My experience with LPVO optics is that they are necessary for a general purpose rifle. A true 1.0 magnification is essential; Leupold 1.5x slowed me down too much on the close range Vickers drills (10 shots in 10 sec at 50, 10 shots in 5s at like 25 yd and 10 shots in 2.5s at 5 or 10 …I misremember).
I believe you should not tailor a self-defense gun to your local gun range. My belief has always been that I should be able to hit to 400 yards with an AR-15 in 223/5.56. Obviously, if you are doing competition, then build the gun for the game. But that was not your stated purpose.
Target discovery and identification is important. For me, with my vision, a target becomes “hidden” at around 150-175 yards. This means I need some sort of magnification past 100 yards to be sure. I found 4x to be pretty good for me and how my perception works. 3x is adequate for 200 yards. So, given my limitations, an LPVO with a true 1.0 at the bottom to 4x or 6x is just fine for meeting my 400 yard requirement. The ACOG/RMR combo would work for me too, but my Burris MTAC is $1,000 less and I have them mounted and ready.
I shot a friend’s AR15 setup for 600-800 over a decade ago. It had a Nightforce 3-9x on it and I hit 29 out of 30 shots at 600 yards. It was quite the gun, but not setup for my mission of self defense.
My recommendation is to use iron sights and determine where targets become impossible to see. Some guys have great eyes and can do incredible things. It may be that an RDS with 3x magnifier and a proper zero is all you need to get to 400 with reasonable accuracy (and identification) and makes 100 yard shots easy. However, you may need more and a 4x ACOG or 1-4/6/8x LPVO may be best. You have to know your gun’s dope; I use a 100 yard zero because the offsets are smaller. But, they should still be written on the stock.
100 yards may be what you think you need, but your actual fight may require more. I found 4x to be sufficient but I know the world is moving to 6x and 8x. Spend some time testing and you will figure it out.
Tip from Aimpoint: Zero to the top edge of the dot. This gets you more precision. Know what range the BOTTOM of the dot correlates to. Also understand what is going on inside the dot at different distances. I get much better groups using the top edge, but up close the whole dot groups decently at speed. Also note that the average human shoulders are 18” across and can be used for ranging. LPVO optics are better for this, though I think Trijicon may have hash marks for that purpose.
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