Red dot sights for AR’s

Best BUDGET red dot sight for RANGE USE ONLY

  • Primary Arms Micro Dot Sight with 2 MOA MD-RBGII 1K battery $89

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Primary Arms Advanced Micro Dot 2 MOA MD-RB-AD 50K battery $150

    Votes: 8 14.5%
  • Primary Arms Advanced 30mm 2 MOA Red Dot PA30MMRD-AD 14K battery $130

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • Bushnell Trophy 1X25 Trs-25 3 MOA 3K battery $45

    Votes: 12 21.8%
  • Vortex SPARC AR 2 MOA 4K battery $199

    Votes: 5 9.1%
  • Vortex SPARC II 2 MOA 4K battery $169

    Votes: 4 7.3%
  • Sig Sauer SOR52101 Romeo5X 2 MOA 50K battery $160

    Votes: 15 27.3%
  • Holosun HS403B 2 MOA 50K battery $170

    Votes: 3 5.5%
  • Holosun HS503GU 2 MOA Dot 65 MOA Circle 50K battery $180

    Votes: 4 7.3%
  • Vortex Crossfire 2 MOA 7K battery $130

    Votes: 1 1.8%

  • Total voters
    55
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As far as I know I don’t have astigmatism, I’m blind as a bat and wear eye glasses for distance seeing, but I’ve been going to an eye doctor once a year for 20 years and have never had astigmatism mentioned.

I never knew I had any sort of astigmatism until I bought my first red dot. Up until then I had considered my vision perfect. However, I've never been seen by an eye doctor.
 
What’s the opinion on warranties for these things? Important or not important?

I think they're important; there's nothing really user-serviceable about a red dot. That said, for >$50 items, most warranties are more trouble than they're worth.

As for my astigmatism, the eye doctor only mentioned it when we discussed contacts. If you're curious, you can do a home test, which is certainly NOT the same as going to an eye doctor.

Larry
 
I didn’t vote cuz I’d get a Vortex Venom or Burris Fastfire II. More money but worth it to me.

The venom is a little over budget, the Burris is under budget however it’s a 4 MOA dot which seems a little large to me.
 
Added the vortex crossfire to the poll as it seems a good option as well and cheaper price than a lot of the others
 
I think they're important; there's nothing really user-serviceable about a red dot. That said, for >$50 items, most warranties are more trouble than they're worth.

As for my astigmatism, the eye doctor only mentioned it when we discussed contacts. If you're curious, you can do a home test, which is certainly NOT the same as going to an eye doctor.

Larry

If I put stock in the warranty and feel it important then vortex or PA will win all day long. Sig is 5 years electronic components and Holosun is 3 year electronic and 5 year glass. Vortex and PA are both lifetime warranties. PA sights don’t come with lower 1/3 cowitness mounts so that’ll add to there cost and push them up to prolly close to $200 even. Vortex dots are looking more and more like winners unless they are just junky dot or glass quality.
 
PA is selling ’blem’ Advanced 30mm Red Dots for $85.

Wonder how reliable they would be? Says they still have the lifetime warranty with them. Idc about cosmetic blemishes, but I don’t really want the possible lens specks.
 
Well, in addition to a couple of SIG Romeo 5s I also have a Bushnell TRS-25 and a Vortex Spitfire 1X prism scope.

The Bushnell TRS-25 that I have did not come with the riser. But I have used it on an AR with a Picatinny rail on the receiver top using a UTG riser. UTG risers can be purchased on Amazon. They come in three different heights and cost around $10 each. They also have a thumb screw which permits easy installation and removal without the need for an Allen wrench. The medium profile UTG riser (.83" high) will provide for an exact co-witness with an standard A2 front sight post and rear flip-up sight with the Bushnell TRS-25 mounted atop it. The high profile UTG riser (1.0" saddle height) will provide for a lower 1/3 co-witness.

The SIG Romeo 5 comes with a 1.41" riser mount that provides an exact co-witness with standard "iron" sights on an AR. You could possibly achieve a lower 1/3 co-witness by using the low mount riser of the Romeo 5 and the appropriate height aftermarket riser.

The Spitfire 1X prism scope comes with a 1.59" (optic center to mounting base) riser that provides for a very nice lower 1/3 co-witness with AR iron sights.

I would say that all three of these options are good. The Bushnell I would rate as overall "not bad" to "good", and considering its price even "quite good". It is not as good as the SIG Romeo 5, however. The MOTAC motion-detection instant on feature of the Romeo 5 works very well and turns the unit back on at the last intensity setting. This means you don't have to remember to turn it off to preserve battery life, and you don't spend as much time fiddling with the intensity adjustment knob. The Bushell is claimed to have a 3 MOA dot size but at higher intensity settings I would say this is more like a 4 MOA dot which might be a little large for some target shooting. The Bushnell dot also tends to starburst a bit at higher intensity. The Romeo 5 dot is 2 MOA and remains quite crisp at higher intensity settings.

The Spitfire 1X prism scope is also very good, but it is a somewhat different kettle of fish. The unit seems to be very tough except for the flip-up lens caps which seem to me to be just a bit flimsy when flipped up. It is significantly heavier and less compact than the micro red dots and unlike red dots, eye relief is a bit of an issue. Vortex claims an eye relief of 3.8" for the Spitfire 1X and I would say that is accurate. That should allow plenty of room behind the optic to mount any common flip-up rear sight, but you might not be able to mount the Spitfire at the very front end of your Picatinny rail. Also, prism scopes do not really work well with 3X magnifiers, if you were ever contemplating the use of a magnifier with your optic. The etched reticle of the Spitfire remains visible in black even with the unit turned off and illuminates very brightly in either red or green with a 14 hour auto-shutdown feature. Also, prism scopes are much better for those with a significant degree of astigmatism.

The DRT reticle of the Spitfire 1X has a pretty crisp central 3 MOA dot with two large concentric rings that allow for rapid target acquisition. But for purely target shooting you might find this dot slightly larger than desirable and the reticle a bit "busy". Also, the elevation and windage adjustments on the Spitfire 1X unit selling for $199.99 on Amazon are a little on the coarse side at 1 MOA per click. Vortex has since brought out the Spitfire AR 1X which has a 1/2 MOA per click adjustment.
 
The last time PA did a blem sale on the Advanced 30mm Red Dot, it was because the night vision settings were a little too bright. I suspect that it’s a lot like the Palmetto blem sales; they are simply getting rid of inventory and don’t want the sale price to dilute the value of the product.
 
The last time PA did a blem sale on the Advanced 30mm Red Dot, it was because the night vision settings were a little too bright. I suspect that it’s a lot like the Palmetto blem sales; they are simply getting rid of inventory and don’t want the sale price to dilute the value of the product.

The PA 30mm blem red dots are listed as sold out now. Had some listed about 30 minutes ago, but gone now
 
Alright after much debating, reading through this post and others on the forum, reading various review websites through google searches, speaking with a primary arms employee on another forum, taking the poll results into account, looking over the offered warranties for each option, and adding up all my amazon gift cards I ended up purchasing the Primary Arms advanced 30mm red dot and the Primary Arms PAHICANT high cantilever lower 1/3 mount. $154.98 out the door amazon prime shipping to my house. I wanna thank everyone here for your time and patience with my many questions and posts it was greatly appreciated! I was finally narrowed down at the end of the day to the vortex SPARC 2, vortex crossfire, the PA 30mm advanced, and the Sig. PA won based on some reviews I saw comparing it side by side to the Aimpoint Pro and seeing pictures of the glass / dot clarity in the comparison plus it’s lifetime warranty and decent price I just went with it. Thank you again to everyone for the help!
 
You gotta check out the SIGs. I don't have any experience with the Romeo 5, but I have a Romeo 7 on my Colt 6960, and it is awesome, at twice the price. I bought the Romeo 7 and the Juliet 4 for less than the price of an Aimpoint Comp4, and the quality is pretty much on par, as near as I can tell. SIG makes outstanding optics. Everyone I know with a SIG optic loves the thing.
 
Supposedly the light and mount will be delivered Wednesday, however it’s coming FedEx so it might be sometime in February before it actually gets here
 
Red dot and mount made it. Will give a range report when I make it out to the range again. So far all I’ve done is turn it on in the house a few times.
 
My experience with red dots is somewhat limited. I've had sone cheap Barskas in the past. Now I have a Sight Mark and a Sig Romeo 5. The Sight Mark is decent but feels a little "cheap." I recently put a scope on my AR rifle, which used to have the Sig, and moved the Sig to my AR pistol. The Sight Mark will either go on a .22 squirrel gun or plinker for my 7 year old. The Sig just seems so much better made and the dot isn't as fuzzy to my eyes.
 
Just to update, the primary arms 30mm red dot and mount made it here one day last week. Finally got it to the range today. Sighting it in was effortless and took no time at all. The glass is really clear on it, like really clear. Inside the house in a dark room you start to notice a slight halo effect at level 6 (there are 3 NV settings and then 4-10 brightness) at level 9 and 10 it’s a really bright halo inside in a pitch black dark room and the dot starts to “fuzz” up a little. For indoor dark room I prefer level 6 personally, plenty bright and really crisp dot. Outside today at the range it was a good clear sunny day and even at power 10 outside the dot was still very nice and crisp to me with no halo effect at all. For my shooting purposes which were 50-100 yards at an 10” metal round plate I flipped back and forth between level 7 and 8 for my preferred brightness. I’m honestly blown away in a good way at the clarity of the glass and crispness of the dot. All in all I’m beyond thrilled with my purchase so far! I put estimated 50 rounds down range today with it mounted.
 
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