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Lone Shark

Red Dot Sights for AR-15 - which one?

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16 minutes ago, Krdshrk said:

A prism scope you'll still have smearing if you use the built in illumination - it illuminates the same way as a red dot.

 

Im not an eye expert nor do I have an astigmatism, but every shooter with an astigmatism I've handed my vortex spitfire to has said it's great, no difference illuminated or not.  

On 2/23/2021 at 6:03 PM, Displaced Texan said:

With a 50 yard zero you can shoot 0-200 easily with a red dot, not a huge change in POI, no magnifier needed. 
 

 

I've shot mine with a 50 yard zero out to 600 yards without issue, without a magnifier, after sprinting through the woods.  The targets engaged in order are: 200 yards, 300 yards, 460 yards, and 600 yards.  Of course the 300 yard plate gave me the only issue :facepalm:..  My point is, I agree, people sell red dot capabilities short.

 

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1 minute ago, Pew Pew Plates said:

Im not an eye expert nor do I have an astigmatism, but every shooter with an astigmatism I've handed my vortex spitfire to has said it's great, no difference illuminated or not.  

I think I picked that up that time at the 2A4E shoot - I'm pretty used to astigmatism smear so I didn't really notice.  

Small 2MOA dots will smear a lot less - also check the brightness levels - it doesn't need to be maxed.

I use a Vortex Crossfire on a couple of my ARs - small 2MOA dot - minimal smearing from my astigmatism.

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3 hours ago, Pew Pew Plates said:

Im not an eye expert nor do I have an astigmatism, but every shooter with an astigmatism I've handed my vortex spitfire to has said it's great, no difference illuminated or not.  

I've shot mine with a 50 yard zero out to 600 yards without issue, without a magnifier, after sprinting through the woods.  The targets engaged in order are: 200 yards, 300 yards, 460 yards, and 600 yards.  Of course the 300 yard plate gave me the only issue :facepalm:..  My point is, I agree, people sell red dot capabilities short.

 

Nice.

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On 2/28/2021 at 9:55 AM, Shepherd9 said:

I'll throw in a recommendation for the Holosun 510C reflex sight.  Basically a less expensive Eotech.

I have a couple of them and they have been fantastic.  Very low (to practically none) parallax.  Great battery life, supplemented by solar power.  Holds a zero and works very well with a 3x magnifier.  

 

Thanks Sheherd9. Took a look at the reviews since you recommended the Holosun 510C.

I definitely like all the features it has,  shake and wake - 3 different reticles - battery life.

At half the price of the Eotech EXPS3, seems like a good buy. And its available.

 

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26 minutes ago, Lone Shark said:

Thanks Sheherd9. Took a look at the reviews since you recommended the Holosun 510C.

I definitely like all the features it has,  shake and wake - 3 different reticles - battery life.

At half the price of the Eotech EXPS3, seems like a good buy. And its available.

 

The two I have been using have been great.  Had one for the last year that saw a lot of use.  Just bought another two months ago and very glad I did.  

Being available, and reasonably priced, is a plus.

My only gripe is they don't include the spacer to mount it 1/3 cowitness.  That you have to find separately if you don't want absolute cowitness height.  I personally prefer 1/3.

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Even with glasses my astigmatism causes a comet trail with EOTech, Aimpoint PRO, and any red dot/HWS. Everyone's eyes are different so I'd advise trying to test one out first. 

This has been a battle for the past 12 years. 

I have had the best success with etched reticle optics:

Best: Trijicon ACOGs and Accupower scopes

Very Good: Vortex Spitfire 1x, Primary Arms GLX 2x

Good: Holosun 510C. C-More red dot

Not so good: EOTech, Aimpoint PRO

Your mileage may vary based on your eyes. If you want to know what the dot/reticle should look like, take a picture through the sight. Good luck with your search. 

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18 hours ago, ChrisJM981 said:

Even with glasses my astigmatism causes a comet trail with EOTech, Aimpoint PRO, and any red dot/HWS. Everyone's eyes are different so I'd advise trying to test one out first. 

This has been a battle for the past 12 years. 

I have had the best success with etched reticle optics:

Best: Trijicon ACOGs and Accupower scopes

Very Good: Vortex Spitfire 1x, Primary Arms GLX 2x

Good: Holosun 510C. C-More red dot

Not so good: EOTech, Aimpoint PRO

Your mileage may vary based on your eyes. If you want to know what the dot/reticle should look like, take a picture through the sight. Good luck with your search. 

Yep, pretty much the reason i suggested the Primary arms cyclops 1x or 3x, vortex spitfire, sig bravo etc as they operate on etched reticles instead of a red dot. As an added bonus is that the prism scope were to fail or batteries die you can still use the un-illuminated reticle to protect yourself, if a red dot fails or the batteries die you will be out of luck. If i didn't have a severe astigmatism i would have gone with a holosun HS510c or a vortex sparc 2 but, it is what it is. Can't wait for my cyclops to come in!

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On 3/3/2021 at 2:47 PM, Lone Shark said:

Eotech.thumb.jpg.c436b04c36a6a0fcebf417988dd49169.jpg

 

Anyone use the Eotech EXPS3 or the Vortex Razor AMG UH-1 Gen II holographic sights with a magnifier that can confirm this. 

Where did you get this image from? It's literally superimposed with a fake dot. 

 

Watch the video and tell me it doesn't magnify 

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2 hours ago, JackDaWack said:

Where did you get this image from? It's literally superimposed with a fake dot. 

 

Got this from Amazon description of the Eotech EXPS3.

 

Also

Pew Pew Tactical: Red Dots vs Holographic Sights: What’s Best For You? 

 https://www.pewpewtactical.com/red-dots-vs-holographic-sights/

 

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33 minutes ago, Lone Shark said:

Got this from Amazon description of the Eotech EXPS3.

 

Also

Pew Pew Tactical: Red Dots vs Holographic Sights: What’s Best For You? 

 https://www.pewpewtactical.com/red-dots-vs-holographic-sights/

 

Like I said MOA is MOA. It's a standard of error at range. moa represents an error or area, circular in nature at distances between two points. A 1 moa dot will cover about 1inch at a distance of 100 yards. If you magnify your optic at 3x, you still have a 1moa dot. It's not a measurement of how big the reticle is. It's a measurement of how much the reticle covers at distance. 

If an eotech dot didn't change in size, it would technically decrease in MOA, which I believe is not optically possible.  

If you had a one inch target at distance, a 1moa dot would cover it. If you magnified the that 1inch target it will appear 3x bigger.. if the dot doesn't still cover it, it is no longer 1 moa it's actually much smaller. I have never seen an example of thst happening with a rds and magnifier. The video I posted above, you clearly see the reticle grow in size at the same proportion as the targets. Regardless of model, all eotech rds use the same technology.

Only scopes with second focal plane reticles maintain their size at various magnifications.

The fact Eotech publishes this "myth" on their website is another reason why I no longer own their optics. 

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The vortex strike Eagle solves all this, lol. I struggled just like you, sucks when you can’t handle an item in person before purchasing. Strike Eagle, 1x it’s a 2moa red dot, 8x it’s a 2 moa red dot. It does have disadvantages, large and heavier than a red dot, weight may be similar to the eotech though. Picked mine up on sale for $299 during the holidays. 

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On 3/2/2021 at 11:16 AM, Pew Pew Plates said:

Im not an eye expert nor do I have an astigmatism, but every shooter with an astigmatism I've handed my vortex spitfire to has said it's great, no difference illuminated or not.  

I've shot mine with a 50 yard zero out to 600 yards without issue, without a magnifier, after sprinting through the woods.  The targets engaged in order are: 200 yards, 300 yards, 460 yards, and 600 yards.  Of course the 300 yard plate gave me the only issue :facepalm:..  My point is, I agree, people sell red dot capabilities short.

 

Very cool.

Can you tell us a little about your rifle setup also with which red dot your using?

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53 minutes ago, Tony13 said:

Very cool.

Can you tell us a little about your rifle setup also with which red dot your using?

Certainly!

The rifle was built specifically to what I thought would suit me the best for 3-gun.  The qualities I sought were light weight to swing around faster, but I also wanted an 18" barrel so I could squeeze a rifle length gas system on it.  Of course on top of all that I wanted minimal sight picture disturbance when firing for fast follow ups.  The lighter the rifle gets the harder this gets as you have less mass working in your favor.

I got the rifle light by using the 2a armament balios lite milled receiver set which is very light weight.  Even the picatinny rail is milled out on top, the brass deflector is minimized, there is no forward assist...it is light.  On top of that I used a handful of titanium parts like the pistol grip screw, takedown pins, safety etc.  The handguard and stock aren't the lightest units in the world but on the lighter side, the stock is the luth ar mba-3 with the adjustable bits removed as I didn't utilize them.  The handguard is a carbon fiber 15" long octagonal handguard.  15" was important to me because I have long lankey arms and I put my support hand all the way out there to drive the gun.  I got octagonal so there is a flat on the underside to rest it more securely on barricades and things like that.  I also shaved weight by paying a few bucks more for a fluted barrel which is a White Oak 18" SPR fluted, although now they have even better options.

I kept sight picture disturbance down with a big JP 3 port muzzle brake, combined with less reciprocating mass and consequently, less gas in the system.  Working from front to back the gas is turned down with a SLR titanium adjustable gas block.  The BCG is a stainless LMOS one from JP, and the buffer is also the JP LMOS rifle length buffer in a rifle length tube (rifle length wins in the performance department hands down).  That's all in front of a Woff -10% recoil spring which allows the gas to run even more turned down.  Less mass and less spring needed to move around means less gas = less energy = less sight picture disturbance.  

The dot is a Vortex Spitfire AR which is the prism style red dot.  I enjoyed shooting matches with it because I feel it has several advantages over traditional dots.  The larger circles around the dot are measured in MOA (22 and 45moa respectively I think, but i forget) and you can use them to gauge hold over, because in 3-gun you aren't turning dials and practically speaking you need to hold over everything.  Holding over a target at long range with a red dot gets weird if you have only the dot, as the target is swimming around under your dot in empty glassy space and it gets weird.  

The rifle weighs about 6.5 pounds with an empty magazine and the optic on top of it.

I hope this was helpful, it turned out longer than I anticipated LOL.

1.jpg

2017_Shooting_Images-7228_zpsqcywig6j.jpg

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On 2/28/2021 at 9:55 AM, Shepherd9 said:

I'll throw in a recommendation for the Holosun 510C reflex sight.  Basically a less expensive Eotech.

I have a couple of them and they have been fantastic.  Very low (to practically none) parallax.  Great battery life, supplemented by solar power.  Holds a zero and works very well with a 3x magnifier.  

 

Thanks all for the recommendations.

I really wanted to get the eotech, but too many mixed reviews to buy “sight” unseen. :rolleyes:

Did a quick search and found the Holosun 510c for 250 shipped. Cheap enough to take a chance on it. Done!

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13 hours ago, Lone Shark said:

Thanks all for the recommendations.

I really wanted to get the eotech, but too many mixed reviews to buy “sight” unseen. :rolleyes:

Did a quick search and found the Holosun 510c for 250 shipped. Cheap enough to take a chance on it. Done!

Where did u find it that cheap?

You won't be disappointed, I love mine as much as the eotech xps I had.

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