"ACOGS in that class as well that didnt have the donut reticle or chevron reticle". What did they have? And if they were TA-01s, TA-11s or TA-33s they were a fixed 3.5 or 4X magnification...so for your criteria an ACOG would be a very bad choice for a tactical class...HMMMM.
Take it with iron sights? Well unless a person has a bit of grounding in iron sight shooting, it is going to really slow them down and frustrate them. For the average shooter ("I have only shot off the bench") a red dot or 1-4x scope is going to be WAY better for a class, Just ask the Army...they didn't get all those dots because they were "Tactical", it was because marksmanship was easier to train and hits were better, quicker with the dots. The people who "really smoke with irons" do so BECAUSE they shoot irons a lot. NOTHING is faster than irons up close...even dots...BUT... you have to have used them for a while. In the long run it is much easier to fight a bit of low end magnification than try to use irons for the first time in a "tactical class".
Now I will throw out this little tidbit for all the "tactical" guys out there in training land....if a person doesn't have an exceptionally dominante eye he will be able to use almost ANY type of scope at almost any magnification up-close as fast as most folks use a dot. If you have a bad dominance problem the dot will be faster. If you aren't dominant and shoot irons nothing in the world will be faster.
Take it with iron sights? Well unless a person has a bit of grounding in iron sight shooting, it is going to really slow them down and frustrate them. For the average shooter ("I have only shot off the bench") a red dot or 1-4x scope is going to be WAY better for a class, Just ask the Army...they didn't get all those dots because they were "Tactical", it was because marksmanship was easier to train and hits were better, quicker with the dots. The people who "really smoke with irons" do so BECAUSE they shoot irons a lot. NOTHING is faster than irons up close...even dots...BUT... you have to have used them for a while. In the long run it is much easier to fight a bit of low end magnification than try to use irons for the first time in a "tactical class".
Now I will throw out this little tidbit for all the "tactical" guys out there in training land....if a person doesn't have an exceptionally dominante eye he will be able to use almost ANY type of scope at almost any magnification up-close as fast as most folks use a dot. If you have a bad dominance problem the dot will be faster. If you aren't dominant and shoot irons nothing in the world will be faster.