Inventor of Aimpoint

[BigG-n-Tn]

I have no idea why I am sharing this other than the fact that gun guys will probably appreciate it:

The son of the man that invented the Aimpoint sight came into my shop today. We moved the shop in January and he had just discovered our new location. Apparently, he had never mentioned who his father was at the other location. He had a strong accent -which I asked about eventually- and is originally from Sweden. The story started with me asking how he liked it here in the US which led to a freedoms (firearms in particular) conversation and then finally led to him mentioning his father's invention of the original Aimpoint sight. Either way, it was very interesting to hear from someone who was there watching as his father worked on his invention and saw it go from a paper tube, how he developed the components, etc. . A behind the scenes, bird's eye view that you can get nowhere else. Turns out, his dad was an inventor pure and simple, not a trained or even educated design engineer.

It still amazing to me how every once in a while, someone will wander into this one-horse town and find their way into my small shop and they'll have a connection to the bigger world. This is not the first encounter I've had like this.

 

[DWalt]

Those coincidental things do happen. Back in the early 1980s, and purely by chance, I met Henry Mohaupt in a small Ohio town (Marietta). Many have probably never heard of him but he was the Swiss who invented the explosive shaped charge. We had an interesting conversation for over an hour, as I had some familiarity with shaped charge technology having worked on shaped charge ordnance device (Rockeye bomblets) development for several years.

 

[g8rb8]

Your story confirms my belief that you frequently mingle among interesting people and never know it.

If you take the time to expand the conversation beyond the niceties you can frequently discover something interesting or amazing about many people.

Not long ago a tangential detour in our discussion, which included my observations of anecdotes of a recent Berkshire Hathaway annual report, led to a discussion of what makes you happy which led to an interesting revelation. It turns out the gentleman I was talking with has lunch with "the sage of Omaha" occasionally and what made Buffett happy, while visiting the area, was a cheeseburger Happy Meal. The gentleman I was visiting with had a similarly impressive background and his credentials confirmed he indeed would have reason to have interactions with "the sage."

I have other examples of interesting or admirable people but the ones I really admire are the silent heroes such as the grandparents raising their grandchildren.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I have other examples of interesting or admirable people but the ones I really admire are the silent heroes such as the grandparents raising their grandchildren.

I thank you for that.

 

[JayFramer]

I really like the M68s on our M4s at work.

Aside from some rare battery outages, I've never heard of one failing. And they get bounced around and ruffed up BAD. I still love irons and in fact actually grouped better with irons last time I qualled, but the M68 is really fast and slick for rapid shooting and remains combat accurate to 300 meters or better. Cool story that you got to meet the founder's son!