Need advice - Looking for a red dot that is NOT made in China

Burris Fastfire III is made in the Philippines and shipped to Colorado for testing and packaging, according to their website. I have a couple and really like them.

I honestly don't think you can hit anywhere near your $200.00 mark.
Some of the China stuff is well over $200

From some of the stuff I have seen floating around, I'm not sure there is a difference between the $50 & $250 products except for packaging / marketing.

Sig Sauer? I'm not sure. I could be wrong ....

Match Dot, Ultra Dot. Made in Japan. Great piece of Bullseye equipment . Slightly above your price point. Worth it.

At $200 buy a 1-4X conventional scope. You'll get a lot more quality, not much bigger nor heavier. On 1X they will be just as fast as a dot and faster than irons. If you need more magnification you have the option. I've tried several dot sights and have given up on all of them. This works much better; a Leupold is USA made and a VX Freedom is very close to your $200 budget. You'll need to spend at least double your budget to get anything decent with a dot. And it still won't be as good.

My 10-22 truck gun with a light mounted on the scope. My AR's are set up very similar. The lights are mounted on the fore end rather than the scope. That wasn't an option with the 10-22.

gunsrfun1 said:

Or is $200 too low to get anything other than China-made?

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IMO, yes.

The only optic I own that came in under $400 is a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6; jury is still out on this one. Frankly, I am opposed to the whole concept of putting a budget RDS on anything I might use for actual home/self/family defense; target shooting might be another matter, but I'd simply rather buy once, than have to buy again.

For any carbine use, I'd save up for a few more weeks and go for something like the Aimpoint PRO, which you can find on sale for around $400. It's durable, doesn't lose its zero, 2 MOA dot and is a very high quality optic at about the lowest price point you'll find for a decent RDS.

gunsrfun1 said:

Thanks all. Let me digress a bit regarding the Fastfire III. Are these types of red dots really designed more for "fast acquition" with both eyes open, vs traditional red dots that appear to be more suited to target shooting?
Reason I ask is that this will be used primarily for target shooting, which I shoot with one eye open, deliberate aim, etc.
I really do like Burris products.
Thanks

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They are perfect for accurate shooting out to 100y or so, in my opinion. Way more accurate than iron sights. And much better to acquire targets compared to scopes. I shoot handgun scopes, iron sights, and dots out to 100y or so, FYI. I buy the 1 MOA dot models because my eyes are pretty good.

As an added bonus, with practice they are good night sights, too. Practice is necessary so that muscle memory brings the gun up with the dot in the window. Before practice it will seem like it’s not a good night sight.

Eotech, made in Michigan and worth every penny

FWIW, InRange TV has been doing a series on made in USA electronic sights -- go to their YouTube page, let a bunch of the videos load onto the page and then do a ctl-F search on 'american made'. It's a work in progress and so far they've just done Leupold and SigUSA.

https://www.youtube.com/c/InrangeTvShow/videos

They were very dubious about the Leupolds they've tried, but honestly liked the SIG Romeos. All are well over $200.

Most of Trijicon's products are made in the USA, none are priced cheaply: https://www.trijicon.com/our-story/about-trijicon

Have you considered the See-All prismatic sight as an option? They go for under $200, are USA-made and work pretty well. I wasn't very impressed with their non-tritium Gen I sight, but I have had three of the later models so evidently I like them. Right now I've got a Gen III micro on preorder to fit the RMR cut on my Glock.

https://www.seeallopensight.com/

Dave DeLaurant said:

Have you considered the See-All prismatic sight as an option? They go for under $200, are USA-made and work pretty well. I wasn't very impressed with their non-tritium Gen I sight, but I have had three of the later models so evidently I like them. Right now I've got a Gen III micro on preorder to fit the RMR cut on my Glock.

https://www.seeallopensight.com/

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Wow! The SeeAll sight looks great. Would they work for shooting Bullseye style distances and targets?

Ru4real said:

Wow! The SeeAll sight looks great. Would they work for shooting Bullseye style distances and targets?

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I haven't used my See-All rifle sights beyond 50 yards, but I've produced some surprisingly tight short-range groups with one mounted on a Ruger PC9.

My Gen I has the pyramid reticle that comes to a sharp point for accurate work at a single distance -- great for pistols,



but on rifles I prefer their graduated reticle so I have some kind of guide for my hold at range:



There's a short learning curve with the aiming routine, and I wouldn't call it a precision sight picture for distant work but it's quite fast once you've become accustomed. I find the bright dot on my RMR a bit faster to use than a See-All because it gives a sharper and simpler sight picture -- the SeeAll is a fair compromise for longer distance work, though. I mounted one on my Mauser 'scout' rifle in lieu of a conventional long eye-relief scope.

It's not a perfect sight. Under some unusual combinations of ambient lighting, the reticle will lose contrast. At night however the entire tritium-illuminated reticle field is very easy to see; it works fine with or without a weapon-mounted light.

The Sig Romeo7 is a great red dot and is now under $200, I've been using one on my AR15 pistol and it works great, I also have a Romeo1 on a 9mm pistol and a Romeo5 on my 9mm carbine.

I have the Leupold. So far no problems w function.
Diode holder should have been blackened, as I can see a bit of it in reflection, on dark backgrounds.
Dialed right in, held zero. Shake n wake works.
It is big, the mount is beefy.

Took it off my AR and like the rifle lighter, slapped it back on, still zeroed. So took off again and set it on a shelf.

There is a lot "around" the window, so closer to eye mounting is best.

I don't care for the micro RDS stuff.
The ol lady has a TRS25 and it has been flawless.
Think a 2moa better than 3 moa, so if I had to get one, Sig Romeo 5.

Personally, I like a bigger window and would (if funds allowed) go with an Aimpoint PRO.

If wanting something smaller than a 30mm RDS, I'd go reflex sight instead of tube.
But a tube style might be more rugger. I dunno.

Vortex Venom red dots can be had for around $250 sometimes less on sale. They come in 3moa and 6moa dots. The best thing about Vortex is they have a lifetime warranty. 100% no questions asked fix or replace if you have a problem. I have the 3moa and 6moa and they work fine on my G19 and a Canik. Also have a couple of the Bushnell TRS 25 and they have been flawless for over a year. They are under $100 and have a 3moa dot.

Check out these definitely not made in China

https://kalinkaoptics.com/rifle-scopes/pilade-1x42-red-dot-weaver-screw-mount.html

https://kalinkaoptics.com/rifle-scopes/pk-06-red-dot-weaver.html

https://kalinkaoptics.com/rifle-scopes/kobra-8-18-red-dot-weaver-screw-2183.html

Vortex
Trijicon

Pay a little extra for a quality sight that lasts forever. Nothing is more frustrating than a cheap sight with weird personality issues.