Perhaps the coolest thing I’ve seen at SHOT Show so far (my own Desperado product is up there, too, but I’m biased on that one haha), Holosun is teasing a line of optics that’s coming later this year. Called the DRS (digital reflex sight) series, these are extremely compact optics that combine a daytime red dot with either thermal or traditional night vision built in.

Although the DRS family isn’t officially fleshed out at this point, it looks like there will be two thermal and two night vision models. Basically, a standard and a “Pro” version with more tech and higher specs in the Pro model.

There are two big standouts to the Holosun DRS: the compact size and the day/night overlay.

With the optic’s front lens cap flipped up and the thermal/night vision turned on, you see only the digital image displayed by the thermal or night vision.

With the thermal or night vision mode turned off, the DRS looks and works exactly like any normal red dot optic with clear front and rear lenses and a floating reticle. You’d never know it had night vision capabilities.

With the optic’s front lens cap flipped down and the thermal/night vision on, you see both the daytime red dot and the digital night enhanced display overlaid right on top. Simultaneously seeing thermal/night vision image and daytime image at the same time.

Like this:

 

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Oh! You know what? There’s a third standout: the price. Holosun is shooting for around $1,600 on the standard thermal and around twice that for the Pro thermal. This is extremely affordable for what appears to be very good quality night vision optics.

I found the clarity, contrast, etc. to be really good. Battery life, too, is supposed to be five hours and it can also be charged from an external pack while it’s running.

The Holosun DRS family may well represent one of the best form factors and day/night hybrid capability and value in the night vision scopes segment. We’ll keep an eye on this as it gets closer to production!

 

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21 COMMENTS

  2. “these are extremely compact optics”

    Judging from the pics “extremely compact” seems more of a subjective term.

    • Extremely compact… For what it is. NV + thermal overlay is usually huge.

      Then again, it’s monstrous compared to the AEMS you have, and the Elite flavored I picked up a few weeks ago. Kind of irked there was no mention of it being 1913 only anywhere except the internal documentation, no backward compatibility with Weaver.

      • Now that you mention the AEMS I have, it stopped working. Not sure what happened. Was fine the day before at the range, but took the rifle out of the safe the next day to show someone the AEMS and it simply refused to turn on. Batteries were fresh, but no matter what I did it would not turn on. They sent a replacement.

        • Wow, that’s teh suk. Hard to say out of hand.

          Good report from me so far, mines stood up to 200 Win Platinum Tips, and the same of 1 1/4oz buck that’s truckin’, so far, and not the candy ass versions. @ 1700 fps for the slugs & 1600 fps Black. I want it to fail early if it’s going to.

          Not really fair tho, the brake is very effective.

    • Given a few years half the size for the same capability and similar relative price. If the night vision version is passive sensor and doesn’t require IR illumination that is already interesting for price and size.

  3. Can you post a pic that’s not on instagram? Some of us don’t use instagram and I and others are not going to register for an instagram account just too look at your pic.

  5. From the date Holosun announces a new product and puts it in their online catalog to the day it’s available for sale can be measured in… years.
    So we should see this hitting stores in the year 2025, if we’re lucky.

  6. The important question isn’t if it can be charged from the battery pack, but whether it can run on it.

    External battery packs are pretty common in the field of…

    • Close. This will be projected on the front screen like the dot. For a force on force, it’s visibility to peer NV detection will be somewhere between passive and active aiming (a PVS14 looking through an EOTECH vs an IR light/laser combo).

      This is better IMO. Quality IR light/lasers are expensive and make the gun front heavy. I was looking at a similar thermal from Iray, but the Holosun comes in way cheaper

  9. I hope this comes in an HK ‘High Rail’ model.
    Similar height to the Diamondhead ‘Micro-D’ model BUIS used on POF rifles.

  12. Why are we waiving around a firearm, pointing it at people. What is required is a “demo stick”. Non weapon looking.

  13. Does anyone know who’s riser is pictured in the 4th pic? I have been looking all over for it and can’t find it.

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