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Leshaire

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Best bang for my buck Red Dot sight

Ok, I'm on the hunt for some red dot optics for three of my rifles. I have had a few Primary Arms (NON "advanced" cool kid models) that so far have been pretty darn good to me, especially at a nominal $80-90. I had an Aimpoint PRO that I loved a lot, but it was slightly bulky and heavy for my preference. Although I would rock it again. My buddy has an Aimpoint T1 and I love that dot, but realistically, over $600 per red dot is a little bananas considering I really need three as of now.

So, I have been meandering about online looking at dots and started getting wildly confused at what is a decent dot for say like $100-$400 each, with the following points that are the most important to ME in order:
1. Price (30% weight)
2. Battery Life (30% weight)
3. Warranty (25% weight)
4. Size/Weight (15% weight)

So I plugged the ones I have been looking at into a quick spreadsheet and input those four pieces of data in for each one. The additional columns are important to me, but not game changers OR there simply is not enough variance between the dots to justify any additional math or weight to the totals, hence no colors or weights etc. For reference, green is the best, yellow is the middle of the road, and red is on the negative side for me. The final ranking is sorted best to worst based on the aggregated weighted rankings of each data set.

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 10.39.09 AM.png

So my question the SET is, is there a red dot that any of you recommend that I should consider that I don't have listed here?

Primary Arms Advanced Micro Dot
Holosun Paralow HS403G
Vortex Sparc AR
Sig Romeo 4
Trijicon MRO
Aimpoint Micro T1
Primary Arms Micro Dot
Vortex Spitfire AR
Aimpoint Patrol Rifle Optic (P.R.O)
 

Laufen

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If I were to go back to battery dependence I'd get another Eotech.
 

Leshaire

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If I were to go back to battery dependence I'd get another Eotech.
No way you read half this thread that fast...

Anyway, I don't like the price, size, bulk, weight, battery life etc of Eotechs. Unless they have some new model I am not aware of?
 

Laufen

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No way you read half this thread that fast...

Anyway, I don't like the price, size, bulk, weight, battery life etc of Eotechs. Unless they have some new model I am not aware of?
Yeah, I guess I'm a fast reader but I did. I read patents all day, this is nothing.

The positives outweigh the negatives for me. I shoot it the fastest, probably because of their sharp, clean 1 moa dot reticle.

The xps2 is pretty small. I guess I never considered it to be "big", smaller than any optical sight I currently use anyway.

When I had mine I just put two spare lithium batteries in my Magpul MOE grip. Plenty of battery life.

I shot a couple vortex red dots last weekend and I wouldn't take one for free.
 

Leshaire

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Yeah, I guess I'm a fast reader but I did. I read patents all day, this is nothing.

The positives outweigh the negatives for me. I shoot it the fastest, probably because of their sharp, clean 1 moa dot reticle.

The xps2 is pretty small. I guess I never considered it to be "big", smaller than any optical sight I currently use anyway.

When I had mine I just put two spare lithium batteries in my Magpul MOE grip. Plenty of battery life.
For shits and giggles I added it to the sheet, and it is the worst of the worst lol...
Second most expensive, single worst battery life, second worst warranty, and second heaviest. All red. Red bad.

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 10.47.03 AM.png
 

Leshaire

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On the budget end, ive been looking at this for one of my budget rifles. People seem to say positive things about it.
Anything more than that, I would go for the MRO or Aimpoint and have a proven optic. I just wish there was more low mag (2-4x) options.

http://www.primaryarms.com/l-hd7/p/l-hd7/
Ive never even heard of Lucid. Not to say I wont take a peak though.

The MRO is actually at the top of my list after reading reviews on the Primary Arms Advanced dot, the Holosun Paralow and even the Sig Romeo 4... They all blow according to users lol... Im very surprised. Even the reviews ON Sigs sight suck hahaha
 
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Laufen

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For shits and giggles I added it to the sheet, and it is the worst of the worst lol...
Second most expensive, single worst battery life, second worst warranty, and second heaviest. All red. Red bad.

View attachment 18005
But "worst" battery life still isn't bad, and type of battery matters too. I don't want to be trying to find some stupid little coin battery when I could be running on AA's. I used mine a lot, and battery life was never an issue. 600 hours man. That's more than 2 months of 8 hour days! That's plenty.

Weight doesn't bother me, a few ounces...meh. I'm a strapping young lad.
 

Leshaire

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But "worst" battery life still isn't bad, and type of battery matters too. I don't want to be trying to find some stupid little coin battery when I could be running on AA's. I used mine a lot, and battery life was never an issue. 600 hours man. That's more than 2 months of 8 hour days! That's plenty.

Weight doesn't bother me, a few ounces...meh. I'm a strapping young lad.
Thats not plenty for me. I dont wanna throw my gun in the safe after shooting and forget to turn the dumbass thing off and it die before I go shoot again, which I do, often...

A few ounces? The eotech is literally three times the weight of the smaller competitors.
 

Laufen

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Ive never even heard of Lucid. Not to say I wont take a peak though.

The MRO is actually at the top of my list after reading reviews on the Primary Arms Advanced dot, the Holosun Paralow and even the Sig Romeo 4... They all blow according to users lol... Im very surprised. Even the reviews ON Sigs sight suck hahaha
I'd recommend actually looking through the sight instead of just looking at specs. You might surprise yourself.
 

Leshaire

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I'd recommend actually looking through the sight instead of just looking at specs. You might surprise yourself.
Planned on it. Im gonna use a buddies MRO this weekend. Its more than I want to spend but I will if its the bees knees.
 

Laufen

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Thats not plenty for me. I dont wanna throw my gun in the safe after shooting and forget to turn the dumbass thing off and it die before I go shoot again, which I do, often...

A few ounces? The eotech is literally three times the weight of the smaller competitors.
I always shut mine off when I cleared the gun. No problems, but I'm super anal about that stuff.
 

Laufen

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What type of shooting are you doing?
 

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The lucid shuts off after 2 hours, which is nice because I always forget to turn them off lol.

I have one of sigs older red dots. its identical to other cheaper copies. Id be cautious with their new ones, cause they arent cheap.

I like the large FOV with the MRO. Im really wanting to get one, just cant justify the price right now
 

Leshaire

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What type of shooting are you doing?
Operationally operational of course.

For real though, these sights will be on my go to gun and fiances go to gun. The third, if I end up getting three will go on an AK needing an optic BUT I might opt into something cheaper for that rifle as its not as important to absolutely function when I need it.
 

Leshaire

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The lucid shuts off after 2 hours, which is nice because I always forget to turn them off lol.

I have one of sigs older red dots. its identical to other cheaper copies. Id be cautious with their new ones, cause they arent cheap.

I like the large FOV with the MRO. Im really wanting to get one, just cant justify the price right now
Same, I noticed the lens is slightly larger, which they boast about.

Im thinking those Sigs are probably made in China like the rest of everything non Aimpoint or Tijicon
 
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Laufen

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Operationally operational of course.

For real though, these sights will be on my go to gun and fiances go to gun. The third, if I end up getting three will go on an AK needing an optic BUT I might opt into something cheaper for that rifle as its not as important to absolutely function when I need it.
What type of shooting situations though? How will you typically be using it?
 

Leshaire

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What type of shooting situations though? How will you typically be using it?
Indoor range shooting, outdoor range shooting, more carbine courses like the one I took with cmshoot, then of course go to for any and all situations should they ever arise..
 

Laufen

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Indoor range shooting, outdoor range shooting, more carbine courses like the one I took with cmshoot, then of course go to for any and all situations should they ever arise..
Ok, yeah a little bit o' everything. I've gotten out of the powered dot scopes simply because for the type of rifle shooting I do, I was handicapping my longer range accuracy. 1-4x or fixed 3x have replaced my red dots and I couldn't be happier.
If I were mainly interested only in speed I'd go back to the Eotech (with a large field of view), or maybe that Trijicon. The other smaller tube style red dots were still slow because of the narrow fov. The Vortex was the worst.

Anyway, if speed is the goal I'd prioritize field of view over weight and battery life. That's just me.