Vortex Strikefire or SPARC

[Animal_Mother556]

I have a Strikefire on my 870. I thought maybe when I put the Knoxx recoil reducing stock on there...I may have issues. My reason for thinking this is because you get a "double recoil" with that stock. You get the initial recoil of the round being fired...then the gun kind of jolts forward when the springs in the stock come into action.

I have had no issues with my strikefire. It has held zero through at least a 1000 rounds of birdshot, 200 buckshot, and 500 slugs.

[Tokarev]

I have recently purchased a SPARC for use on a Microtech STG556. I haven't really put the sight through it's paces yet but I have been pleased with it, overall.

The dot isn't the "roundest" I've seen but it isn't fuzzy and is certainly usable for the sight's intended purpose.

My only real complaint with the sight to this point is the location and placement of the brightness controls. The NVG setting is right next to the up and down controls and I've found that it is rather easy to push the NVG button unintentionally.

[patrol120]

When my CompM2 died, I found myself a bit short on funds for a replacement. I decided to try the SPARC, and so far, am quite satisfied. Time will tell as far as robustness, but if initial impressions mean anything, it should be good to go.

[Robb Jensen]

The SPARC would be really nice on an AK on a Ultimak mount.

The optic I really want to see/try is the Viper PST 1-4x. That reticle looks promising.

[UserM4]

I picked up a Vortex Sparc yesterday. Here's my initial review.

Build quality is good. It feels solid in your hands. The body and mounts seems to be mostly of aluminum as well as the caps. The control center on the left of the body is covered with a thick rubber, apparently to seal out the environment. Hopefully the rubber doesn't wear, rip, and tear easily. I don't know if wear and tear is covered under their limited lifetime warranty.

The battery cover and windage and elevation knob covers are tethered with wire so that you don't lose them. The battery cover can be removed with something like a 5 cent nickle. Windage and elevation covers can be flipped over and used to turn the knobs. And the adjustments exhibit positive 1MOA clicks when turned.

There's enough of a rim around the ocular and objective ends for a Butler Creek #4 according to the ARFCOM review. I haven't tried them yet but I can't wait because the bikini cover doesn't stay on very well. One end of the cover is shallower than the other so instead of cupping the rim, it sits on it and is prone to being knocked off.

The glass is very clear with just a slight blue tint. The sweet spot is about 90%. The manual says it's less than 1" parallax inside of 50yds and parallax free past 50yds. I don't notice anything significant.

There's 10 brightness setting not including NV. When powered off and on or from NV to regular mode, the Sparc returns to it's previous brightness setting. There's apparently 2 brightnesses in NV mode but I can't really tell because it's, obviously, almost invisible except in the pitch dark. The lowest regular brightness setting, I'll call that setting #1, is a little high. #1 in a low light condition causes slight flare and glare from the 2MOA dot. Compared to a cheap 12 position Tasco, the Sparc's #1 is about #5 on the Tasco. And #2 on the Sparc jumps significantly brighter which is close to #8 on the Tasco. You can see where I'm going with this. So from #3 and up, there's very subtle brightness increases until it reaches #10 which is super duper bright. I would call #2 or #3 medium. There isn't enough below medium because the levels are stacked too bright. It's definitely extremely bright so for daylight usage, you'll have no problems whatsoever.

The 2x magnifier is a nice touch and adds to the value of this package. The FOV is narrow but nothing to complain about for a simple magnifier. The focus knob doesn't tighten enough for my slight astigmatism on my dominant eye on the right. It's clear and sharp enough for what it is through my left eye. The narrow FOV is also hampered a bit with the smallish sweet spot of about 75%. And if mounted on the forward end of the receiver on an AR, the distance from my eye to the magnifier is about 6 inches which makes for less magnification, maybe 1.3-1.5x. There's really no eye relief issue besides that. It doesn't black out like a traditional scope. There's no vignetting to speak of. I wish it came with a pouch or something.

The mounts are good. I haven't shot with it on yet but it bolts on solid. I wanted a lower 1/3 co-witness so I used the tall mount with the shim above it. The package includes a set of short screws and a set of long screws. You'll need the long screws for this. I used some blue loctite on the screws. Nothing like having your optic come loose after a few rounds and wasting your ammo having to rezero it. The instruction manual tells you to push the optic forward on the picatinny or weaver rail while tightening because there's no 1913 block on the bottom of the mount. Instead it's just a simple hex screw going through the mount to tighten the clamp. I guess this makes for a universal mount instead of focusing on evenly spaced military picatinny rails. If you don't like it, get one of the myriad of mounts out there for an Aimpoint Micro.

The package includes two CR2354 lithium cell batteries so you'll have one as a backup. The manual says that at maximum brightness or what I'd like to call #10, the battery life is about 120hrs and 3400hrs on #1. I think #2 is about middle 40% brightness so you can probably do the math. I don't know if current consumption is linear or not so I'm sorry if I'm wrong. I really wouldn't worry about the battery so much since it's got a 6hr auto shut off. I really like that. What a lot of people don't like about inexpensive red dots is the poor battery consumption and lack of battery management. Obviously Vortex has done some homework as usual. Still not anywhere near Aimpoint's battery life but at 1/3 of the price, I'm not complaining.

On my cocaine scale it weighs 7.4oz how I have it setup for lower 1/3 co-witness and in the manual it's listed as 5.2oz without the mount.

I think for the price, it's hard to beat. 2MOA dot, plenty bright for playing in the sun, auto shut off, last setting recall, provisions for flip up covers and a kill flash, waterproof and fog proof, 2x magnifier included, variable height mounts and shim included, and a limited lifetime warranty.

I can't wait to put it through it's paces. Hopefully it'll take care of me for years to come.

[Tokarev]

I picked up a Vortex Sparc yesterday. Here's my initial review.

Nice review.

I've had my SPARC for about two weeks, give or take. I definitely agree with you that the sight could use some more "steps" between brightness settings. I sent Vortex an email about this a couple days ago. I haven't heard anything from them yet but I'll let you know when I do.

[VortexSam]

Nice review.

I've had my SPARC for about two weeks, give or take. I definitely agree with you that the sight could use some more "steps" between brightness settings. I sent Vortex an email about this a couple days ago. I haven't heard anything from them yet but I'll let you know when I do.

Hi Tokarev,

Someone should have gotten back to you by now. Sometimes emails go into junk mail though and we miss them, so I just wanted to respond and let you know that we're reading the feedback.

I'll bring up the illumination spacing with the product development team and see if we can do some tweaking on it with future runs on the SPARC.

Thanks!

-Sam

[UserM4]

Nice review.

I've had my SPARC for about two weeks, give or take. I definitely agree with you that the sight could use some more "steps" between brightness settings. I sent Vortex an email about this a couple days ago. I haven't heard anything from them yet but I'll let you know when I do.

Cool beans man. Keep me posted will ya?

[Tokarev]

Hi Tokarev,

Someone should have gotten back to you by now. Sometimes emails go into junk mail though and we miss them, so I just wanted to respond and let you know that we're reading the feedback.

I'll bring up the illumination spacing with the product development team and see if we can do some tweaking on it with future runs on the SPARC.

Thanks!

-Sam

Thanks for posting. I'm sure, with a small amount of tweaking, the SPARC will become the "poor man's micro."

[wes007]

Anyone put theirs through any abuse yet? I see alot of reviews about the physical features but none about the durability and reliability