed carbine developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is extensive ...

s. Versions of this optic are made available for the civilian market from Armament Technologies in Nova Scotia Canada.

M145 Machine Gun Optic

The M145 Machine Gun Optic is a variant of the C79 that was developed for the U.S. Army and is commonly mounted on

M240 The M240 – officially the Machine Gun, 7.62 mm, M240 – is the U.S. military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns that chamber the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by t ...

and M249 machine guns. The M145 is unusual when compared with other optical sights in use with the United States military in that ballistic compensation is in the mount, rather than in the reticle. The reticle is illuminated by a battery-powered LED with varying intensity settings. The mount fits directly to any MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail or receiver. Zero is retained despite repeated removal and re-attachment to the weapon. The M145 is extremely resistant to shock and water immersion and has an anti-reflection device and rubber lens caps. The M145 also uses a unique reticle system designed for machineguns wherein there is no single particular crosshair zeroed at a certain distance but instead the sight uses several smaller crosshairs that are marked with specific distances. The machinegun's projectile ballistics are zeroed to match these specific distances so that users can quickly engage targets at extended ranges without having to adjust the sight.

M145 M4 Optic

The M145 M4 is a variant of the M145 Machine Gun Optic with a 'M4' reticle that is optimized for use on a 5.56x45 M4 Carbine, M16 rifle and derivatives. Aside from the reticle, it is the same mechanically and optically as the M145 Machine Gun Optic.

Users

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References

External links

ELCAN C79 Product PageTechnical Evaluation: ELCAN C79 scopeElcan SpectreM145 Brochure
{{DEFAULTSORT:C79 Optical Sight Firearm sights Military equipment introduced in the 1980s

Use