Red Dot choices

[georgeib]

My dad is tougher than your dad!

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Exactly. I have no skin in the game, so to speak, as I buy whatever I think is most suitable for its given role in my collection.

[26 Inf]

I run Romeo's on rifles I loan or give away - before you ask, sorry only relatives - everything else with an 'optic' versus 'LPVO' I use etched reticle prism optics, except my HD SBR - it has an Aimpoint PRO.

Why the PRO on the HD? At work when we started putting optics on training rifles, I choose the PRO's. They performed flawlessly, and being my only personal frame of reference for semi-rugged use, that is what I went with. I only shot the HD SBR about quarterly, clean it and put it away. I look at the dot every once and a while when I'm taking pistols in and out of that safe, dot's always there. Battery is changed when I do the smoke/gas alarms. Yeah, I know I'm wasting batteries but this is a lifesaving tool, so it gets cleaned and lubed every time I shoot it, and batteries changed more often than needed.

I have about six Romeo's out in the wild (or sitting in my gun safe) so far no problems. I'm the hi-volume shooter of the bunch, and generally I'm with the folks I have given rifles when they shoot. In a couple years, if no problems, I'd be open to trusting the Romeo on an HD rifle, but doubt the PRO is going to die.

Here's a Romeo review for the a data point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuq_N129SAI

[26 Inf]

My dad is tougher than your dad!

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That is good, and in some circumstances an apt description.

[Matt_J]

I just got a Vortex Sparc AR yesterday and the dot looks like a starburst but I also have astigmatism. Some do, some don't. The Aimpoints in the Army didn't do that but they also cost 5 times what the Sparc does. Outside it doesn't do it nearly as bad.

[RHINOWSO]

I've watched several videos of Holosuns being abused to a ridiculous extent, without failure. Shot with shotguns, run over with trucks, etc. Maybe I'm simple, but that's good enough for me. I assume any modern Aimpoint would fare as well, so that part's a wash. When I consider the other features of the Holosuns, however, in my mind that gives them an edge.

Copy was just curious what made your consider them better.

[Five_Point_Five_Six]

What people refer to as better is subjective when talking about features like reticles and shake awake technology. I don't care for the Eotech style reticle, so the fact a Sig Romeo or Holosun has the option doesn't make it better for me. I wanted to like the Eotech reticle, but I simply don't and much prefer a 2 MOA dot.

Everyone's eyes will see dots differently. I don't have an astigmatism or any eye sight deficiency whatsoever even though I'm 40. When I look through my old CompM2, I see a nice crisp dot. When I look through any of the newer Aimpoint micros, I see a nice crisp dot. When I looked through the Primary Arms red dot that I used to have, it was bloomy. The Holosun was much crisper, but not as crisp as any of my Aimpoint dots. The Holosun with ACSS reticle that I had was a very nice, crisp chevron and outer circle.

Shake awake is only required when you want to use a 50,000 hr battery life as a selling point, but you need the optic to conserve battery because it's not capable of 50,000 hrs of battery life with constant on. It's also a potential point of failure. The first Holosun I bought went back and was replaced due to the shake awake not working all the time. Occasionally I'd have to hit one of the top buttons to power it back on.

If people are happy with their Romeos and Holosuns, great, but to say they're on par with or better than Aimpoint is a stretch. Track record is a thing and they have a long ways to go before they can claim to have the reputation for durability and quality that Aimpoint does. That doesn't mean they won't work for you, in fact they may be the better choice for some people based on various circumstances.