I’ve been on a bit of a retro kick lately. I’ve been doing retro AR builds for a couple of years now.
In the course of looking at older parts and builds, I’ve also gotten interested in retro sights.
One that intrigued me was the Weaver Qwik Point, one of the earliest dot sights.
The Qwik Point: A Quick Rundown
The Weaver Qwik Point sight was kind of ahead of its time. It was released in 1971, not long after the Singlepoint OEG sight, made famous by the Son Tay prison camp raid during the Vietnam War, and a few years before Aimpoint introduced its first electronic red dot sight. I’m not sure how long they were in production. I couldn’t find anything listing a full production timeline. All of the ads that I found online were from the early 70’s though.
The Qwik Point is what I considered a fiber optic sight, but old Weaver ads just call it a “light gathering filament.” Is that the same thing? I’m honestly not sure, but it works on the same premise. It uses an orange filament that projects a orangish red dot.
The Qwik Point was made in three models for shotguns, centerfire rifles and rimfires. There were actually two shotgun variations the S-1, which apparently worked with most pump and semi automatic shotguns, and the S-1100, which was specifically for Remington 1100 and 870 shotguns.
The S-1 models used a side mount that fit the the left side of the shotgun receiver. You had to drill and tap the receiver for the mounting screws on these models. The S-1100 replaced the two trigger assembly pins on the Remington 100 or 870 for mounting. The R-1 had a Weaver mount and came with a Weaver rail. It was designed for centerfire rifles. The R-22 was made for .22 rifles with a tip off style rimfire rails.
The Qwik Point has a peculiar retro mod look to it. It has a longer tube on top with a domed light gathering receptor at the front, and it sits over a shorter sighting tube.
Construction is of blued steel, aside from the polymer for the domed emitter, the orange light gathering rod, and the glass lenses. It’s a simple, solid design with minimal moving parts. Weaver claimed they were shock and recoil proof.
No batteries are required, although that does mean that you need at least some ambient light for the optic to work. Being that these sights were designed for hunting and target applications, not tactical ones, that wasn’t really an issue.
Although there is an old Soldier of Fortune picture of one mounted on an AM-180 SMG in Rhodesia, so some of them must have worked their way into combat here and there.
Price and Availability
Despite not being in production for a few decades, there seem to be a fair amount of Qwik Points floating around on the secondary market. Sometimes still in the original packaging.
Shotgun models seem the most common, but rifle and rimfire models pop up on online auction sites pretty regularly. Prices seem to run between $50 and $150 depending on model, condition, and accessories. If you want an original box, you’ll likely pay a little more.
After looking around online a bit, I tracked down two of them. I got an R-1 rifle model with the Weaver base and an R-22 rimfire model with the tip off base. The R-22 rimfire model ran a little over $100.00. The R-1 rifle model was a bit under $75.00.
The rimfire model was in excellent condition and the rifle model probably very good to excellent. I suspect a lot of these sights didn’t see brutal use.
Mounting
I decided to put the rimfire model on my old early 70’s 10/22. It was my dad’s rifle and one I grew up shooting. Lord knows how many rounds have been through that gun over the decades,. It was rebuilt by Ruger once in the early 90’s.
It has the walnut deluxe sporter stock on it, that has some scratches and dings from a half century of use. The finish is pretty much worn off of the barrel. My dad had an old Weaver 4x scope on it but the adjustment caps went missing somewhere over the years and that drove my OCD nuts, so I wanted to replace it anyway.
I recently bought a set of new Wolff springs for it. I thought about doing one of the Ruger BX trigger groups but the new trigger housings are plastic. My old one is aluminum so I decided to just update the springs. I’ve been considering replacing the barrel too, but as ugly as it is, it still shoots well so I’m on the fence with that one.
My dad had one of the ugliest shiny tan leather slings I’ve even seen on it so I finally replaced that too while I was updating things. I picked up a new manufacture M1 carbine style sling from a vendor on Ebay. It’s quite well made from nylon, like the later Vietnam era M1 slings, but with the WWII style button dot fastener. They’ve available in black, tan and OD green too. I opted for tan just for variety.
With the new springs and new sling, I just had to add the optic. I popped off the old scope and dropped the Qwik Point on. It was an easy swap, nothing unusual or hard about it. The rimfire mount is scaled correctly for the Ruger’s factory tip off rail. I had initially swapped the rail for a Weaver rail and tried the rifle Qwik Point on the 10/22 but the mounting rail on it was a good bit longer than the 10/22 receiver. It would have worked, but it bothered my OCD too. So I ended up finding and buying a rimfire Qwik Point instead.
Since I still had the rifle model I considered what to do with it. I’m trying it out on my “apocalypse build” .50 Beowulf AR SBR. It fits the Fallout-esque vibe of the gun with its retro-mod styling. Being that Weaver claims they’re recoil and shock proof, and they were designed to stand up to shotgun recoil, it should be fine on the .50 Beowulf. The Weaver mount locked down fine on the Picatinny rail of the AR.
The sight does sit a bit low on the AR being that you look and aim through the lower tube, not the top one. It doesn’t seem too bad though. I need to get some range time in and see how it does. I’m doing a barrel swap right now though so I’ll wait until that’s done. I do like the aesthetic though. That’s mostly a fun gun for shooting “stuff” so I’m not worried about the daylight only optic for it. I’d love to try it hog hunting someday but even then, the Qwik Point should be fine.
Range Time
I took the 10/22 out this past Sunday with a buddy of mine. The weather was not great. We’d had a weekend of storms and it was overcast and threatening more storms and temps were in the mid 30’s. Since it was cruddy I opted for my club’s rimfire steel range. It’s covered and has a nice selection of steel plates, gongs and silhouettes out to 25 yards. Nothing crazy, but a lot of fun for .22’s.
We shot some .22 pistols first, including a new Beretta 20X and an old Beretta Model 71, then I pulled out the 10/22. I have an ammo can full of old random .22 that my dad collected over the years. Some of this stuff is probably as old as the gun and it’s been added to with loose rounds from other partial boxes over the years. I probably started with three or four .30 cal cans full, but I’ve been going through it over the years. The 10/22 loves it. It doesn’t care what you feed it, so this junk stuff is my go to for plinking.
I loaded up a few 10 round mags and gave the Qwik Point a try on one of the full sized silhouettes at 25 yards since I didn’t know where it would be hitting. 10 out 10 rings on steel and as best I could tell they seemed to be hitting to point of aim. Despite the dim overcast day the orange dot was easily visible. Not as bright as some newer fiber optic sights I’ve worked with, but quite usable.
I switched to a 6 inch gong with my next mag. 10 out of 10 hits again, and it was easier to see on the small gong they were hitting well centered. I was calling that close enough for plinking purposes. Any time I don’t actually have to do sight in I’m stoked.
I started running the line of hanging plates next that vary in size from 4 inches up to maybe 10 inches or so. The Qwik Point was, well, quick on target. It was easy to pick up and move rapidly between plates. In fact it seemed perfect for this type of shooting. It would actually work really well for a rimfire match and might be fun to run my 50 year old 10/22 with a sight nearly as old against all of the newer guns with electronic dots.
Retro for the Win
I started out grabbing a Qwik Point just out of curiosity, but I have to say I really like the sight. It has a funky aesthetic to it that’s different from anything you see on the market these days. But it still works great, I love the solid construction and fact that you never need batteries as well.
I didn’t think the prices I found on them were unreasonable. I feel like this might be one of those optics that you could find even cheaper in a gun show or gun shop cast off box as one of those “old sights no one wants” kind of thing too.
I’m not planning on replacing all of my modern optics with Qwik Points but the rimfire model has found a permanent home on my 10/22, and I’m anxious to see how the rifle model does on my Beowulf build. If you happen to see one at a show or shop, or in an online auction at a good price, give it some thought. Just because something is old, doesn’t mean that it’s obsolete.
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