Pistol optics are becoming more and more common in today's firearms world, and as a result people are putting optics on both their full size handguns as well as their subcompact or micro-sized carry handguns as well. In order to address this demand, Holosun recently introduced the HS407k micro reflex optic.
The 407k was introduced in 2020 as Holosun's entry into the micro pistol optic category. It shares a lot of features with it's larger sibling, the 407C, but packed into a much smaller sized optic. The 407k measures 1.6 inches long, and is just under an inch both in overall height and width. The body is made of 7075 T6 aluminum, with a glass window. It is IP67 water resistant, and weighs in at exactly 1 ounce, which is incredibly lightweight. MSRP for the 407k is about $260, and you can find it on Brownells for a little under that, about $225.
The 407 comes in the standard Holosun box which I think is a bit nicer than most boxes this side of a Trijicon. Inside the box is the optic itself, a battery, a cleaning cloth, the standard Holosun multitool, two sets of mounting screws, and the standard Holosun papers and documentation.
The 407k is powered by the included single CR1632 battery, which is mounted in a tray on the side of the optic. This means that the battery can be replaced without having to remove the optic from the weapon, which means that it doesn't subsequently need to be re-zeroed with every battery change like some other optics. The optic can deliver up to 50,000 hours of life on setting 6. Aiding this battery life rating is the shake-awake feature. This means that the optic turns off automatically after a certain amount of time (that the user can specify) to save battery, but as soon as it senses any small movement it turns back on. In practice I found this feature to be surprisingly sensitive; I can cause the optic to turn on by giving the table that the weapon is sitting on a firm tap. In everyday use I've never picked up the weapon from a table or pulled it out of the holster and had the reticle not be turned on, so I'm very confident in this feature.
The reticle is a 6MOA dot with 10 levels of brightness adjustment, as well as 2 levels of nightvision-compatible brightness. I'll admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the large dot at first; having astigmatism, most round dots look like stars or sunbursts to me, and I was expecting the reticle to just be a huge sunburst that took up the entire window. I was more than a little surprised when I first looked through the 407; I found the reticle to be VERY well defined around the edges with almost no sunburst effect. I'm not sure how they did it, but great job with the reticle Holosun!
Recently I took my friend, who is a new shooter, out to the range and let them try out shooting with an optic for the first time. They also found the 407k to be very easy to pick up and shoot intuitively largely because of that bigger dot in a smaller window. (Specifically they said "as long as the window is in front of you the dot is always there" which I definitely agree with).
As far as the initial zeroing of the optic, Holosun claims that the 407k comes zeroed at 25 yards from the factory, and I found this to be pretty much true. I installed it onto my weapon and found that I was hitting about a quarter inch low at that distance; a little bit of elevation adjustment put me on target. The 407k has two turrets for adjustment, one for elevation on the top and one for windage on the right side. Each of these turrets has a 1MOA per click adjustment, and they nice tactile click to them so you know when you've adjusted it.
The brightness of the reticle is controlled by two buttons on the side, which are flush-mounted to reduce the possibility of them being actuated by accident. There is also a lockout feature which disables input from the buttons to eliminate this possibility altogether. Lock mode is accessed by holding down the + button for 3 seconds, and the dot will blink to confirm activation/deactivation of the lock mode. This is the setting that I use: I set it to a brightness that is bright enough to be used outside in the daytime and locked the buttons so that it is always at that brightness whenever it is on. While it's probably a bit too bright for nighttime indoors, not having to constantly remember to tap my brightness up or down is worth it to me.
After about 6 months of living with this optic I can say that I'm overall very satisfied with it. The small overall size doesn't add any width to my Shield, and the 6MOA dot makes it very easy to pick up quickly. It puts up with the rigors of being carried and practiced with everyday with no problems, and shows basically no wear at all anywhere on it. It has never flickered or died on me, and never lost zero through about 500 live rounds and probably 1000 dry fire exercises. The shake awake feature works very well as I mentioned, the glass is clear, and since the optic comes zeroed at 25 yards from the factory it took me very little time to get it zeroed for my weapon. Overall for the price that you pay for one of these you get a lot of value for your money, and that's something that I think is consistent with the entire Holosun line.
So that's my review of the 407k. It's a great micro pistol optic at a great price. Check out the link in the article if you want to go and grab yourself one! That's all I've got for you today. Until next time, stay safe!