Duty Grade / High Value Red Dot for AR-15

[P.E. Kelley]

FWIW. I have beaten the crap out of several Burris AR-1X etched reticle "red dot" optics.
Not an operator by a long shot, but I have made some $ with this tool and it has never done
anything but work and hold zero.

Single AA. Red or Green illumination. No battery no problem, the crisp black reticle is still there.
In fact I rarely use illumination, even when on the gas.

[mmc45414]

The Trijicon MRO would be worth a look as well. My indirect sample of one was owned by a very switched on guy.

Larue often will sell an optic (to include Aimpoint/Trijicon) and one of their mounts for not much more, if at all, than the optic and an OEM mount sold by others. The Larue mount is often lighter and less bulky than OEM while giving up nothing in strength/repeatability etc.

$460 including the Larue mount. I ended up with three of them, just need one more...



Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[msstate56]

May I ask what leads you to prefer the Aimpoint Pro over the Trijicon MRO? I only have experience with the MRO, so I’m wondering what I’m missing out on.

dontshakepandas
"the main downside of the MRO is that it has more parallax than Aimpoint options"

The parallax was the deal breaker for me. The MRO is robust and well engineered. I liked the top mounted setting adjustment and the capless windage/elevation. I could even ignore the slight fisheye effect. But what I couldn't ignore is the parallax. At 50 yards, I could pull my shots several inches off POA if I didn't keep the dot centered. This is exacerbated when shooting from unusual positions when it's difficult to get a solid cheek weld. Aimpoints have much less parallax (1-2" at 50 yards, vs 7-8" with the MRO).

[GyroF-16]

dontshakepandas
"the main downside of the MRO is that it has more parallax than Aimpoint options"

The parallax was the deal breaker for me. The MRO is robust and well engineered. I liked the top mounted setting adjustment and the capless windage/elevation. I could even ignore the slight fisheye effect. But what I couldn't ignore is the parallax. At 50 yards, I could pull my shots several inches off POA if I didn't keep the dot centered. This is exacerbated when shooting from unusual positions when it's difficult to get a solid cheek weld. Aimpoints have much less parallax (1-2" at 50 yards, vs 7-8" with the MRO).

Thanks for the description... I’m puzzled by the huge parallax difference... I’d have thought parallax was primarily a function of mount height. So a given, say lower 1\3 mounted RDS would have a similar parallax error to a different RDS with a lower 1/3 co-witness, wouldn’t it? Or are we taking about the apparent position of the dot when the eye is in a slightly different position? Maybe I’m conflating one term with another (I’m honestly not well versed in optics).
Are we talking about a bigger difference when the rifle isn’t vertical, or always?

To be clear, not arguing with your experience and conclusions, just trying to understand them.

[BehindBlueI's]

FWIW. I have beaten the crap out of several Burris AR-1X etched reticle "red dot" optics.

Not that particular model, but Burris was the cheapest recommended option for us when we were first authorized optics. The range staff T&E said it held up fine, and they've done fine for us in the real world as well. So has Vortex. I've got an Aimpoint Pro on mine, but have also used Vortex and EoTech and the only one that lost zero was EoTech (the cold weather drift).

[dontshakepandas]

Thanks for the description... I’m puzzled by the huge parallax difference... I’d have thought parallax was primarily a function of mount height. So a given, say lower 1\3 mounted RDS would have a similar parallax error to a different RDS with a lower 1/3 co-witness, wouldn’t it? Or are we taking about the apparent position of the dot when the eye is in a slightly different position? Maybe I’m conflating one term with another (I’m honestly not well versed in optics).
Are we talking about a bigger difference when the rifle isn’t vertical, or always?

To be clear, not arguing with your experience and conclusions, just trying to understand them.

Aaron Cowan can explain this way better than I can, with the added bonus of seeing the results of Aimpoint vs MRO.

[GyroF-16]

Aaron Cowan can explain this way better than I can, with the added bonus of seeing the results of Aimpoint vs MRO.

Thanks for posting that. I remember having seen that video before, but didn’t recall it as the primary definition of parallax.
There’s clearly much more to it than hight-over bore-parallax.

[Cool Breeze]

Thanks for the feedback. Seems the crowd has spoken with the Pro so that is what I got. The scalarworks bundle looks like a sweet deal but it was unavailable. Went with the included mount and will think about upgrading later. Looks like a big mount but I think its a small sacrifice (at least for now) to get an optic I don't really have to worry about.

[pastaslinger]

I have an Aimpoint PRO with LEAP mount that I bought from scalarworks and I am very happy with it. If I had to do it again, I would have maybe tried to buy a used Comp M4s but it seems hit or miss on how good of a deal you'll get, and the mounts are not as common.

I've got the PRO setup with DD fixed irons to try and replicate the Vickers training carbine setup. Unfortunately I'm not as interested in red dots anymore (I have become a strong believer in scope + offset dot) so I might just give the whole upper to my dad.

[HCM]

Cops are some of the cheapest people on the planet, always eyeballing the "just as guud" optic or mount that costs 1/3 as much as a known reliable standard. Then when they need their "Just as Guud" to work, it is all jacked up.

I would cringe when some clown would show up on a call with his personally owned rifle from an agency that allowed them to stick on whatever they wanted. The thought of relying on their equipment to run properly when lives were at stake was not confidence inspiring.

I got tired of trying to convince dudes to not buy Chinese crap, pot metal mounts, airsoft garbage, etc. It drove me nuts. They would ask what to buy, I would make a recommendation, then they would get something out of a Sportsman's Guide catalog that was "military style"... SMH...

The punchline is, if you need a basic RDO, buy an Aimpoint PRO.

When you need your optic to work, it will actually work and stay zeroed.

The only thing cheaper than a cop, is two cops.