The Bang Switch reviews/compares Budget Red Dot Optics

[ez bake]

Here's part 2:

http://www.thebangswitch.com/budget-red-dot-sight-comparison-part-2/

The Short Answer Since I know how most people are, myself included, if I list the winner last, you are just going to skip to the end to peek so let’s just get it out of the way right now. There is a slight problem though, because we have two (2) winners. On sheer numbers totaled from the evaluation forms, the Bushnell TRS-25 is the winner, but the winner as chosen by 4 of the 8 evaluators was the Primary Arms MD-06L, with the other 4 votes being the singular vote for 4 of the other optics. That said, on pure numbers alone, they were very close in scores as can be seen in the attached final scores table, with only 1.6 points separating the top two optics. - See more at: http://www.thebangswitch.com/budget-red-dot-sight-comparison-part-2/#sthash.9qImjs6A.dpuf

Eval form used:

And here are the eval scores:

 

[ez bake]

Here's some info on why the Vortex actually scored poorly (looks like they might have had a lemon):

I need to note a few things that may or may not have affected the scores on the evaluations of a few of these optics.

- The Bushnell TRS-25 used in this test belongs to one of the evaluators and it was already installed and zeroed before we began. The Bushnell does not come with a riser, which is necessary for use on an AR and needs to be purchased separately, a fact that none of the evaluators knew and thus did not account for.

- The Tavor used in this testing (my personal gun) was initially having some function issues that I was not made aware of. A quick check revealed it was ammo related. I was trying to use up some very old Wolf, steel cased 55gr hollow point ammo (dated 2003) before moving on to my better ammo. That old Wolf ammo was too weak to fully cycle the bolt and it would not pick up the next round in the magazine. A quick mag swap to better ammo solved the problem.

- The Vortex Strikefire being tested decided to be finicky when it got to the range. Prior to this testing, it functioned perfectly at my home. BUT, at the range, it initially would not even power up. After removing the battery twice, and pressing the various buttons about 100 times, it finally started working. However, intermittently throughout the testing process, the buttons would cease to function and then a short while later, would function properly. Since this optic has a lifetime warranty, it is being replaced at no charge by Vortex, but unfortunately the malfunctions experienced very negatively affected its scores.

 

[Jestik]

Not the first Vortex I have seen mess up. About two years ago I purchased a bunch of surplus AK magazines. They were in rough shape, and I did my best to get them ready to go. All in all I had about 30 magazines, and I went out to Harry's with a friend. We both had AKs, both had upper handguard rails installed (mine was polymer, his was aluminum), and we split the mags between us and start to do ammo dumps to test the magazine. I have a Bushnell TRS-25 on mine and he has a Vortex Red dot on his. Long story very short, at the end of the day his aluminum handguard had acted like a heat sink and cooked his AK. We were firing fast and we did get in trouble for "rapid fire", but we were not going crazy and still his Vortex was toast. My TRS-25 on the other hand was good to go...the polymer handguard on the other hand was completely melted and had to be sent in for replacement, which Mako did without charge.

 

[Old Fart]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing with us EZB.

 

[henschman]

Interesting review... thanks for posting.

I have had 2 TRS-25s. I haven't had any trouble from them, but the biggest drawbacks are 1) how tinted the lens is and 2) how the emitter is in the bottom of the tube, making it harder to co-witness. I have a couple of Aimpoints as well, and they are much better optics all the way around. If you are limited on funds, I would recommend a used, older model Aimpoint over one of these budget red dots. You can get them surprisingly cheap sometimes. I picked up my old Comp M at a gun show for $80. That is as cheap as the TRS-25, and it is better in pretty much every way.

 

[Jestik]

Interesting review... thanks for posting.

I have had 2 TRS-25s. I haven't had any trouble from them, but the biggest drawbacks are 1) how tinted the lens is and 2) how the emitter is in the bottom of the tube, making it harder to co-witness. I have a couple of Aimpoints as well, and they are much better optics all the way around. If you are limited on funds, I would recommend a used, older model Aimpoint over one of these budget red dots. You can get them surprisingly cheap sometimes. I picked up my old Comp M at a gun show for $80. That is as cheap as the TRS-25, and it is better in pretty much every way.

I mean no offense by this, but are you sure that you did not get a knockoff/replica Aimpoint? Fakes are really prevalent at gun shows from what I have seen.

 

[henschman]

Yeah I'm sure

 

[Jestik]

Yeah I'm sure

Then you got a really good deal.

 

[ez bake]

No joke - $80 for a Comp M is a better deal than I've ever seen (and I've owned a few used Aimpoints and EOTechs).

 

[Old Fart]

Bump so I can find it later......